quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:

18749 points, even if I got one on the complete wrong side of the planet.

---

That beats my 14,517. I got one in Omsk within 10km, and another about 70 km (I guessed Hong Kong, but it was Macau), a couple about 1000 km away (but let's face it, one flat part of the US with fields looks pretty much like another) and one pretty hopeless (it was Brazil, and I said Oklahoma).
 

---

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :
 
10497 total points. Closest guess was a part of Canada I have visited. Only about 650km out....
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
My first guess was far and away my most accurate - about 200km out (I guessed Holland and it was Germany). Thought I was being clever in one by guessing Australia because the road signs were on the left; it was actually South Africa. Didn't know they drive on the left too.

It's very addictive though - I may end up calling Tortuf to Hell ...
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by piglet:
Thought I was being clever in one by guessing Australia because the road signs were on the left; it was actually South Africa. Didn't know they drive on the left too.

It's very addictive though - I may end up calling Tortuf to Hell ...

---

Oh, that one tripped you up too?
I think I may join in on the dogpiling when you make your call.
 

---

Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :
 
I haven't even got enough time to dogpile Tortuf...so much for getting up early to get some work done.........

I'm not as good at this as some of you but am rather pleased to be getting the right country much of the time, even if sometimes quite some way out. I'm doing better than I thought I would, and that's quite satisfying enough for me. I have to admit how exciting I find it when I see a person, albeit ever so briefly, in the picture.
 

---

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :
 
Yes, someone in Brazil actually got off his bicycle to stare.

Best guess was thanks to a Korean road sign, so only about 100 miles out.

Given some pause for thought by a bilingual school bus that had both English and Hebrew on it, except that the buildings and landscape were pretty definitely North American.

Worst guess - mistaking Chile for Canada and being a few thousand miles out, but that could happen to anyone...
 

---

Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :
 
OK, 13682. Score helped a lot by getting the parking lot of a national park in Spain where I managed to read one of the signs. Also, long straight American roads through cornfields are practically impossible to pin down!
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
13557, no Googling, all of it rural roads through mountains. Turns out I really know my mountains, and can pick out where an Interstate is passing through the western Mojave Desert within a 50 km radius. Still not as good as yesterday's 22,000+ score, but that one handed me a couple really good clues, including Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti, which is about as recognizable as "major landmark in a national capitol" as you can get—and reading "Hotel Ukrane" on one of the biggest buildings kinda narrows down which national capitol you're in.
 

---

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Long straight roads anywhere are impossible to pin down. Worst guess was for Norfolk (Though I have ben on similar roads in Lincolnshire( which turned out to be Southern Australia, only 43 points for that.

Best guess was a parallel road to the one the picture was taken on in Sweden. The road sign to a nearby town helped.
 

---

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :
 
Closest is 129 m., relying on a road sign that identified the actual (large) building in Hay, NSW
 

---

Posted by Antisocial Alto (# 13810) on :
 
I scored 10794 - with one truly lucky photo which actually showed a sign for the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

Other than that I mistook Mexico for Italy, Kansas for Wyoming, Japan for China, and Tasmania for Southern California.
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
Best "gee, I wonder where this is" photo so far: Lenin's Tomb.
Best "wow, that's a really cool place!" photo: either the main tourist drag of Pirenópolis, Brazil or the UBB-code breaking Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan.
Worst blunder: confusing southeastern Oklahoma for Finland.
Best stroke of genius: learning exactly what the Canadian Rockies look like in Vancouver.
Least fair photo: a back alley carpark somewhere in a city, no moving around. I felt good enough that I guessed it was somewhere in Eastern Europe.
Best guesses for everything: Eastern European/Central Asian metropoloi; Western Canada (especially BC!)/eastern Alaska; northern Scandanavia; South Africa/Australia if it looks deserty; Brazil if it looks tropical.

[ 10. June 2013, 00:17: Message edited by: Ariston ]
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
22 km. That's it for tonight.
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
22km???? That's almost indecent. I was mostly rubbish tonight, until the last one, which I got to within just over 300km, and I was in the right state!
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
14k points, and yeah this is way too interesting, so my first try will not be improved upon for a while. I'd better do other things!
 

---

Posted by Antisocial Alto (# 13810) on :
 
After spending like an hour at it this time I improved my scoreby about 4000 points... This time my worst confusion was thinking western Ontario was California. (I couldn't remember where the Ojibway Indians live.) Also I mixed St. Johns, Newfoundland with Halifax, NS... sorry, piglet!
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
First attempt: I wasn't playing correctly. How come you have a different starting point every time? I assumed that you were measuring from your original "start point". I don't geddit But I did ID all 5 pics pretty well.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Five pictures of long straight roads with bushes to one side.

One had a roadsign in it. You can guess which:

Your guess was 1465.474 km from the correct location and gave 2054 points.
Your guess was 1945.198 km from the correct location and gave 1962 points.
Your guess was 1.984 km from the correct location and gave 6314 points.
Your guess was 11232.359 km from the correct location and gave 331 points.
Your guess was 10221.523 km from the correct location and gave 459 points.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'm already happy when I guess the right continent!
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
LOL, I got a windmill and people on bicycles now. I wonder which country that would be?

[ETA: It was Sweden! They're not playing fair!! ]

[ 10. June 2013, 18:48: Message edited by: LeRoc ]
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
84 metres out! Trivial though cos there was a cenotaph, a number of skyscrapers, roadsigns in Chinese and English, and mountains visible oin the horizon. We're not in Kansas any more...

Actually I'm prouder of missing another one by 120 km. No cars, no signs, no buildings, no mountains, straight road, pretty flat, northern hemisphere. Not much of anything. So I guessed the boring bit of Texas and I was right And I got 212 km on a picutre of somewhere in South Africa that had a different view of a similar mountain to ome I missed by 10,221 km miss the first time.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
LOL, there was one in a Brazilian village with a beauty parlour showing the phone number with an area code.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Either the world has a heck of a lot of long, straight, roads with no visible human habitation in sight, or else some masochist is actually searchign such places out to take pictures of them. I mean, I've been to lots of places, and I've hardly ever seen a dead straight section of road longer than a couple of miles or so (and not many of them in Britain) Here in London there are effectively no logn straight roads at all. Not even Edgeware Road or Shooters Hill, though they look straight on the map.

heck, I find Gower Street disturbingly straight so I deliberately avoid it when walking or cycling so I don;t have to look up and down it. And its about half a mile long.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
They have lavender fields in Alaska??? That's a long way from my guess in the South of France.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Yes!! There's one in Recife! I know exactly where this is.


[ETA: 14m from the correct location!]

[ 10. June 2013, 19:34: Message edited by: LeRoc ]
 

---

Posted by Grits (# 4169) on :
 
I scored 18,149 points. I made two almost perfect guesses, two pretty darn close, and only one that was significant, although I was on the right continent.

Who has time for this???
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Dear Australians,


Could you please not be so far from the rest of the world?

You're costing me lots of points.


Ta much.
 

---

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
I just got a spot that I literally drove by 11 days ago, halfway between Cabo San Lucas Mexico and Todos Santos Mexico. it looked like pretty much any road side beer stop in Northern Mexico, and I was lucky enough to guess the western side of the country. I still managed to be 300 KM off, which I have learned is not bad for this game if you don't get any give-away clues.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Er... I'm just getting a very dark street now.

[ETA: I must be on the inside of a tunnel!]

