Last week there was controversy over Google's map feature after it was revealed that searching for a racist term caused it to pinpoint the White House.

In the hunt for similar glitches or oddities, it seems people have now taken to searching for their own names on Google Maps - just to see what it throws up.

And there have been some surprising results.

When getwestlondon's online editor Amy De-Keyzer searched her name, Trinity Mirror Southern's Surrey HQ was among the results - where she has been based for almost three years.

Likewise, Steffan Rhys at Wales Online tried it and among the results were a university he attended and a hotel he had stayed in, about which he had also written a review.

Twitter users have been joining in, too, sharing their surprise at how much Google seems to know about them:

So how does Google make the connection? Perhaps it's somewhere you've been when you uploaded a geotagged picture to social media, or somewhere your name has been linked to in an online article or database.

Or maybe there's no connection at all.

Admittedly, it doesn't always work. Type 'Nicola Oakley' in and you get Nicola Stevens Massage in Oakley, Basingstoke. I see the link, but I've never visited - so it seems Google Maps doesn't know too much about my life.

Originally published on Mirror Online.