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Comment by alt227 | Hacker News Reader

This stuff must get outdated very quickly. Google could very well upload an entire new set of photos for Mongolian roads tomorrow. How do Geoguessers keep on top of that? Is there a central repo/db where they store the dates that each country, or even potentially province or town, get updated by google.

Im imagining some kind of RSS feed that Geoguessers all subscribe to which alerts them of a country update and they all scramble to catalog the new meta.

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It's like a metaphor for life: you tend your garden, then the storms come and level everything, and then you tend a new garden from scratch. No human labor is everlasting—it's why the nomads invented yurts.

Ah, yes. The Mongolian Meta meta.

It took me a while to realize that first section was about how to guess based off the Google Street View car's characteristics (tire, roof rack). I didn't know people were even allowed to use that as part of the game. I guess I'm only watching some specific people like rainbolt, who seems to use the terrain and other city landmarks (stop signs, poles along highways, etc) for his guesses.

I'm guessing for Google Street View Car stuff that's probably a differentiator if you're super competitive at this.

Rainbolt also uses car meta in specific scénarios (Kenya is obviously a big one), it's just that it's obviously less impressive so it doesn't make it into viral videos. If you watch streams it's quite evident he's very aware of car meta.

The Mongolian photos are from 2015/2016, so not too quickly.

Ah is that how Geoguessers work? process of elimination through elements within a LIMITED dataset. Still impressive nonetheless, but I was wondering if I took a picture from my rooftop is Kenya how they would be able to guess

Only street view is used in Geoguesser (thus a slightly more limited dataset). AFAIK Individual photos (even ones that can make up a janky sort of street view) aren't included

> This stuff must get outdated very quickly. Google could very well upload an entire new set of photos for Mongolian roads tomorrow. How do Geoguessers keep on top of that?

Refer to the Meta meta document.

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