What in the world is a Google pin (and Malaysia has a few)

It was late Wednesday night when my new celebrity friend, Kid Chan, sent me a twitter message and an sms, which I didn't read until Thursday morning, if I wanted to come and see him get a pin from Google. I actually couldn't undersatnd his note but did not ask for clarification. He shot off a few name like Yasmin Yusuf and Amber Chia which I was not (really) interested as going to an event with him was already exciting. So, at 8.30am I said yes, without knowing when (the where was in the message). Kid answered my tweet telling me it was at Bangsar Shopping Centre, a neighbourhood mall in an upscale area of Kuala Lumpur and it was to be at 10.30am. 2 hours away. I checked my schedule and my office and as I was free, I said yes. And off I went.

 

The place

I arrived there, marvelled at the new wing which was just opened and I went looking for the event. I couldn't find it and as I was late, I walked up nearly the whole BSC until I find the group of people at the Dome, the first restaurant within the mall. They were already out to this big black plaque and is shape like a pin but different. Kidchan was hugging it while the other celebrities were holding these cardboard printout of a colourful kind of the pin. Then I saw a few people wearing Google t-shirts and then these people are swarmed by media with cameras. Then I understood. Let me show you the plaque :

The plaque

You still don't get it? If you ever use Google Map, if you mark a place, say, a favourite hangout, there will be a pin which will mark that place. Like a map on the wall where you place a pin on it. So, Google, which has only one employee in Malaysia (which is another post altogether about how I met that 1 employee, and in this event he was not there as this was done by Google Singapore), had decided to include Malaysia as a place where these pins will be automatically there if you uses google.com.my which has a map of Malaysia. Use this link to understand it better. You can find favourite places of these few celebrities under google.com.my/favouritesplaces in which these are the places where these Malaysian celebrities hangs out. Click the link to see it.

 

Yasmin Yusuf being interviewed

You can see just a bit of Amber Chia at the back and KidChan being interviewed

These celebs are given a pin which tell people the places that they usually hangs out like the place where the media launch took place, Bangsar Shopping Centre. So, this is way cooler than all the other things these celebrities get. You can add a pin of your business which I tried, and failed (which I hope to rectify), but will be verified by Google. 

And here is the picture of my friend, KidChan with his pin which is nearly the same size as him. How many people can say they have a pin in Google (which I bet Google gives to nearly all the countries in the world, in which they presumed as important). Like the tweet that KidChan (here is his website/blog) sent out after the ceremony : Malaysia has arrived!!!

p/s : I was starstruck by Amber Chia who really does not look like her in all those pictures. She is so small (but tall). And she has a company which does events and production (if you are interested) and her website is creations.amberchia.com