Jeannette Island

If not for Google hiding Jeannette Island from view, few of us would likely have ever heard of the East Siberian Sea location. It is a little island with a surface area of around 0.5 square kilometers. George De Long first claimed it for the United States in 1881, but subsequently Russia claimed it. The property issue has never seemed like a huge deal because it is out in the middle of nowhere and is essentially just an icy rock.

The island is hidden by a dark smudge on Google Maps. Understandably, this sparked a wide range of conspiracy theories about the island, from it being a covert military installation to having an alien presence. Google declined to comment on the reason the island was darkened, so it may have been as simple as a human error or more sinister, as the conspiracies indicate.