MapLab: How to Find Your Place in the World, From a GeoGuessr Pro
Can you tell this is Iceland?
Courtesy of GeoGuessr/Google Street View
An unexpected winner of the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders has been the browser-based game GeoGuessr. The concept is simple: You get parachuted onto a random Google Street View scene, where you can move around until you gather enough information to pinpoint where in the world you might be. You have to be as precise as possible, because the further away your guess is from the actual location, the fewer points you get.
GeoGuessr was created by Swedish IT consultant Anton Wallen in 2013. When it came out, it was positively received and popular, but it’s experienced an upsurge in visibility during the pandemic. An increasing number of streamers started broadcasting their games as homebound followers craved a digital escape.