Scavengeroogle: A Google Maps Scavenger Hunt To Waste More Of Your Time On

I’m back at it with Bounties folks. The idea with Scavenger Hunt Bounties are to let you all “roogle” on your own time. Of course, as we’ve seen they don’t seem to last that long which is contrary to the reason I created them in the first place!

Well, this might last a little longer I hope… because I’m not including any word clues! At least initially. I may add some later… This building or feature that reminded me a bit of a compass rose. You need 15/18 magnification to see it.

You want to know the prize for finding it of course. First, please note that if you win the prize, I will need to ask you for your physical address if you want to receive it. Because some people either don’t want to give their address, or don’t really care for the prize, I am going to start REUSING prizes that aren’t claimed for whatever reason. So if you, see the same prize it’s not necessarily because it is a duplicate… someone probably didn’t claim it on an earlier bounty.

Ok, the prize for the Compass Bounty is a Petersburg, Alaska Viking Visitor Guide & Vacation Planner. I actually sent away for this because I had been thinking of visiting Alaska one of these days. Petersburg is also known as “Alaska’s Little Norway” because of its Norwegian heritage. It’s located in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, which I didn’t know is actually the largest National Forest in the U.S!

Petersburg also shelters one of Alaska’s prime fishing fleets, and the town actually started off as a fish camp for Tlingit natives before the Norwegians started to build canneries there.

I know the Petersburg Viking Guide is a free publication, but it might be cool to have… if you’re interested keep an eye out for this Compass clue while you’re roogling!

[Edit: 8/04/05 - There is a continent hint for this one…]
[Edit: 9/11/05 - 1st Clue released…]

Bounty Name : “Compass”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Jeremy H
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : North America
1st Clue : Southeast U.S.
Magnification Needed: 15/18

Reward: Peterson Alaska Viking Visitor’s Guide

Continue reading “Bounty: Compass” …

Hey kids, so first off I’m taking a break until Monday. I am all worn out on scavenger hunt clues right now, so I’ll see you then. But I’m most likely going to put up some more Scavengeroogle Bounties between now and then so check back once in awhile!

Wow, so this clue was pretty difficult all around even after the region drop(s). I turns out there were unintentional herrings in the clue, most prominently was Empire, Michigan. I didn’t even notice this! I meant the clue to refer to the nearby Empire Mine. Oh wells. I DID expect to get lots of people to look in Hershey and other chocolatey places.

The other part of the clue was for Chocolay, MI which is nearby. Jon G was first to get it on a hunch:

Tried all around Hershey, PA and Birmingham, AL (home of Cadbury) with no luck. On a hunch I googled chocolay, which led me to Marquette, MI and to the Turret. It feels good to be back after taking a few weeks off from ‘roogling to get married. There were a lot of changes and new stuff in the scavengeroogle world in the past few weeks!

OtherChrisR, who was the center of a little controversy over the Bounties awhile back, got it soon after:

I think I lucked out on this clue. As soon as I pulled up Google Maps I zoomed in on the northern US and the first city I saw was Chocolay. From there I just scanned it until I found it.

And Chris Re, who is OtherChrisR’s doppelganger came in right after with a kind of trippy side note:

This was really weird. On a previous clue, the one with the rocket ship and the “stroke”, I thought the clue referred to Arnold Palmer and proceeded to search through every city named Palmer. I actually stumbled upon this very same picture in Palmer, MI and even emailed it to fellow office scavengeroogler Mike M. Freaky weird.

That is very weird when that happens. I know something like that has happened at least twice already. Mark L got to the UP (this is so cool that I actually learned something from Scavengeroogle… never knew what the Upper Peninsula was):

On and off about an hour….. I had no clue until the region drop. Looked around Empire MI for awhile…. tooled around in map mode and found a city called “Choco-something” in the upper peninsula.

Phil J got it after the updates:

Took about 90 seconds. Once I saw your 3:45 update, I scrolled around until I found Chocolay in the Upper Peninsula, then found it about 10 seconds later!

Jason Y also did the Empire, MI dance first:

How Long: On and off during the day. I started with Empire, Michigan, and then kept searching farther away. If only I would have looked a bit north.

Michael H had a bit of misdirection:

An hour before the Michigan clue, then 5 minutes after.

