Random Google Street View

[schoen]

There is also a game (now a family of games) built around this concept, where you get a Street View location without seeing the map, and you have to figure out where you are based on what you can see.

https://geoguessr.com/

[cantaloupe]

There are now geoguessr competitions, and the high level players learn to identify locations in seconds based on tiny details like utility pole designs. It’s incredible.

Here’s an example: https://youtu.be/Uvqc1_xl2h4

[ming123098]

I like City Guesser more. No account required and you have to guess the location from a video which I find a bit easier and more enjoyable.

https://virtualvacation.us/

[wyclif]

Trevor Rainbolt's skill at geoguessr is phenomenal: https://youtu.be/0p5Eb4OSZCs

[skc]

I've always assumed these people (I see them come across my social media timelines periodically) are just trolling people because I've seen them guess where a place is based on nothing other than a patch of grass in less than 3 seconds.

I still don't see how that is even remotely possible.

[dewey]

I spent many hours watching GeoWizard tracking down locations:

https://www.youtube.com/c/GeoWizard/playlists

[tmnvix]

A lot of fun. https://geotastic.net/ is also a good alternative.

[JKCalhoun]

There is something deeply sublime about peering into the places other people live, so remote from my own place, lives probably so different from mine. I ruminate on "other lives" I could have had instead — all those other people I could have called friends, neighbors....

[kretaceous]

There's a word for this feeling! From Wiktionary:

    sonder (uncountable noun)

        The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.

[daniel_reetz]

If this intrigues you, please check out the work of artist Jon Rafman, who uses Google Earth as his medium:

https://9-eyes.com/

[Zealotux]

If you enjoyed that feeling I suggest you look at http://astronaut.io which shows a few seconds of random Youtube videos with few views. Previously discussed here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20432772

[stinos]

You might like insecam.org as well. Similar principle in the end, but sort of live. And morally a bit harder because it's essentially spying. But for the curious..

[mikercampbell]

You captured it so well for me. I sat on the porch for a good 15 minutes.

I screenshot a few because I didn't want to lose that moment of sublimeness.

[ivan_gammel]

I have got a snowy landscape in Akilliq, Iqaluit, NU, Canada, and looking at the shadow, it wasn't a Google Street View car. Someone was skiing to make the pictures. Wow.

http://randomstreetview.com/#11y8sk_-14t6sm_9t_1_-w

[O__________O]

It’s a Street View Trekker backpack:

- https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/18/heres-googles-new-street-v...

Don’t see them listed on the program site anymore though:

- https://www.google.com/streetview/contacts-tools/

[Jemm]

https://randomstreetview.com/#-e3f28_27m2ax_9j_1_2

[modeless]

Cool site. I wonder how it sustains itself though. Embedding Street View is expensive. $14 per 1000 views adds up fast. Surely the small ads don't make that much?

[hcrisp]

Very cool and well executed. After a few clicks I got, not a street, but a cool view of rocky sunrays from the middle of nowhere in Australia:

Simpsons Gap https://maps.app.goo.gl/kB5xtFyZJpwLKT4c8

[beachy]

In the middle of nowhere, but a game changer for Australia when the team attempting to lay a telegraph line through the Aussie outback found Simpsons gap almost by chance.

[femto]

I was going to ask if anyone got a place they recognise or have been to, but then you show one that Iv'e been to. Then again it is a popular tourist destination.

Here's a magical looking Scottish place it gave to me:

https://randomstreetview.com/#xvqf6_-3o1vn_74_a_5

[brabel]

All I got was mundane countryside towns and roads all over Europe.

[Jemm]

I got the exact same view as my third link.

[themodelplumber]

I didn't realize it would have the gyro mode (?) active by default. That's actually pretty fun, or maybe I got an interesting neighborhood. :-) Going on my boredom cures list for sure.

BTW did you make this op? If so nice job!

[coreyisthename]

You should definitely share some of the highlights of your boredom list. I’m always looking for more fun little things that the internet has to offer.

Someday in the future, we can post them to whatever forum type dealio is in vogue and reminisce about the good ole days when the web was open and free lol

[tolidano]

Came here to plug Wander on Quest/Quest 2 as the best app / experience for this sort of thing hands down. Saved my sanity during the pandemic.

[jacquesc]

Cool, was just thinking how great this would be in VR. I'll give Wander a shot!

[dang]

Related:

Show HN: Random Street View - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7130192 - Jan 2014 (166 comments)

[tech-historian]

Great site! I was surprised to see some aerial/drone imagery in the street view collection. For example, this in Ukraine:

https://randomstreetview.com/ua#sis3u_jvl2j_2j_5_-s

[coding123]

All these posts lately of "car society" is massively exemplified here. Seems like 99% of the properties built are made for cars. That's got to be like 2 billion houses made for cars. Good luck to those people that want to rid the world of cars.

[koonsolo]

Wait what? In a boat? https://randomstreetview.com/#11rvrf_-c284x_f_a_-r

[nwillson]

Cool tool. Is it just me or is it a random location from a fixed list of places?

web console:

randomLocations.all.map((e) => e.formatted_address).sort()

tried it on multiple tabs, incognito, etc. and the result was the same.

[protoman3000]

This was one of the most crazy speedrun competitions I’ve ever seen, where they made a game out of this in co-op mode of geoguessr.

One person describes what the person sees, which the other can’t, klicks through the Google street view, and the other see’s the global map where they put hints for themselves and together they try to find out where they are.

https://youtu.be/aV2VuWleEeY

[somecommit]

Interestingly it's mainly rural areas. I don't know why but I was expecting mostly more city views, because of all the intricate roads system in cities.

[mahogany]

Cities have dense road systems, but the vast majority of the surface area of roads is outside of cities.

[aasasd]

Yep, in sixteen views I got:

- one small village, basically a few houses along a road.

- one town in greenery.

- one instance of my phone entirely freezing up (this one is on FF, I guess).

[easyKL]

Also the guy from Geowizard plays this game, and many more around maps. He even move his ass by going to places, leaving the comfort of being in front of the computer https://youtube.com/channel/UCW5OrUZ4SeUYkUg1XqcjFYA

[DrSiemer]

Big fan of the straight line missions. Really cool how they make you experience common landscape from an entirely new perspective. Tom's a trooper.

[CamperBob2]

So annoying how Google has recently reduced the maximum distance you can move by clicking near the horizon. It used to be a lot more fun to explore random places when you could surf around an unfamiliar area at a reasonable speed.

In fact, it no longer makes much difference at all where you click, you creep along a few meters at a time.

[mnsc]

First load and I got a Amish(?) dude transporting veggies. Was not disappointed!

https://randomstreetview.com/#pmlez_-1hz301_3w_c_-h

[coldcode]

Is it really random or just a random set of prerecorded locations? After about 20 or so images I stopped seeing pictures so I refreshed the page - and got a location I had seen previously, which should be impossible.

[z7]

I'd say the results are too consistently picturesque to be random.

[thomasfl]

The Netherlands has really nice bike lanes!

http://randomstreetview.com/#uxdmk_2n6ql_6r_a_5

[iddan]

Google should apply FILM on the transitions between photos