Aerial Building

Artist Creates “Where’s Waldo?” Easter Egg for Google Earth

A young artist and web designer has created a game that she hopes will take off. Melanie Coles has hidden an enormous 55 ft painting of Waldo — the nerdy, lanky spectacled character clad in a red and white striped top and cane, from the Waldo books – on a rooftop of an undisclosed location in Vancouver, in the hope that it will be picked up by Google Earth satellites.

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Aerial Building

The location of the painting is top secret, and the anticipation of when it will show up on Google Earth is part of the fun, Melanie says. Since Google Earth does not publicize their schedule, no one knows when Waldo will show on a computer screen somewhere. The project has sparked off an international buzz with net users, who are keen to be the first to spot Waldo.

Melanie hopes that by making Waldo available to all through an open source program and template, she can set off a game that will spread virally to become an international hit. Her dream is of a “Where’s Waldo?” game being played across the globe as people begin creating and hiding their own Waldos in their cities.

  1. I have to agree with greg, as the Where’s Wally books were a vital part of my childhood i know that the initial release of the franchise was in the UK and later released in america where they changed it to Where’s Waldo, the american version did rise to fame much better than the UK version but maybe this was because there are many more people in america, this may also be the reason why Greg was called an idiot because not so ‘Smarter than Greg’ is himself being an idiot despite his use of one long word.
    More to the point, i think this idea is great.

  2. still trying to convince my boss to do something similar with our own offices…

    … but apparently he had never heard of GE and, now that he has, he doesn’t believe it is going to last….

    so mad props to Melanie and the owner of the roof for actually having a 21st century vision!!

  3. i live in England, and you dont see any ‘Wheres Waldo’ books, its mainly ‘Wheres Wally’.
    I’m not sure in which country it originated though.
    saffee

  4. No no no! You are all wrong! The ORIGINAL book was made in India in the 1920s and was entitled “Where oh where is Pooti-yamma?” (roughly translated). It was wildly successful.

  5. No, no, no, no! Mahatma & Greg, it’s neither Waldo, Wally nor Pootie-yama. It was Lawrence Welk and the German song “Wo, oh wo, konnte mein kleines Hundchen Stechengeblieben haben? Oh, wo, oh wo konnte er sein?” roughly translated: “Where oh where has my little dog gone, oh where oh where could he be?” Super wildly popular and admired by all except Ed Sullivan.

  6. yeah the painting does look fake becuase look how his right leg goes straight over an a/c without any shadow…. it looks like it was simply cut and pasted… but im still looking for it

  7. Seriously? How many of these supposed easter eggs are there? I see this kinda photoshop crap every week.

  8. i found it on google earth im not allowed to say were it is the site owner keeps deleting it sorry :(

    BUT IT IS POSSIBLE TO FIND!!!!

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