[ 10. June 2013, 23:36: Message edited by: LeRoc ]
 

---

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
For what it's worth, if it looks vaguely like rural Latin America, I have found it helpful to look for a beer sign- that will get you in the right country, at least.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Og, King of Bashan: For what it's worth, if it looks vaguely like rural Latin America, I have found it helpful to look for a beer sign- that will get you in the right country, at least.

---

• Canada
• USA
• Mexico
• Brazil (I usually get those within 150km)
• Norway
• Russia (the Cyrillic script is a giveaway)
• South-Africa
• Thailand (same for the Thai script)
• Japan
• Australia

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:

I usually lose the most points because for many rural roads I don't have a clue whether they're in the US or in Australia.

---

quote:

---

lilBuddha: US = driving right side of the road and measurements are in miles
Australia = driving on the left side of the road and the pictures will be upside down.

---

LOL, I read the first sentence and was already getting ready to post "I know that". Then I read the second sentence and you completely caught me there!

 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
84 metres out!

---

I was happy with my 1.935 km until I saw this.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Ahem:

quote:

---

LeRoc: [ETA: 14m from the correct location!]

---

quote:

---

lilBuddha: Sorry, missed that amongst all those wrong continent posts...

---

Yeah, rub it in

I was lucky though: when I'm in that part of Brazil, I pass by that place daily.
 

---

Posted by Grits (# 4169) on :
 
20,591 that time. Three right on the money, one barely off, one WAY off.
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
On the other hand, .0451 km out just proves one can Google. It was pointy, but 18.5k or so only, so not even close to Grits. (Nice!)
Hardest was the search the Japanese location! For all the signs, I couldn't see anything to search.

[ 11. June 2013, 02:50: Message edited by: Gwai ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
.52km, but not really fair as it dropped me in Baydon. Right next to a sign.
 

---

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 
24,184. Not sure I'll beat that. Started off badly, mistaking Western Australia for the US midwest, but was dumped outside the main station in Frankfurt for the second, then a couple of giveaway roadsigns and a good guess at the part of Russia the Russian street scene was in.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
.117 km. OTOH I have no patience for roads out in the middle of nowhere.
 

---

Posted by Antisocial Alto (# 13810) on :
 
Are we allowed to Google?

ETA I see a couple of people have mentioned searching and I am certainly going to start doing it if we're allowed!

[ 11. June 2013, 03:18: Message edited by: Antisocial Alto ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Aren't any rules against, AFAIK. Besides, how would we know?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
mistaking Western Australia for the US midwest,

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Antisocial Alto:
Are we allowed to Google?

ETA I see a couple of people have mentioned searching and I am certainly going to start doing it if we're allowed!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
21m. Curse you, LeRoc!

(Can you make it within 21 m of this link, though?

—A.)

---

22m. Homer, AK. Though, this is pretty good considering the locator map does not have pics and the water shape can vary, depending upon season.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Bastards! End of that round they drop me in a parking lot, no movement allowed, all signs blurry to the point of uselessness. A mix of people. Thought Hawaii, but the surroundings looked too Asian. I guessed Hong Kong, it was Cambodia.
 

---

Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
6m.

I don't suppose I'll be within 6m of the Say When Casino, McDermitt, Nevada again.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Thank you for the lovely new time-suck, Tortuf.

Interesting how many of my guesses were on the wrong continent, but right latitude.
 

---

Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :
 
Cool game! I think the closest I got was somewhere in Germany.
 

---

Posted by Antisocial Alto (# 13810) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Antisocial Alto:
Are we allowed to Google?

ETA I see a couple of people have mentioned searching and I am certainly going to start doing it if we're allowed!

---

Half the fun is finding out more about really cool places you've never even heard of before!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Bastards! End of that round they drop me in a parking lot, no movement allowed, all signs blurry to the point of uselessness. A mix of people. Thought Hawaii, but the surroundings looked too Asian. I guessed Hong Kong, it was Cambodia.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Thank you for the lovely new time-suck, Tortuf.

Interesting how many of my guesses were on the wrong continent, but right latitude.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
mistaking Western Australia for the US midwest,

---

People mention this, but they are very distinctive to me. The roads are different, even when they are in similar condition.

---

quote:

---

The soil is different.

---

I strongly suspect that the US midwest has different types of soil in different places! I mean I have only spent about ten hours of my entire life in the mid-west (so I must be an extpert) but I saw at least two quite different kids of soil and vegetation within a few miles of each other. It would be foolish to assume that all the rest of it is exactly the same as itself.

Australia famously has a huge amount of reddish rock and bare reddish soil. But so do other places including lots of Africa, some parts of India and South America, and almost all of Mars.

I can tell them apart in these photos if the sun is high in the sky because the Google doo-dah tells you which way north is. But otherwise I'm trying to go by vegetation if there are no road signs. Australia has lots of eucalypts - but unfortunately they have been widely introduced to other parts of the world. Like South Africa and Surrey. The Americas have cactuses. But so nowadays do Australia and North Africa, because people took them there.

Going by vegetation I can pretty accurately tell northern Europe from anywhere else but I'mm not so good at telling places that aren't northern Europe from each other
 

---

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :
 
Surely you can eliminate a fair proportion of the world simply by the fact that Google Street view hasn't been done there yet!

(x-post with lilBuddha)

[ 11. June 2013, 14:59: Message edited by: Lucia ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Reply to ken:
The striping is different. It is a little more difficult in the absence of markings, but the tarmac looks different to me.
Yes, there is red soil in America, but the vegetation is different where this occurs. IME, anyway. South Africa vs. Australia might be more difficult, but I haven't been dropped in rural SA playing Geosense. And Google haven't yet driven the roads of Mars, but when they do I think I know what too look for.

[ 11. June 2013, 14:59: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lucia:
Surely you can eliminate a fair proportion of the world simply by the fact that Google Street view hasn't been done there yet!

(x-post with lilbuddah)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
And Google haven't yet driven the roads of Mars, but when they do I think I know what too look for.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
A rural road in a densely populated area is less likely to be mapped than one in a remote area. So you have communities missed in favour of thousands of km of empty road.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ken:
Yes. I'm pretty sure the 20 or so I've looked at so far include a far higher proportion of really empty flat mildly arid places with boring straight roads than the real world does.

---

Maybe this is a topic for the pond difference thread, but my general picture of the world is that the dry bits consist of a huge percentage of empty flat space. But then everything east of me for the next 9 or so hours (at 75 MPH mind you) is practically empty flat space, so maybe we just have different perceptions.

Anyone else stumble on bugs? I was shocked to find myself inside a building that was, without a doubt, the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. After locking in, it showed that I was 1000 KM off, and that the location was in the middle of the Atlantic ocean- some James Bond type villain's hidden base, no doubt.
 

---

Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
A surprisingly large proportion of the world appears to consist of bridges.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
A green, white. and gold flag with "PRI" on it. Now that's a clue! But which coast?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I'm getting good at this. I I made it within 0.0032 miles of a bridge plunk in the middle of a volcanic lake in the Azores!
 

---

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
I keep thinking that, and then right after I pinpoint the exact block of a given location, they give me a street in Russia, with all of the clues I need to find the exact spot, if only I could read the damn script.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: I'm getting good at this. I I made it within 0.0032 miles of a bridge plunk in the middle of a volcanic lake in the Azores!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
I keep thinking that, and then right after I pinpoint the exact block of a given location, they give me a street in Russia, with all of the clues I need to find the exact spot, if only I could read the damn script.

---

quote:

---

Og, King of Bashan: The fact that I don't get Russia more often is what tells me that it isn't entirely random.

