Rainbolt, a 23-year-old online video producer in Los Angeles.

“I don’t think I’m some genius,” said Mr. To him, they are simply the result of countless hours of practice and an insatiable thirst for geographic knowledge. Rainbolt’s snap answers seem like wizardry. The closer you guess, the more points you score. You can click to travel down roads and through cities, scanning for distinguishable landmarks or language. The premise is simple: As you stare at a computer or phone, you’re plopped down somewhere in the world in Google Street View and must guess, as quickly as you can, exactly where you are. Rainbolt has become the face of a fast-growing community of geography fanatics who play a game called GeoGuessr. Rainbolt said, correctly pinpointing the country. Lake Tahoe? Siberia? “It looks like we’re going to be in Switzerland here, unless we’re in Japan. “This is going to be south Philippines, somewhere on this road down here,” Trevor Rainbolt said instantly, clicking on a location on a map of the world that was less than 11 miles from the spot.Ī road winding through woods was up next. It could have been anywhere from Tasmania to Texas. An unremarkable stretch of highway and trees, as seen on Google Maps’ Street View, appeared on the screen.

Live street view