The problem is that it’s too easy to go off in the wrong direction. Chocolayte Empire said “Hershey, PA” to me, and I figured the odd spelling of chocolayte would become clear once I got there. Empire could also have meant Empire State for New York. I think I’m getting the hang of it now, though.

Well, yes there will always be herrings, chocolate or otherwise. Otherwise, it’s no fun!

Justin did finally get the UP:

I searched all around Michigan, having forgot all about the Upper Peninsula. Once I stopped being a moron and searched up there, it was pretty easy to figure out the area I needed to look in. It took about 30 minutes altogether.

Justin, like I always say… none of you are morons. In fact most of you are Roogle Geniuses. I give you all credit for even taking the time to search around.

Markus B said:

Now this was hard! I looked times times though Hershey, PA and didn’t find it… After Michigan I found Chocolay and still took me too long. Well I guess the harder they are the bigger the satisfaction is

Yeah, that is what a lot of people have said. I guess not finding it can be really frustrating. But finding a difficult one can be a big rush that makes up for not finding the others… or at least I’ve heard! Thanks for playing, y’all…

Solution to “Tank Turret”“

What is new, ‘rooglefolk? I am sleepy. A quick clue then, before I head off to bed (or get up from bed depending on when this gets launched).

‘Roogle me this… I found this kind of neat looking tank turret thingy while wandering the google map wilds. Actually, now that I look at it, it’s not so much a traditional tank turret than some futuristic turret shooting out a laser beam. Yeah, that’s it.

The turret is available pretty far out, at 14/18. It is a fairly large thing, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that laser beam. For a clue, racking my brain only gets you:

“Chocolayte Empire”

And no… NOTHING to do with Willy Wonky. Get all wonky thoughts of that out of your head. Although, I did like the original Oompa Loompas. Especially their hot, hot song that goes, “Oompa Loompa Doobidie Doo”. I didn’t see the movie remake yet, should I? I heard it’s pretty good.

Ok, to bed… to bed with me. See you in the morning!

[Edit: 9:32 am PDT - A quickie region drop: Northern U.S.]

[Edit: 12:55 pm PDT - No takers? Ok, then: Michigan]

[Edit: 3:45 pm PDT - Whew, the going is slow today. Er, I’m not sure what other clues to drop here. I’ll just say try looking around Michigan in either Street Map or Hybrid mode first before diving into searching the satellite map squares…]

Clue Name : “Tank Turret”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Solved (11)
Duration: Wednesday 7/27/05

Solved By: Jon G, OtherChris, Chris Re, Mark L, Tim J, Phil D, Jason Y, Michael H, Aaron F, Justin, Markus B

Word Clues : “Chocolayte Empire”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Tank Turret”

I was pretty surprised how difficult this clue was… I guess the clue that Kilovh gave wasn’t as well known. The Olive Plums Place refers to Bangkok of course. I didn’t know this either though, so don’t even feel bad!

In addition to the more difficult word clue, my email was screwed up intermittently so I didn’t get some solutions (if you solved this earlier, please let me know). Mark L was one who got it earlier but was foiled by my mail…

Hmmm thought I sent it in before 9:30 PDT…. please disregard this if you got the first one…. thanks!

Mike B also got it before the region drops:

About 30 minutes. Found something on Google about Bangkok being a Sanskrit word for “Place of the Olive Plum Grove”. Fortunately only a small part of the Bangkok area is HiRes.

Boy, it sure is still difficult to do foreign clues. I note that trying to do a refind is pretty tough at times because there is no corresponding street maps (or hybrid mode) to compare with.

Tim J got a little herring is his ‘roogle pudding:

spent most of my time looking in taiwan, the “olive plum coast”

Wow, I had no idea about that one actually! Markus B didn’t need the word clue and used brute force after the region drop:

I was too tired today to really look for it. After the region clue it took me like 3 minutes, just searched around Thailand, starting from Bangkok. Still no idea what the clue stands for

Richard K. said:

It took about 15 minutes. The hard part was figurang out “Bangmakok” which means “Place of the Olive Plum.

Chorbansi notes:

took 15 mins to solve, the region helped. I had fun solving, thanks!

