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.
Here’s an example: https://youtu.be/Uvqc1_xl2h4
Caught myself studying online guides to bollard color and shape by region, what road stripe patterns correspond with each country, the different shapes of the lettering of most major languages… etc.
It’s such a fun way to spend 15-30 minutes a day, and it’s quite easy to see improvement in your skill in a short time.
That being said, watching the pros can be a little discouraging because they’ll even have things like the ridge lines of mountain ranges memorized, it’s insane to watch.
This game is mostly memory + deduction (you see a few signs which when combined, result in only one possible location)
But I can see a difference between memorising the stripes on street furniture or which countries streetview has visited for the sake of playing such games and just knowing which direction the sun is to narrow down the hemisphere or having a little understanding of how the environment varies with latitude.
I think the usefulness of these things is kind of sad because they are specifically about Google Street View rather than about the outside world. I would contrast that with something like utility poles, because while that's not exactly core cultural knowledge about a society, it's actually something that you would see for yourself if you were there. And it could potentially be interesting and useful in its own right. (For example, one might consider why particular countries adopted particular utility pole styles. Maybe they were faced with local insects or weather that damaged poles of a certain style, so they had to switch to a different kind?)
How do the high scoring players of jeopardy do it? Do the memorize a book of facts or something? The mind boggles.
Being able to "experience" other locations, even in that shallow of a way, is really, really amazing.
I still don't see how that is even remotely possible.
I’m by no means a pro but I went through a hyperfixation on Geoguessr YouTube videos so I started picking up the general architectural styles of Nordic houses for instance. Or the specific markings you can only find in Russia.
There’s also image artifacts which are only present in specific collection attempts. Most images from IIRC Ghana have a specific artifact and can easily narrow it down. There’s a few of these out there.
Geotastic is the best alternative I know about.