---

That and the fact that I didn't get anything from India.
 

---

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
India hasn't been covered yet. Here is the list of Google street view coverage.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Ah, I can imagine that going through all the winding streets of Mumbai may take a while (I'm just guessing, I've never been in India).
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
I wonder if full coverage means as full as it is going to get? There are roads inside this "Full" which are empty of coverage.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Weirdest hits so far-- I wound up on a grey pallet, platform in the middle of a dry, misty field, spinning round and round with no movement options. Very creepy. Then I wound up on the peak of some ice-capped mountain in Germany, complete with nearby yellow snow and some goofy youth group planting a makeshift cross on top. Also spinning round and round.
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
My results

How do you get a list of how far away your guesses were? Or do you just have to keep track as you play?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Via poking around, I discovered that you can find out where the location was were by inspecting the results of the little map after each move. I'm gonna go check right now if you can do it with the big global map at the end of the game.
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
I just got 1.257 km! To be fair, though, the image I got was a bunch of stadium seats with "Hanover" on them, and a sign that included a url with "hanover" and ".de" in it. Pretty obvious, then.
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by churchgeek:
I just got 1.257 km! To be fair, though, the image I got was a bunch of stadium seats with "Hanover" on them, and a sign that included a url with "hanover" and ".de" in it. Pretty obvious, then.

---

That game gave me a total of 14417 points. I'd also gotten a lucky break with a billboard revealing one location to be in the Canary Islands. I picked the wrong island, but it was still close. My farthest guess that game was a location in Australia that looked remarkably like another location, in a previous game, that was in Texas. Texas, Australia, same thing, right?
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
Best so far is .051 km. It is amazing how many roads in the middle of nowhere Google has filmed.

They should at least organize the leaves to make themselves into a flag of the country when they have their picture taken.
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
Almost 21k points, but missed two locations by a continent still. Clearly I'd be better at this game if I didn't get so impatient with long roads.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
So clever, I thought I was, I guessed the latitude and saw tall purple flowers that I knew were Canadian. A quick search and I had it! until I cliked to guess and found the location was in Sweden.
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tortuf:
It is amazing how many roads in the middle of nowhere Google has filmed.

---

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Weirdest hits so far-- I wound up on a grey pallet, platform in the middle of a dry, misty field, spinning round and round with no movement options. Very creepy.

---

My weirdest image was almost black. I guessed it was in the Mont Blanc tunnel, but it was somewhere in New Mexico

quote:

---

churchgeek: I was also surprised to get some shots that weren't on a road - in the middle of a park, for example (along a walkway or something) and on a boardwalk. They must get permission to drive their car there, I guess.

---

Once I was on a ferry on the Amazon River. This one was easy for me
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I wound up on the dock of the harbor ferry in Hong Kong.That was trippy.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: I wound up on the dock of the harbor ferry in Hong Kong.That was trippy.

---

quote:

---

Chapelhead: After far too much wasted time (thanks, Tortuf!) I got to 1m from the right spot - with a little help from the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co of Madeira Beach, Florida.

---

quote:

---

ken: And occasional trees and and lots of very green vegetation and some reddish soil and long straight roads with no visible markigs and a few run-down sheds painted once-bright colours mean Brazil?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gwai:
And if there's reddish soil and no people anywhere, it's probably South Africa.

---

not so, I managed to get a deserted track in the middle of a red-dirt emptiness down to just 750 miles away in the Aussie outback

[Brazil. Or South Africa. Or Australia. Or maybe somewhere in Eastern Europe. Oooh, palm trees! I wonder where I am now?]

[ 14. June 2013, 01:51: Message edited by: Ariston ]
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 


Plonked me right in the middle of an intersection, and I went, "Holy shit! I'm in Solvang!"
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Plonked me right in the middle of an intersection, and I went, "Holy shit! I'm in Solvang!"

---

I can't tell you how many times I have said the exact same thing.
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
It helps when there's a legible road-sign in the picture ...
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Better! Even better! It plopped me down a block and a half way from a restaurant me and ex husband ate at on our return trip from our honeymoon!

That and the big effin' windmill on the corner!

God that was cool, I knew just where I was, right away.
(@ Tortuf-- giggling.)

[ 15. June 2013, 04:13: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
1m! I finally reached 1m. And now I know where to find the best banana bread.
Anyone have the season change from one click down a road to another? Just adjacent to a Welcome to Alaska sign. Now to find a location on the Alaska/Canada border where it snows.....
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
Fooey. I went into round 5 with 25804 points, including being within 1km of a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and it gave me a blank screen for round 5.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Tortuf: Fooey. I went into round 5 with 25804 points, including being within 1km of a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and it gave me a blank screen for round 5.

---

After 25,000 points, it is programmed to show you the location in Roswell where the fallen UFO is hidden. The government intervened.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
At last! A computer game where knowing about botany helps!

Well this is more familiar territory. No people, signs, fences. Gravel road - not tarmac, but not bare earth either. No markings. Looks like the roads you see in forestry Commission land in Britain, or in national parks and nature reserves. The road isn't straight, and its bordered by lots and lots of very young birch trees. Some burned. Also some small and a few large Christmas-tree shapes of firs or similar and, what look like young larches, and a few small poplars or aspens. There are loads of reddish-purple-pink flowers. Rose bay willow herb I think - "fireweed". Tall herbs, some kind of daisy, Artemisia Low rolling wooded hills in every direction, with conifers on them. This is almost a botanical cliche, a stereotyped plant community. Its a recently cleared or burned area in a mixed coniferous woodland, being colonised by exactly the sort of species you would expect. Totally familiar. I associate places like this with summer holidays, birdwatching, and botany field trips.

So does it make it easy to identify? No it bloody doesn't! This kind of woodland exists in a belt running from Norway to northern Japan, and then something not too dissimilar from southern Alaska all the way to New England. Its the bloody taiga. The most common kind of landscape in the whole world. More of it than all the deserts and steppes and dry red stuff put together. So anywhere in the cool-temperate or sub-arctic Palaearctic. Not to mention that because of introduced conifers and timber-hungry foresters clearing out native broadleaf trees you can see vaguely similar environments all over the British Isles and Germany and central Europe and even New Zealand no doubt in the USA as well. And at high altitude all the way south to Africa. (Though I don't think this is Africa or southern Europe because the vegetation doesn't seem diverse enough and the area doesn't seem mountainous and I see no pine trees)


So guess wildly. Rule out Britain - there are non-native trees in every direction and apart from the Kielder Forest in Northumberland there probably isn't anywhere much like that. Also if the dust on one branch of the road is the vehicle we are looking from then we have been driving on the right,

Rule out North America. The vegetation looks very American but the road isn't straight even though the land isn't very hilly. So prejudice tells me it can't be the USA. And the non-tarmac road is covered with gravel. I'd guess that remote forest tracks in Canada or Alaska would be mnore likely to be bare earth. Same goes for most of Russia of course.

Guess Europe. Hilly but not mountainous? Sweden maybe. Germany? Finland? But wouldn't there be *some* sign of humanity there? Here there is not a fencepost, not a telegraph wire, not a distant microwave tower (you can hardly get away from them in the remoter parts of Britain) not a firewardens or hunters watchtower (all over Germany). Maybe I should rethink and go for Russia. Or Canada. This is impossible!

Oh but the vegetation is so familiar. Stick with northern Europe. I'll guess somewhere in Scandinavia

And SHIT!!!!! After half an hour looking at the same picture I've clicked the wrong thingy in my browser anbd moved on to another game! How can I get it back? I can't! If I go back in the browser history it generates a new picture for me! And the link just says geoguessr.com, there is no other navigation!

