The Google Maps Pegman has been around for a while. He's always there pointing the way when you zoom in to some strange place you don't know. Where did he come from? Buzzfeed FWD decided to find out.

Pegman started out as a disembodied eyeball, and because that was kind of weird, it evolved into a pegwoman. From Buzzfeed FWD:
Pegman's origin is fundamentally a design story: how do you connect, with an icon, the 2D top-down Google Maps experience with the sensation of ground-level, 360-degree Street View. It's meant to solve what's called the Subway Effect - that jarring disorientation you feel when you emerge from a station not knowing where you are or what direction you are facing. Google designers added the "yellow brick road" lines down the centers of the streets, which helped. But they needed something more.
Tthere have been plenty of subtle variations. Hop over to Buzzfeed to learn more about its history.

[Buzzfeed FWD]