The Guardian has obtained top secret documents from Edward Snowden that show that both the NSA and GCHQ (its UK equivalent) have been developing the ability to siphon personal information from "leaky" smartphone apps such as Google Maps and Angry Birds. In one document, the agency lays out the "perfect scenario" of the type of info it can obtain when a photo taken with a smartphone is uploaded to a social media site.

Google Maps is no stranger to being accused of accidentally capturing grisly murder scenes, but one California father says this time Google really did stumble upon the body of an actual murder victim: His son.

When he was five years old, Saroo Brierley fell asleep on a stationary train after a long, hard day of begging for change on the streets of Ganesh Talai, India.

Google Street View has become a treasure chest of accidentally crude street photography, from pooping pedestrians to road-sex photobombs to public handjobs. But now the uncomfortably omniscient Google vehicles have managed to become a part of their own scenery.

23 years after being abducted on his way to kindergarten, one lost boy has finally made his way back home with the help of Google Maps.

Google Maps has sent some explorer scrambling up to a few of the highest peaks on the seven continents to showcase views of the Aconcagua in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Europe, and Everest Base Camp in Asia.

This has got to be the most explicit and NSFW of all oddities discovered on Google Streetview. A prostitute giving a hand job to a "bloke" (that's British for, "prostitute customer" ) in a back alley in Manchester, which seems like a lovely town, by the way. Google took down the images soon after they were spotted by the Google Sightseeing blog, but the incident was memorialized by a troll who renamed the alley "Hand Job Alley" on Google Maps (also removed.) The wonders of crowd-sourcing.

The Russian Google Maps alike Yandex Maps went above and beyond recently when it helped a woman from Perm find out her fiancé was cheating on her.

Google has just released its first, detailed maps of North Korea. You know what that means: ROOAAAD!!! TRIIIP!!!

This Google Street View of "113 Suttand Place, Lawrence" seems familiar, doesn't it? That guy is almost recognizable, isn't he? Is it near somewhere you lived? A place you've driven by?

Remember how thew new Apple Maps app for the iPhone — the one that replaced the old, Google-based default — is a horrible piece of software that Apple was forced to publicly apologize for? Ha ha, of course you do, because you are reading this blog post in the middle of the Australian bush, where Apple Maps directed you when you were trying to get to Filene's Basement.

Apple may still be struggling to iron out the kinks in its new Google-free mapping service (failing to locate emergency rooms, directing people to parks that don't exist, generally provoking nightmares), but Google is so relaxed that it's started mapping things that don't even need mapping, just for the fuck of it.

The Foreign Ministry of Iran threatened to pursue legal action against Google Thursday over an issue it has regarding Google Maps.

If all news is local, then why aren't all videogames? That seems to be the premise behind Google Shoot View, an incredibly simple new "game" from a Dutch advertising firm. It's your chance to take a fully automatic weapon to an address of your choosing.

Be honest: If you had a green marker, and you saw the weird-looking car-mounted camera used to take pictures for Google Maps Street View, what would you do? I'm thinking, you would probably not write out a situationist slogan. No, you would probably draw a dick, like the unidentified Australian prankster whose work will forever grace the Google Maps Street View of "Sparrowhawk Road" in "Maiden Gully," Victoria. What is it with the Antipodes and their quest to put as many crudely-drawn dicks as possible on Google Maps? [Google Maps via BuzzFeed]

Are you looking to go to New Jersey's Round Valley State Park? (It features "swimming, boating and camping in summer, and cross country skiing and sledding in the winter"!) Just don't use Google Maps to get there, as you may end up at Laurie Gneiding's house.

Technology! Without it, we'd never be able to immortalize huge penises drawn on school lawns with weed killer. But thanks to the efforts of Google, a 2009 prank at Fairfield College in New Zealand lives on, much to the chagrin of principal Gerhard van Dyk, who says he plans to contact the internet search giant about the lawn dongs now appearing on Google Maps. Penis discoverer David McQuoid, who was looking for property when he stumbled across the phallus, says "at first I thought it was a large piece of art work." Well, yes, David.

Remember how Nicaraguan troops totally accidentally violated the territorial integrity of Costa Rica because Google Maps got the borders wrong? Turns out it was just a run of the mill military incursion, and Nicaragua is refusing to back down.

When 11-year-old Reuben Soames searched for his family's address on Google Maps, he was just looking for a picture of their home. He ended up finding a man apparently in the midst of stealing his family's caravan.

Nicaraguan troops accidentally invaded Costa Rica earlier this week. Now the Nicaraguan government is blaming Google maps: "There is a bug in Google, we sent a note to the company to rectify the map," said the Deputy Foreign Minister.