Arrrrrgh - there be booty buried somewhere in this Google Treasure Map

The end of YouTube is just the start of Google's April Fool's Day 2013 fun. Up next we've got Google Treasure Maps. It's, ummm, Google Maps done up treasure-map style, having been scanned from William "Captain" Kidd's lost maps. 

There're are more than a few easter eggs in this one, and the whole thing is one big puzzle. The San Francisco Bay Area is a good place to start, but they're spread out globally as well. 

Explains Google:

When Dr. Marco Meniketti, an independent archaeologist, confirmed that this was Captain Kidd’s 315 year-old map, we were very excited. However, as seen in the video, the map contains a variety of encrypted symbols and is not readily decipherable. We need your help to decipher these symbols and find Captain Kidd’s treasures; therefore we’ve decided to digitize the map and make it accessible to everyone.

Just head to Google Maps on the desktop (doesn't look like there's a mobile end; Google shows something in the video, but, well, watch the rest of the video) and start scouting around.

We've got the Google Treasure Map video after the break. Have fun!

Source: Google Lat Long blog

Phil Nickinson