jess wrote:
I thought the premise here was pretty obvious.
If someone posts a photo standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, or the Great Pyramid, or the Sydney Opera House, or the Duomo, then sure -- lots of people will immediately recognize it and be able to state where the photo was taken.
For the vast majority of location photos, however, the chances of someone recognizing the surroundings (e.g. from having visited the same place) is fairly remote.
The trick to geolocating a photo (and that's what this is called -- geolocation) is to hunt for clues in the photo that suggest where it might be. Some clues are obvious (the name of a restaurant in a sign in the background) while others are more subtle -- looks like Europe, or looks like a beach, or looks tropical. These clues don't identify it specifically, but narrow it down a bit. And sometimes if you have a couple of vague clues, you can combine them to make some educated guesses on where to search, at which point it becomes an exercise in google-fu and visual pattern recognition, scanning lots of photos from search results looking for a visual match.
So no, this is not a game whereby we test our memory of every location on earth. There are people who can play that game, but there are vanishingly few of them on the planet and none of them likely to be lurking on MV.
This is a game of sleuthing out enough clues from the photo to figure out where it was taken. And if there are easily searchable clues in your photo, then using those clues (along with your best google-fu) is fair game.
Now, I know you're already thinking about how to post a photo so impossible that it will stump everyone, but that is also not the point of this game. I mean, you certainly can post an impossible photo, but don't be disappointed if we all ignore your photo.
The point of the game is to post a photo that is not super obvious and doesn't include anything that will immediately turn up in the simplest of google searches, but still has enough clues to narrow it down to some educated guesses.
If someone posts a photo standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, or the Great Pyramid, or the Sydney Opera House, or the Duomo, then sure -- lots of people will immediately recognize it and be able to state where the photo was taken.
For the vast majority of location photos, however, the chances of someone recognizing the surroundings (e.g. from having visited the same place) is fairly remote.
The trick to geolocating a photo (and that's what this is called -- geolocation) is to hunt for clues in the photo that suggest where it might be. Some clues are obvious (the name of a restaurant in a sign in the background) while others are more subtle -- looks like Europe, or looks like a beach, or looks tropical. These clues don't identify it specifically, but narrow it down a bit. And sometimes if you have a couple of vague clues, you can combine them to make some educated guesses on where to search, at which point it becomes an exercise in google-fu and visual pattern recognition, scanning lots of photos from search results looking for a visual match.
So no, this is not a game whereby we test our memory of every location on earth. There are people who can play that game, but there are vanishingly few of them on the planet and none of them likely to be lurking on MV.
This is a game of sleuthing out enough clues from the photo to figure out where it was taken. And if there are easily searchable clues in your photo, then using those clues (along with your best google-fu) is fair game.
Now, I know you're already thinking about how to post a photo so impossible that it will stump everyone, but that is also not the point of this game. I mean, you certainly can post an impossible photo, but don't be disappointed if we all ignore your photo.
The point of the game is to post a photo that is not super obvious and doesn't include anything that will immediately turn up in the simplest of google searches, but still has enough clues to narrow it down to some educated guesses.
Good luck with the next one!
