GeoGuessr Tips: How To Master The Internet's Amazingly Addictive New Obsession

GeoGuessr Tips: How To Master The Internet's Amazingly Addictive New Obsession

If you were planning on getting anything important done today, we are sorry. A new and insanely addictive game has hit the Internet which has slowed productivity here at HuffPost Tech to a crawl - and we're pretty sure you're going to like it too.

And while most online quizes have been ruined by the all-knowing Google, this one actually depends on it.

GeoGuessr presents you with five Street View shots from random locations on Earth, and then asks you to guess where you think they are. To score highly you'll have to find clues from the surroundings, and use your best deductive powers to accurately place the pin.

The game is incredibly simple, and also illuminating. Carefully decoding a seaside resort's location to somewhere in North Devon - only to find out it's several thousand kilometres away in New Zealand - is wonderfully disorienting.

Here are five tips to improving your score and rising to the top of your friends' leaderboard.

(And for the record, our top score so far is 15,410. Can you beat it? Let us know below.)

1) Move around. While you'll be dumped somewhere pretty unhelpful, the game allows you to click around your surroundings and explore a little deeper. It's worth exploring - you never know when a helpful piece of text or a sign is going to show up.

2) Google isn't everywhere. While Street View has penetrated into many corners of the Earth, it's not everywhere by any means. Large areas of Africa, parts of Asia and South America are still uncharted. If it's between America and Africa, err on the side of Google's flaws.

3) Use language. Look for signs, restaurants, T-shirt designs, anything that can give you a clue as to where you are. But don't be too reliant - many Asian cities will have signs in English as well as the local language, while Spanish and Portuguese can be found in many parts of the world.

4) Think about vegetation. As noted over at Slate, who played the game with a National Geographic researcher, subtle differences in the plants and trees in a location can make a big difference to where you should place the marker. Big, tall redwoods in a forest? It's unlikely to be the Alps, think Northern California.

5) Use the force. When in doubt, spin the globe (or your computer monitor), hope for the best and click. You might be pleasantly surprised how close you get - it's a small world after all.

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