Now I will never know where it was!



 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
8 meters. Not in a town. Sucked on the rest.
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
8 metres???? You must have clicked the front garden, and the picture was taken in the back ...
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
31,956! Best I've done, though this time I was set down within a few km of a sign each time, save one. So, this does not make me a genius. The most difficult this round was in a Brazilian border town. But, fortunately, Google only mapped a few streets entering into Brazil.
 

---

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :
 
I've only done a few but just wanted to say thanks for the link, this is damn fun!
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wet Kipper:
anyone else presented with an underwater view of a turtle swimming by coral ?

(i guessed Barrier reef, it was nearer Hawaii)

---

I was dropped in one like this, thought it Hawaii and it was Australia.
 

---

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
Dh just got within 400metres - the ex-Russian student landed in Red Square!
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Is it just me or is the guessing map broken.

I tried from my Mac at home yesterday and it will only show me northern Canada and Greenland, except on the very smallest magnification - the opne whgere the pointer is larger than Ireland. Closed browser and restarted adn it was the same.

I assumed it was dud Java v ersin or something, but I've sust taken a look on my PC at work, where I was able to see it last week, and its exactly the same thin. Different OS, different browser, different Java.

So no playing
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Mine is working fine. And I'm on a shitty connection.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
It is broken, forcing me to wildly inaccurate guesses. At least, that is what I will claim. Couldn't be me.
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
I just stopped doing it on Opera and tried Firefox. First of five worked (location in China that wasn't Hong Kong - obviously there is some coverage!) but second one I got the mini map again, And it kept on flying off the screen leaving it blank.

I tried to put the location in Yukon and I ended up in Alkaska because the whole world is occupying a box only anout two inches wide

[ 17. June 2013, 19:50: Message edited by: ken ]
 

---

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
Of the five locations four were in Mexico while the other was in Colorado. I was getting pretty good by the end.

Then I played again and was rubbish until I was placed smack in the middle of a German football stadium. Got that within 50 metres - it would have been closer, but I tell you, they moved the markings!
 

---

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sioni Sais:


Then I played again and was rubbish until I was placed smack in the middle of a German football stadium. Got that within 50 metres - it would have been closer, but I tell you, they moved the markings!

---

quote:

---

Heavenly Anarchist: I've been there too!

---

quote:

---

Pearl B4 Swine: P.S. It's a great game, if you don't mind being wrong so much.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tortuf:
Every single scene this morning was out in the middle of nowhere. I suppose the game has gotten popular and he is trying to make it harder. Without any real clues it just makes the game frustrating in stead of fun. Bummer.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tortuf:
Every single scene this morning was out in the middle of nowhere. I suppose the game has gotten popular and he is trying to make it harder. Without any real clues it just makes the game frustrating in stead of fun. Bummer.

---

quote:

---

lilBuddha: Got one last round with a dead kangaroo roadside meant it was not likely SA, so practically a gimme.

---

I hope they didn't shoot the roo on purpose to give you a hint
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:

---

lilBuddha: Got one last round with a dead kangaroo roadside meant it was not likely SA, so practically a gimme.

---

I hope they didn't shoot the roo on purpose to give you a hint

---

And backed over it a few times to make sure it stayed in place.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
Most of mine were within 200 to 600 km. It just isn't as much fun as playing detective. YMMV

Mind you, I am going right back and playing it again in a minute instead of reading case law. Bad, bad tortuf.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
This time, I could pinpoint my location exactly. It was right before the entrance of the parking lot of the National Congress of Brazil in the capital Brasília.

I looked up the exact location on the map, clicked... and GeoGuessr said the exact location was inside the Congress. No, it wasn't
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
(If people want to check it, it is the first one in this set.)
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
- The Kama river in Russia, Bam!
- North of Montreal-ish, bam.
- Swansea, BAM!
Woohoo doing terrific.
- Middle of a Brazilian town in the dark! Guessed Sao Paulo, it was Sobral. Who has ever heard of Sobral? Curse you. LeRoc!
- Stop. revive, survive sign...Australia! No signs, now to pinpoint based upon the clues. Dry, sparse vegetation and NOTHING for kilometres and kilometres. Oh, no worries there.

And the people in Swansea, would they give direction? NooOOoo, they just stare at the camera. Don't even wave back.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:
(If people want to check it, it is the first one in this set.)

---

Was not so difficult, I got it within 29m

In seriousness, I have noticed a few I was certain I was closer than credited.

[ 19. June 2013, 01:13: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

lilBuddha: Who has ever heard of Sobral? Curse you. LeRoc!

---

I have. Been there a couple of times even
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Was I the only person that got a view into some bloke's garage?

In Serbia?
 

---

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :
 
Got a poolside view of what could have been any modern hotel anywhere in the world. Quite pleased I got near the right latitude, to be honest.

This game looks like it could be addictive. I'll stop once I get a score over 15,000. Promise.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
- The Kama river in Russia, Bam!
- North of Montreal-ish, bam.
- Swansea, BAM!
Woohoo doing terrific.
- Middle of a Brazilian town in the dark! Guessed Sao Paulo, it was Sobral. Who has ever heard of Sobral? Curse you. LeRoc!
- Stop. revive, survive sign...Australia! No signs, now to pinpoint based upon the clues. Dry, sparse vegetation and NOTHING for kilometres and kilometres. Oh, no worries there.

And the people in Swansea, would they give direction? NooOOoo, they just stare at the camera. Don't even wave back.

---

The people of Western Australia are exceptionally good at giving one the "WTF are you doing in my town?" look, I've noticed...

And what the hell was The Googlemobile doing cruising Sobral at night, for God's sake?

I just got back from Outer Bugfuck, myself. As the only identifying feature was a resemblance to Outer Bugfuck-- don't you love sandstorms?-- I guessed West Autralia. 35 K off.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
(GASP!)

My last hit, I got 0 KM in some Finnish town!
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
LeRoc, you get a reprieve; my new cry is Curse you, Kelly Alves!
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: And what the hell was The Googlemobile doing cruising Sobral at night, for God's sake?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
LeRoc, you get a reprieve; my new cry is Curse you, Kelly Alves!

---

I can live with that,

If it makes you feel any better, it plopped me at the top of some mountain peak again. Some town in what looked like Colorado but could have been Norway, no legible signs, and at that point I gave up for the day.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: (GASP!)

My last hit, I got 0 KM in some Finnish town!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
LeRoc, you get a reprieve; my new cry is Curse you, Kelly Alves!

---

Mine is to curse LeRoc's country! All the worst blank roads I get seem to be there.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
The roads with the fewest signage I've encountered have been Austalia and South Africa.
But the worst, to me, is being plopped in a town with no street names. You might get a sense of general location, but still can be many km off.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I seem to be doing fairly well in Brazil. I find some Mom and Pop store and Google it, and they all seem to have a FB page.
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
Two of the last three times I did that, I discovered I had found the store in the completely wrong part of the country. Maybe I just suck at Brazil
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Oh, yeah, that's happened to me a couple of times.

Brazil's really effin' big, isn't it?
 

---

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :
 
27805 oh yes!!!!
 

---

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :
 
First time for a while 6800 with spinning but no moving.

I had a batch of attempts about a month ago (best was when you started just opposite a bus with Kahkov on the side, there were a number of humiliating 'car on the left' it must be Britain, no it's Australia, some island, etc...)
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Woohoo!

quote:

---

Game finished! You got 32300 points in total.

