GeoGuessr

Overview

GeoGuessr is a browser game where five randomized Google Street View locations are presented to the player. Players must then guess where they have been placed on a world map; points are earned based on how close the guesses are to the actual locations, measured in kilometers. One game consists of five locations to guess, after which the final score is tallied.

The game can be played at GeoGuessr.com.

Gameplay

As in normal Street View, players are free to move along roads as far as they wish, except in rare cases where the player ends up in a single panorama unconnected to any other roads (this is especially common in Russia.) While being placed at an instantly recognizable location like a national monument is possible, traveling to find more clues is most often crucial to an accurate guess.

Many clues such as street signs and flags can help narrow it down, but license plates are generally useless because of Google's policy of blurring them out. Unfortunately, other text is sometimes mistakenly blurred out as well, or distorted by an anomaly in the image. Because the equipment used for Street View photography varies, the resolution of some areas is too low to read most signs. Generally it is obvious from the start if the area will be low-res or standard-res, and it is uncommon to find low-res views in standard-res areas.

The ability to set custom time limits was added to the game in a later update. Players can set challenges for themselves, or share a URL with others that will generate the same five locations for all users.

New Version

On January 26, 2014, a new version of GeoGuessr was made available as a beta, introducing a redesigned interface and the much-requested ability to limit a game to a specific region. Currently, players can select Japan, the USA, the UK, Sweden, or the classic World mode. As well as this, players can optionally set a custom time limit.