Things I’ve Learned From GeoGuessr

I know I’ve been woefully inconsistent on uploading these. There truly is no excuse, not that many people happen to read these posts anyway.

In any case, one reason I’ve been rather sporadic is because I’ve spent a considerable amount of time playing GeoGuessr. And yes, I know that GeoGuessr is sort of old news at this point, but as someone who adores geography and intends to study urban planning in graduate school, the game still holds magic for me.

For those of you who are unaware, the goal of GeoGuessr is to pinpoint as close as possible to the location you’re given on Google Street View. I tend to play duels, meaning that I have to get closer to the location than the other person. In terms of clues to look for, there’s any number of them.

A map of traffic directions by country. Red countries drive on the right, whereas blue countries drive on the left. Image taken from Wikipedia.

The map above is the most obvious one. If you’ve got English signage and notice cars driving on the left, do not guess the United States or Canada. It is true, however, that many countries that drive on the left were former British colonies. But then, lots of countries, period, are former British colonies. Nigeria, for instance, drives on the right, which has tripped me up numerous times when I thought it might be Ghana.

Another thing I’ve learned while playing GeoGuessr is that lots of important things are standardized between countries. The ISO (International Standardization Organization) exists to enforce such standards, including the two-letter country codes that are found on many Internet domains. And speaking of Internet domains, that’s another clue you need to be on the lookout for when playing this game.

A map of top-level Internet domains by country. Image taken from IONOS.

I will say that when looking at these codes, it reminds me of how much we’ve become a global society. Yes, we in the United States have “leaders” like Donald Trump who are trying to rip us apart and tear up alliances with other countries. And I don’t mean to minimize how serious things are when he’s literally called Canada the “51st state” and has referred to their former Prime Minister as “Governor Trudeau.”

But back to these codes. It maybe, just maybe, gives me the tiniest shred of hope for global unity. Like we all agree on one thing, even if Trump is sabotaging things as best he can.

Speaking of these Internet codes, it serves as a reminder of how rapidly the world has changed in just the last few decades. During my last semester at university, I was honored to take a course in Internet Geography in which the professor illustrated the numerous ways in which this technology has fundamentally altered the way we live our lives. I’d imagine that for anyone under a certain age, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a world without websites and information that can be at your fingertips within seconds.

It’s not just the societal impacts of the Internet that have struck me, but also the absurd amount of infrastructure that has been put in place to keep it running. As of 2015, which is admittedly a lifetime ago in today’s world, the Internet still relied upon undersea cables to transmit data signals. How the hell were they set up?

Speaking of this standardization, every country (or at least, almost every country I’ve played on GeoGuessr) has stop signs and those red triangular signs that tell you to look for oncoming traffic. The latter signs are a key element of the game’s “meta” that might tell you where you are.

For instance, say you have a “50/50” between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Since these two countries’ pastoral landscapes are fairly similar outside cities, one key difference is those red triangular signs that say “Yield” in the USA. If that sign also says “Yield”, then you’re in Ireland - the Republic of Ireland, that is. (The British ones tell you to “Give Way”, which I unironically find rather amusing). 

The obvious thing to look for are road signs. The language on said signs can narrow the country down, but once you get to the higher rankings of the game and they start giving you more difficult locations, you can’t count on having very many road signs. That’s when you start looking for other clues, such as the color of the bollards. (And seriously - prior to playing GeoGuessr, I didn’t even know what a bollard was).

When all else fails, it helps to consider the vegetation and how well-kept the road seems to be. I’ll provide an in-game screenshot.

A screenshot I took from a GeoGuessr game. The location was somewhere in South Ostrobothnia, Finland.

Take this round as an example. Based on reading a few websites dedicated to the game’s meta (such as GeoMetas and PlonkIt), I knew that within the Nordic nations of northern Europe, if you saw a gravel road with lots of pine trees on either side, you would most likely be in Finland. It probably makes me a huge nerd to be 85% sure of the country without even seeing a road sign, but it’s true.

Speaking of Finland, the Finnish language is relatively easily recognizable. It’s considered one of the most difficult languages to learn for a native English speaker, because it’s not related to most other European languages. Nope, not even Swedish. That being said, you don’t really need to know what the sign says to be able to tell languages apart. For instance, the Finnish language has lots of double vowels and very long words, so you can tell it apart from Swedish fairly easily.

That being said, there is a sizable Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, most of whom live along the west coast of the country in the Ostrobothnia region. Therefore, if you see Swedish signage in an otherwise Finnish setting, you would be wise to guess around the west coast.

Another screenshot from a GeoGuessr game I played. The location was on the island of Samar in the Philippines.

Here’s another example. This round felt Southeast Asian with all the coconut trees, rice fields, and motorcycles. Seeing that the people drove on the right eliminated Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and this area seems too rural to be Singapore. Vietnam is not on Google Street View and therefore will not show up on a GeoGuessr duel. Finally, the signage was in the Latin alphabet, ruling out Cambodia and Laos. 

The only remaining option was the Philippines, which I guessed here. I thought the location would be in northeastern Mindanao, near the popular surfing island of Siargao (which was the subject of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “The Longest Wave”). For the record, the location was actually in the Eastern Visayas island of Samar, though I still guessed closer than my opponent. If you see brightly colored minibuses known as jeepneys, you’re in the Philippines. 

A third screenshot from a GeoGuessr game I played. The location was eastern Colorado, USA.

Finally, when all else fails, you should hope you’ve spent enough time looking at atlases. Given how spread-out everything was, the green street signs, and the grain elevators, I had reason to believe this location was in the Midwestern United States or the High Plains within the same country. But that doesn’t narrow it down much; due to its geographic area and relative homogeneity in its built environment, the USA is the second-worst country to get in GeoGuessr after Russia, which is difficult for similar reasons.

That green sign pictured above saved my sorry ass. I happened to know that there was a place called Kit Carson County in eastern Colorado. Colorado, of course, is well-known for its mountain scenery, but the eastern part of the state is largely on the Great Plains and very agricultural. That’s not the part most visitors go to. 

When I guessed this location, I was only 24 kilometers (about 15 miles) away from the goal. Like I said earlier, you cannot rely on signage to rescue you. But when it shows up, it can indeed be your salvation.

If you’ve read this far, I would like to thank you for doing so. I’m aware that it reads like the transcript of one of my hyperfixations…which, to be fair, it pretty much is. 

As of the time I write this, I am in the Gold II division in GeoGuessr with an Elo of 600 that keeps fluctuating up and down. I’m pretty good at the game, but I’m a world away from Trevor Rainbolt. The thought of playing the game while skydiving hasn’t really crossed my mind. But it has crossed his.