---

Yeah, I play this too much.

[Here's the link, unless you're lilBuddha, who is banned from playing. There are penalties for beating us by that margin.]

[ 22. June 2013, 05:18: Message edited by: Ariston ]
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Brazil's really effin' big, isn't it?

---

quote:

---

Kyzyl: First full attempt. got 21209 points. Lots of Canada saved me this round and I was able to guess Estonia over Finland down to .98km.

---

Alright, you're not allowed to post in this thread anymore


(My best score was a miserable 18,000-something )
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Woohoo!

quote:

---

Game finished! You got 32300 points in total.

---

Yeah, I play this too much.

[Here's the link, unless you're lilBuddha, who is banned from playing. There are penalties for beating us by that margin.]

---

 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
Y'all remember now. This here is just a game.

My latest trick is to load names into some famous search engine and then not switch tabs before I use the search ensuring that I lose the round. Needless yo say, I start a new game each time.

Not everyone has a talent like that. You have to try.
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
I know I said 'I'm Flouncing' but I keep coming back. I finally saw the pic with what I thought was the dead kangaroo by the side of the road. I had read some talk about it. Turned out it wasn't a roo at all; and so, I clicked the wrong continent.

Too bad Uncle Pete C's Guessomometer is busy all the time in the other quiz.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pearl B4 Swine:
I know I said 'I'm Flouncing' but I keep coming back.

---

"This is my last hit, man! I swear! I'll quit on Monday!"
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
5 km from my location. In Russia. (And I don't read the Cyrillic alphabet)
 

---

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :
 
5m away by a war memorial near Verdun. I thin that's the closest I've got.
 

---

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :
 
That same round I got within a few meters of a location because I was placed in front of a gorgeous building that was relatively locatable. Not as near as Kelly got to hers though. That's still impressive.
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
The last round I played I got three places in Central America, one in South Africa (which I nearly put as South Africa but then changed my mind and put Greece) and one that didn't load at all.

PB4S, there's no point in using the Guessometer - I've tried it and I don't think it's much better at geography than I am ...
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

piglet: PB4S, there's no point in using the Guessometer - I've tried it and I don't think it's much better at geography than I am ...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:

---

piglet: PB4S, there's no point in using the Guessometer - I've tried it and I don't think it's much better at geography than I am ...

---

What's the Guessometer?

---

It's a strictly forbidden, work-of-the-Devil, "helper" used in the Crew's Quiz by those who have no idea of the correct answer. The owner is PeteC (and you can easily see that the Guessometer does him no good at all), but piglet 'borrows' it all the time. It could do me no harm on this quiz. I'm starting to randomly choose between Alaska, Australia, South Africa and Russia. Oh, and Brazil. LeRoc, ask PeteC - mebbe he'll sell you one.

 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
OK here's a tip, if you haven't figured it out yet. The guess box feeds off of Google Maps. Go to Google maps, and pick a city. Go into street view. You'll notice a little arrow pointing upward on the right corner of your map window. (sometimes it has a little street view guy there, sometimes there's just an arrow.) If you click that once or twice (depending if the little guy is there) it opens up a half-screen map placing the little guy exactly where the address designates. SO, if you have located your "start position" via street view, keep going back and forth between the screens until you have made the guess tag match the position of the little guy as closely as possible. When I have a verifiable location, I usually have a .0 in front of my result.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
When you get a .0, what is the point amount?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
64-- something. I think. I have done it twice now
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Oh sure, grind that into my fragile ego.

Just trying to ascertain the potential perfect score. You know, since I have an actual chance of achieving it.
 

---

Posted by David (# 3) on :
 
Never heard of this.

27,839

But it's fun. The only one I had trouble with was #4, it dumped in an alleyway in a town called Kremenchug in Ukraine. Picking a small town in northern Denmark based on the architecture of one building didn't hurt me too badly.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
So I am being punished for the hubris in my last post on this thread. I am now continually being placed in SA, Australia, or the US on desolate roads with no signage. Or in rural Japan with no signs in English except Coca Cola.
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I'm enjoying this game (although I'm pretty crap at it, especially compared with you lot ); getting within 20km of a place in western Norway was the coolest thing on the planet.


 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Oh sure, grind that into my fragile ego.

Just trying to ascertain the potential perfect score. You know, since I have an actual chance of achieving it.

---

Here's the lame thing-- I hardly ever look at my score. I check the hits to see if there is a 6 in front of it, then move on and at the end of the round I just go back to a new game as soon as I can.
I like the faux-travel aspect of it. There are so many new places I want to see now!
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Go to Google maps, and pick a city.

---

But this pressuposes that you already know which city you're in, GeoGuessr-wise?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Nah, just to test out the feature I was talking about.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'm officially confused now
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I was just describing the Map feature in street view, and suggesting you pick a random location to try it out.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: I was just describing the Map feature in street view, and suggesting you pick a random location to try it out.

---

Ah, I see it now. Within Google Maps, I can have something like a split screen, with the Street View and a Map below eachother. If I move around on one of them, the other one will move as well. I didn't know that.

I guess this will help me in GeoGuessr, for example when I find myself in a Brazilian city that I know well. I can move around in the split screen until the Street View coincides with what I see on GeoGuessr, and then copy my location on the map to GeoGuessr. Is this what you mean?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Exactly.
And I sense that means lilB is going dooowwwnn.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'm afraid that this won't work very well on dusty roads in the middle of nowhere though.

[ 30. June 2013, 22:49: Message edited by: LeRoc ]
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Yeah, there's always that...
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Managed 8.23km from a place in South Africa, but it wasn't done entirely honestly - there was a plainly legible sign and Google did the rest.


 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Exactly.
And I sense that means lilB is going dooowwwnn.

---

quote:

---

Tortuf: My latest trick is to load names into some famous search engine and then not switch tabs before I use the search ensuring that I lose the round. Needless yo say, I start a new game each time.

---

I don't understand what this means either
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Heh. any points for lowest score on a hit? I just got 53.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Heh. any points for lowest score on a hit? I just got 53.

---

You guessed somewhere in Antarctica?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I got fed up and guessed Australia. It was Finland. Finland!

But my next game was 32372. 0K guesses or not, that was the first time I cracked 30000.

[ 03. July 2013, 00:04: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :
 
Finally broke 30K - 32298 to be precise.

Hit within 10m. on a straight road in a dusty landscape in Cape Province, almost better than getting within 1 m. in a cemetery in Savanna, Ga.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
High scores are cute and all, but really irrelevant to the game. Nothing to be excited about.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Jay-Emm: First time for a while 6800 with spinning but no moving.

---

Aaah I didn't know this! You can move around!!
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
I have a new technique when I am put in the middle of nowhere with no signs. I just guess I'm in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

It is usually wrong, but it saves me the agony of trying to make an intelligent guess that is way off after clicking about a thousand times.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Ah, the classic "Fuck it!" manouever. That's what landed me in Finland.

A couple days ago, I wound up on some tiny desert island with one little shack and a lighthouse on it. The arrows kept sending me beneath the surface of the gorgeous torquoise cove off the beach on which I landed. Fish and rocks and coral and whatnot-- it was gorgeous! I giggled with pelasure but I had no clue where I was.

I finally guessed randomly in the South Pacific, and wound up about 1000 K off. The island was just south of the Hawaiian Islands.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Ah, the classic "Fuck it!" manouever. That's what landed me in Finland.

