Internet has unearthed more racist Google Maps results

There are some very bad words getting onto Google Maps these days.

A search for the N-word — or more specifically "n - - - er king" — brought users this week to the White House, an apparent insult against President Barack Obama.

The term "n - - - er university" directed Google Maps to zoom in on Howard University, a historically-black institution, while "f - - - n - - - er" pointed users to the U.S. Capitol building.

The racial epithets were just a few examples of online vandalism that has invaded Google Maps in recent weeks. Google said it has been working on the problem, but for most of the week, the offensive terms remained stubbornly active.

As of Thursday night, the N-words appeared to have been removed. But "c - - n house" continued to direct users to the White House.

"Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused," Google said this week. "Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly."

The company did not offer an explanation for the problem. Similar vandalism does not appear to have infected Apple Maps, a primary rival to Google Maps.

Beyond such slurs, other "mistakes" on Google Maps have recently emerged. Last month, the White House was mislabeled as "Edward Snowden's lair." In addition, an image appeared over Pakistan featuring an Android mascot urinating on an Apple logo.

The errors are likely the result of users submitting changes to Google Maps that somehow made it past the company's moderation process. The search giant has been working on a fix since at least last week, when it disabled the ability for users to make edits to Google Maps.

But until the fix gets rolled out, users will probably keep uncovering this kind of vandalism.