---

A classic "Fuck it!" maneuver landed me in Brazil, and I've been here over 10 years now...
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
LeRoc, you wouldn't happen to be the CEO of the GeoGuesser Company, would you? With headquarters in your spare bedroom?

The bad thing is, we'll never run out of spots in Brazil.
PB4S
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Pearl B4 Swine: LeRoc, you wouldn't happen to be the CEO of the GeoGuesser Company, would you? With headquarters in your spare bedroom?

---

You have no idea how much work it is, driving to all those far-off dusty roads in Brazil to take pictures.

But don't worry, as soon as you're all thoroughly hooked I'll start sending invoices.
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
Just what I need... another compelling reason to waste time on the internet...

"Game finished!

You got 27862 points in total."
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
I WANT A JAPANESE CASTLE! Dropped into my second one and they are sooo cool. Oh, and anyone have a spare mountaintop on which I can place it? Found a Japanese castle fan site which made it a bit easier to identify which one it was.

Oh, and if you drop me in Brazil, Leroc, to confound me? Do not do it inside a well marked stadium, then. Easiest location in quite awhile.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
...

I kindasorta wanna go to Finland.

I like cold, bleak places, for some reason. I must have been Chekhov in a previous existence.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

lilBuddha: Oh, and if you drop me in Brazil, Leroc, to confound me? Do not do it inside a well marked stadium, then. Easiest location in quite awhile.

---

But while you were in the stadium, did you notice the ball at your feet? And the eleven Brazilian players running towards you?
 

---

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :
 
I must go to bed. I must go to bed. I must go to bed.

"You got 32363 points in total."
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
(sigh)

Do any of y'all get homesick when playing? Sometimes I'll go, "Hot damn! I think I landed in Petaluma! Oh no, darn, it's Arberdeen..."

Oh, here's the link

[ 06. July 2013, 22:28: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Do any of y'all get homesick when playing?

---

Plenty of Brazil to go around
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
(sigh)

Do any of y'all get homesick when playing? Sometimes I'll go, "Hot damn! I think I landed in Petaluma! Oh no, darn, it's Arberdeen..."

Oh, here's the link

---

You horrible, horrible person. I clicked the link. On my phone. And it worked. I did NOT need to know this.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Oooch. Sorry. Least we'll know where to find you when you've gone missing for three months.

(That would be Brazil. )
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Anyone sent to a repeat location? I was dropped into the courtyard of a Christian, likely RCC, church in Japan for the second time. Did not help much as I did not remember where in Japan it was. I guessed far north so, of course, it was in the far south.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I was sent to the same Slavic bridge twice, and in my clever rehashing of what I'd figured out the first time, made the same wrong guess a second time.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
We should have kept marching after Berlin and drove the Russians into the Atlantic! Bad enough they have their own language, but also the effrontery to use their own alphabet as well. Bastards!
Was on the way to an excellent score and wound up in a Russian town. The only clues were a statue of Lenin and loads of bloody Cyrillic!
Did find the coolest hotel in the Yucatan, though.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
Yes. I have gotten repeats of places just a few miles beyond the ass end of nowhere. The game clearly refuses to understand that all places that go on for miles without a sign are in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Clearly a butt headed game.

Still, it is way cool to guess within a few meters of whatever.

Think about it. Just a few years back there was no way this game could exist.

Of course, the downside is that I now pause at each intersection as I drive my car to read the street signs . . . just in case.
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
We should have kept marching after Berlin and drove the Russians into the Atlantic! Bad enough they have their own language, but also the effrontery to use their own alphabet as well. Bastards!
Was on the way to an excellent score and wound up in a Russian town. The only clues were a statue of Lenin and loads of bloody Cyrillic!
Did find the coolest hotel in the Yucatan, though.

---

And you can't read Russian/Ukranian/etc?
My three semesters of Russian in high school have bailed me out more times than I can count in this game—if you just know the alphabet and nothing more, you can read town names/web addresses/business names, which is the really helpful stuff anyway.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
(cough)

Helped me out enough to sound out a town name and its local museum...
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
That is helpful. Biggest thing is getting to a sign that useful. With the romance languages, German and a couple others, I have an idea what is a potential location clue and what is not. With Cyrillic, unless it is the title on a significant building or an entry sign, I am lost. As would anyone who is not Russian or communist.

Today I wound up at a mountain home with only the ability to spin in circles. No signs, no vehicles, only fairly generic tyre imprints in the melting snow. Got the latitude to within a degree, was a small distance off in longitude, though. (7,000 km is only a little, yeah?)
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I managed over 23,000 today - my best score yet by a long way. Was very relieved that I didn't mistake a place in the Western Isles for Orkney.

LilBuddha's right - if you can get a legible sign, and make an intelligent guess as to the language it's in, you're laughing. I got a place in Finland within a few kms (with a bit of help from Google).
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
I've started going with my first hunch. Yes, I'm often wrong, but also often on the right continent. If I have no clue, I throw the dart at Brazil. All you who Google and do research, I feel sorry for you.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
At first I thought it was cheating to do research. Now I think it is part of the fun.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I drove behind the Googlemobile today!

So, sometime soon, I hope, if you are searching Northbound CA 280 around the Trousdale exit near Burlingame, you will see a little grey Neon with a very exited looking chick at the wheel.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
In case we do, what is the exact location again?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Map 'Burlingame, Ca" find CA HWY 280, and locate the the Trousdale Drive exit. And poke around, I dunno. At this stage, I couldn't find me (or the two red hot rods tailgating Googlemobile. Attention whores )

As to repeat hits-- I just got plonked right back on Homer Spit Road in Homer, Alaska, about two store fronts dwon from where I landed last week.
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
14236 this morning, following my hunches. I was in the ballpark on 4/5, which I was overjoyed with. But my score took a big hit from a Yukon/Norway mix up. Pine trees,mountains, very tidy & clean, and a lovely lake--- who knows??
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I drove behind the Googlemobile today ...

---

We saw one in St. John's the other day, just a few roads along from our house.

I suppose they must have more than one ...
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
? Of course they do. They have squadrons.

I live about 45 minutes away from Google HQ, so we see a lot of them about. But now it means so much more.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Squadrons? Ye've burst my bubble, Kelly. I'd thought it was a single, very dedicated, driver.
Cool for you to be in the camera view!
 

---

Posted by Evangeline (# 7002) on :
 
A curse on all your houses I love fooling around with this game but it's a massive time drain.

Annoying that Australia has so many endless stretches of unsigned roads that all look the friggin' same. Unless you see a sign you have no hope of working out if it's outback NSW, Qld or WA and they're 3000kms apart. Even with signage it can be difficult. I landed on a servo that immediately recognisable as Australian, the beer ads really gave it away. Sign said "Nullabor roadhouse" hmmm now which bit of the 2000km road across the Nullabor to choose...
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
I am so trying this when I have a desktop computer again...
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Why wait? It works on mobiles, too.

join us, orfeo, join us
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
I have been 3 meters (.003 km) off twice now. Of course, every time I get that close at least one scene is in the middle of nowhere.
 

---

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :
 
With heavy googling and exploring hit 23K (though I'm pretty sure I've come close guessing)

1st was a dullish road but then had a few road signs and a advert for an industrial site. So got very close (I blame the different zoom for the 100m difference)

2nd was another dullish roadbut then had a sign for a Lake something or other but couldn't find how far down the road I was (7k).

3rd another dull track but this time with a sign that seemed to say Lemora but clearly Oklahomians like signs to point 400Miles away (or I was luckier than I deserved).

4th in a middle of a city/townlet with road sign for major roads. Couldn't find the venues listed but guess was close enough.

5th another barren track but this time in low res so the one sign I saw (other than the kangeroo which at least meant I was on the right continent) was too blury.

5th
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Why wait? It works on mobiles, too.

join us, orfeo, join us

---

quote:

---

orfeo: Practically though, you try plonking your marker with any precision AND switching windows to google AND just manipulating the damn photo.

---

This sounds like one would need to have a cigarette afterwards
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
Heh. There is in fact a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that makes a joke out of 'googling' sounding a bit vulgar (a character is shocked at the prospect of googling an underage girl). Apparently it was the first use of google as a verb on American television.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

orfeo: Heh. There is in fact a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that makes a joke out of 'googling' sounding a bit vulgar (a character is shocked at the prospect of googling an underage girl).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by orfeo:

My brief trial run did start with an Australian photo, which was nice. Will definitely have an advantage for THAT part of the world. Likely to be offset by not always bring able to tell one northern hemisphere continent from another.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

---

Originally posted by orfeo:

My brief trial run did start with an Australian photo, which was nice. Will definitely have an advantage for THAT part of the world. Likely to be offset by not always bring able to tell one northern hemisphere continent from another.

---

Oh, you'd think. But unless you spend loads of time on desolate, nearly sign-less, middle-of-nowhere roads, you may find this less of an advantage than you suppose.

---

quote:

---

Meanwhile, I'm rapidly becoming a connoisseur of unmarked dirt roads over flat, barren landscapes.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Breathtaken. I just got back from the Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan. Hung out there a while even after I made my hit.

---

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: ...Ok, am in mid-hunt, but just wanted to pause to express the opinion that the guy I am standing next to is Billy Joe McAllister, and disappointment that I can't tell what he seems to be throwing off this bridge in GodKnows, DeepSouth, USA.

---

I guess it's the Tallahatchie Bridge?
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
It was somewhere in some Louisiana bayou. He gets around, I guess.

Googlemobile kept passing small groups of tailgate-partying youngsters gathered on the muddy banks of Whatever River, swigging Pabst and squinting at the car.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
That could be north Georgia.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Could be a lot of places. I guessed around Jackson, MI.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I feel faint.

This has got to be the catch to end all catches. In game, I found a road near a dock in Alaska, and in poking around found myself aimed at another Googlemobile. In poking around on Maps to get the location, I found myself in the second Googlemobile coming at the first Googlemobile.

I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP!
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
Data: If you met a double of yourself, would you have difficulty interacting with him?
Worf: I think so.
Data: Why?
Worf: I am not easy to get along with.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Whoa, dude! Right in front of the STF!

(for non-Brazilians, this place. )
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: Whoa, dude! Right in front of the STF!

---

quote:

---

Kelly Alves: The architecture in that area is amazing!

---

Definitely. While you're there, I hope that once you'll get dropped in front of the Cathedral of Brasília too.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
I actually did wander around a bit. It was fascinating.

GeoGuessr!

Russian for Everyone!

[ 22. July 2013, 22:57: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I go to Brasília relatively often. I'll be in this exact place again about 6 weeks from now.

I like going to Brasília, but there is one thing: I usually have nose-bleeds and cracked lips when I'm there for a couple of days. This is because Brasília is in a relatively dry area, and my body is now completely accostumed to the extreme humidity of the Amazon forest (sometimes we say to eachother that we're literally breathing water here).

I hope that you'll all take this into account when you're jumping around the globe like this
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
(applies lip balm.)
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
13,105 may not excite most of you, but I'm astonished. Usually I have long lines criss-crossing the oceans and continents.

Pearlie--giving thanks at the Guessometer Shrine
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
I was finally able to locate everything. 32,389 with the best one being 1 meter off.

Now, I can quit playing forever.
 

---

Posted by not entirely me (# 17637) on :
 
my scores seem to be getting lower and lower - I need more dusty roads in Queensland and less pretty resorts I spend a long time wandering around!
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
Just landed a guess at 0.011 km from the actual location!

I trust (not having kept up with the discussions here) that I'm not the only one who does a little research... In this case, I wandered till I saw an unusual street name and googled it with its cross-street. So some of you might consider that cheating. To me, it's the whole fun of the game.

Here's something odd, though:

A few times (including today), it lands me somewhere I can't imagine the Google cars could have possibly gotten. In this case, it was on a walkway that lead from one person's front door to another person's front door, with another walkway leading off in some direction... There was no way I could travel on any of the paths. I had to just make a stab, which of course was way off (I guessed somewhere in SE Asia, and it was in Central America). But how did they even get that image?!? All I could do was turn around in circles, too.

Pretty obscure, when I happen to know that Google Maps hasn't been down the street I grew up on in SE Michigan (just an hour outside of Detroit)!

ETA: This game is a nice way to while away the time as I'm recovering from some minor surgery.

[ 02. August 2013, 01:37: Message edited by: churchgeek ]
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
0.0004 km off in Whittier, AK! (On Billings St. near Eastern Ave.) What beautiful scenery!
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
There was one time I found myself in a gated parking lot at the end of a back alley, with nowhere else to go, somewhere in what I guessed (correctly) was eastern Europe. Seriously, how do you get into a back alley paid parking lot like that one other than intending to get there?

There's also the time I found myself on a mountaintop and just figured someone from Google climbed a mountain carrying a camera, since there weren't any roads going there.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Ariston: There was one time I found myself in a gated parking lot at the end of a back alley, with nowhere else to go, somewhere in what I guessed (correctly) was eastern Europe. Seriously, how do you get into a back alley paid parking lot like that one other than intending to get there?

---

Sounds like a good beginning for a spy novel. Now I'm waiting for the beautiful Russian blonde keeping you at gunpoint
 

---

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:

---

Ariston: There was one time I found myself in a gated parking lot at the end of a back alley, with nowhere else to go, somewhere in what I guessed (correctly) was eastern Europe. Seriously, how do you get into a back alley paid parking lot like that one other than intending to get there?

---

Sounds like a good beginning for a spy novel. Now I'm waiting for the beautiful Russian blonde keeping you at gunpoint

---

Yes!
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
To above: Ha!

quote:

---

Originally posted by churchgeek:

ETA: This game is a nice way to while away the time as I'm recovering from some minor surgery.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Antisocial Alto:
About 30 frames west of my first location in this game I saw a single-car accident in progress- a little red car had crossed over to the wrong side of the road and was jumping over the concrete barriers onto the shoulder. Yikes!

---

The red car is stationary and wedged on the concrete barrier. A little further down the road, you can see the driver and passenger placing a warning triangle.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
There's a stray bumper bouncing along in the road further on,too.

To be fair, I thought it was in progress, too, the back wheel was hanging in midair.

[ 04. August 2013, 05:18: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
Um, so...

I just did my first game back home on the computer.

I think 31,967 points is rather good, yes?

4/5 guesses within a kilometre.

http://url.geoguessr.com/3Vns
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
DAMN good!

And welcome home!
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
Thanks.

There were roadsigns for the first 4. The first one even had an intersection with TWO roadsigns. But I still had to guess the correct side of a West Australian town that was 5km away. Forest reserve side = win!

I'm happiest though with the last one, which turns out to be that mosque in Kazan a couple of other people have visited. First discovery: mosque. Second discovery: football stadium over the walls and a pyramid shaped building. Football stadium has Cyrillic. Hmmm...

Start googling muslim and Cyrillic. All those -Stan countries. Looking for pretty mosques and pyramids. Find a pyramid in Astana but it ain't the right one. Maybe they just like pyramids in Astana??

And then head the other way and... bloody hell, those are CROSSES. I've got a church and a mosque basically in the same complex.

...Russia? RUSSIAN mosque?

And google images immediately offered me a picture that had me yelling at the screen.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
You made me go back there, via Google images. It's so beautiful.
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Three Australias in a row? Very discouraging.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
That's messed up. You obviously got a couple of orfeo's turns.
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
How do I type Cyrillic into Google Maps? I mean, I can work out that I'm on the corner of Soviet Avenue and Proletariat Street but I can't bloody find them...


EDIT: OMG YES!! http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/russian.htm

[ 10. August 2013, 04:31: Message edited by: orfeo ]
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Here ya go.

I forgot to add that to my "Russia for everyone" package. Locate character, type in character, copy-paste.

Well, FINE, then. Tits on a bull, that's me.

Ooo, yours is more shiny.

[ 10. August 2013, 04:34: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
Okay, so was that worth about 50 minutes of my life?...Finding the exact intersection in a small Russian town?


 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
And now, I think I *could* be in my own country. But it's fundamentally unfair to have some kind of sign but have it unreadable because the sun is reflecting off it in the photo. Outrageous!

Edit: Not my own country. Still annoyed that the best clue available - a name, quite possibly a road name - isn't properly visible. Also the property for sale sign is totally illegible.

[ 10. August 2013, 05:03: Message edited by: orfeo ]
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
25,630 after all that effort. My worst guess was in my own country. It's a country road somewhere along the eastern coastal section, how the blazes am I supposed to work out it's Victoria rather than New South Wales?
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
And then 29,875.

*pulling computer power cord out now*
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
Isn't boasting covered in one of the 10 "DON'T DO IT" Commandments?

Yes, give it a rest for a while orfeo.

Pearlie [and I dont want to hear anything about you struggling to ID a pic]
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Oh , leave him alone, Pearlie. I haven't seen such a touching record of someone's helpless slide into addiction since I read "Go Ask Alice."

[ 10. August 2013, 18:36: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

orfeo: *pulling computer power cord out now*

---

I'm sure it's a battery powered laptop.
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
When your first 2 guesses are 8 metres and 12 metres out, fate then fucks with you by placing you on a bend in a road that otherwise appears ramrod straight and featureless in both directions.
 

---

Posted by Herrick (# 15226) on :
 
Just had my lowest game score, 1943, and individual place score, 30. I have only reached 20,000 once and anything over 17,000 is good for me. Now I am going to play in reverse, going for low scores. Same game really, it is just where do I stay away from. Soooooo addictive.
 

---

Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on :
 
I pinned down a location from a blurry road sign, thanks to Google,and I was so excited! Then I found that I had accidentally X'd out the Geoguess tab. When I tried to retrieve it, of course it was a new game. All I had was a coffee spoon for wrist-slitting.
 

---

Posted by Tortuf (# 3784) on :
 
Done that.
 

---

Posted by scuffleball (# 16480) on :
 
Here are some points -

What side of the road are they driving on?
ZA, Aus, S'pore, NZ, HK, and Macau, Japan, Britain and Ireland all drive on the left - most other places drive on the right.

What languages are signs in?
(Signs in HK are almost always bilingual; signs in Mexico near the American border often have English on them. If public signs are in English but private ones in other asian languages that's probably S'pore.)

What do the road-signs and markings look like?
If they vaguely follow the Vienna Conventions you know you are almost definitely not in US/Canada/Mexico; if they do not at all

What countries have Google Street view in the first place?
(Noticeably, /not/ mainland China, west Africa, India, Pakistan, M'ia, Indonesia, so if you see Chinese language countryside, it's probably Chinese Taipei, although some of HK is quite rural, of course; likewise Mexico is probably the biggest Spanish-speaking country on Google Earth.)

Especially if you know you're in the US/Canada, thinking in terms of "The Nine Nations of North America" helps. (What sort of industrial region are you in?) I find Anglophone Canada and the US almost indistinguishable on this, not that it matters too much if you're going for distance only.

How well developed is the place? (Northern Brazil is poorer and more rural than southern Brazil; if you know you're in Brazil at all you're almost certainly on the coast. South Africa's roads seem quite good; murram roads seem more likely to be Aus than ZA, perhaps as the former is drier and thus the Google car can take them more easily? Likewise potholes are more likely to be Brazil or Mexico than ZA.)
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
Here's another tip: if you're here, click the double arrows to break every premise the game is based on. Trust me on this one.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Sweeeet!

Now I have the greatest image of the Doctor glued to the dashboard shouting "Quick, gang! The Cybermen are about to take over Russia... no, it's the Ukraine...No, Moldova... crikey, a bridge over a river next to a church...."

[ 13. August 2013, 23:04: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
 

---

Posted by Herrick (# 15226) on :
 
Thank you Ariston. How do I get back?
 

---

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :
 
Look for the double arrows pointing towards you. Walk back until you see them.
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Herrick:
Thank you Ariston. How do I get back?

---

Why would you want to?
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
Also, another piece of reference material: where Google Street View has been, mapped.

What I guess is most interesting is how patchy their coverage of Russia is, though I'm guessing that's mostly a matter of getting major cities in the interior first, then moving to the Russian Far East, etc. I also would have expected to see more of South America (especially Argentina) and southeast Asia, like the Philippines and Indonesia, but hey, what can ya do? It does make guessing where tropical areas are easier.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
My path is clear. I must use my Spanish Minor and travel the wilds of South America to provide more GeoGuessr locations.
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I'll be travelling here on Saturday. Is there anything in particular I should pay attention to?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
I Do NOT like the new Google maps.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
Me neither.
if you got up to the "settings" wheel, you an switch to "classic."
 

---

Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :
 
OK, geoguessers: let's see how you do when all of your location clues are commodes. Crapper Mapper

(I'm quite impressed with my 7/10).
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 

quote:

---

Hart: OK, geoguessers: let's see how you do when all of your location clues are commodes. Crapper Mapper

---

Nice one! I had 5/10, but all these hotel toilets look alike.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
OK,admittedly my effort was pitiful,but I don't see why the system needs to refer to me as "Raw sewage."

Kel // Rub it in,why don't you?
 

---

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :
 
I wonder if most pictures have been taken in male restrooms? Surely that would give women a disadvantage.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 
...

Theoretically.
 

---

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
7/10. five confident, one no idea and four guesses of which I got two right. I expect men do have an advantage as this has to be based on a collection and most collectors are men.
 

---

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :
 
NOOOOOOOO!

*runs away to perform an exorcism on the link, lest it be clicked*
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
5/10, but one was a misclick and another was a cheat. A space toilet in the Smithsonian is still a space toilet!
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I hadn't played for ages, and was I ever rusty!

Here's the Geoguesser link again.
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
5/10, but one was a misclick and another was a cheat. A space toilet in the Smithsonian is still a space toilet!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
5/10, but one was a misclick and another was a cheat. A space toilet in the Smithsonian is still a space toilet!

---

Yeah! No fair!

---

If I get caught short looking round the space exhibits I won't have to look for those annoying signs to the restrooms.
 

---

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
It tells me I'm 'On the throne' hmmmm ...

My favourite loos are in Germany at service stations - they are truly space age and clean themselves with a set-twizzling thingie. But it costs 70 cents to use them!


 

---

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
7/10 - and I too lucked out with the Smithsonian space loo.
 

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