David H is living proof that persistance pays off:

I’ve been up all night (for reasons not related to this clue) and I pretty much saw the clue when it dropped, so, on and off, it’s taken me 13 hours. Lots of red herrings. I pretty much knew right away it wasn’t in the U.S., but I spent most of my time looking around Australia because of the Cassine australis (Red Olive Plum Tree), which is native there. After the Thailand region drop, probably took about ten minutes. Tough one.

Whew! I’m glad you weren’t up only for the clue or else you would have given me a major guilt trip! Wow, that Australia herring is pretty cool though… how did you come up with the tree name, was it through googling? I think I should have researched Olive Plums a bit first before posting the clue.

Don R avoided herrings and got it pretty quickly:

Took 5 minutes. Didn’t check in today till just a few minutes ago, and the country clue had already been dropped. Googled “Thailand Olive Plum” and found an info page on Thailand provinces which noted that Bangkok meant “Region of plum-olive trees.” Mapped to Bangkok and began searching the limited area that was high-res. Bingo.

Vlado K. says:

Took me about 5 minutes. (with Google Earth)

The Thailand clue made it very easy… but due to time differences, by the time I get here there’s already a couple of clues and several “Solutions Pending”… at least I get to answer this one (unlike the bounties).

Keep up the great work.

Thanks for the vote ‘o confidence. And it is OK to submit a solution even though it is “Solutions Pending”… a normal clue is good all day long. The Bounties are one time things. Speaking of which, I’ve got to start in on making some soon. I actually have a few, but actually am short on PRIZES right now. I hope to find some prizes this week though…

All right, I will talk to you all very soon!

Solution to “Sea Snake”

I know this site is called Scavengeroogle because we utitlize Google Maps in clues, but we aren’t tied to using only them by any stretch; they just happen to have the best interface. So I thought I would mention Microsoft’s foray into “draggable” maps which they’ve dubbed MSN Virtual Earth.

Not such an original choice for a name. But then again, I used to use Microsoft’s Terraserver long before Google Maps existed. But that one was not draggable.

Anyhow, Virtual Earth is in Beta right now, and there’s a lot of hitches and glitches. But the basic premise is the same as Google Maps. Street map level and satellite terrain views along with zooming. They have an interesting “continuous” zoom-bar that is not divided into discrete bars (not really good for Scavengeroogle, because I won’t be able to tell you whatthe zoom factor in numbers is).

They have this sort of dorky looking compass that I’d get rid of, or make transparent, if I were them. They have a semi-search functionality that will bring up locations on the map, though it feels a bit clunky compared to Google’s . Also, double clicking on the map does center, but it tries to do a strange continuous zoom out first. Their default satellite level map is actually a “hybird” with both street and satellite, but you can turn off the labels.

One thing people are going to notice right away is that it seems like you can zoom in really close in certain areas. This isn’t a surprise because I remember that Terraserver had this kind of closeup data. But with the new interface, it’s pretty trippy to be able to see that close. You can easily see cars and sometimes faintly make out people.

Overall, it’s very interesting. Microsoft is notorious for not letting any other tech company run with a good idea for long without trying to get their hands all over the goodies. Granted, they did have Terraserver and used map technology first… but Google made a better interface. Whether or not they’ll make as much of an impact as Google Maps has remains to be seen. But I’d be keeping an eye of them either way.

So are we going to have to start doing clues in BOTH Virtual Earth and Google Maps here at Scavengeroogle? Who knows. Maybe we will fork the site to be Scavengeroogle and Scavengerahoo… what do you say?

Hey. Welcome to another wild week at Scavengeroogle. Yes, I will be working on getting more bounties up soon. And thank you for your submissions, whether I use them or not…

Anyhow, this clue comes from the slightly mysterious Kilovh (is that kilovolt-hours?) . He has named it “Sea Snake” because it is some sort of green path that resembles the curls of a snake (the head is at the bottom). The contrast on this is kinda dim so you may have to squint a bit. I thought that nearly as interesting as the snake feature was the prominent geometric circular pattern near the top though.

You might notice this clue pic is rotated, I decided to make it variable… because sometimes the pieces I’d like to show are easier to show when the picture is vertical.

The sea snake is visible from about 15/18 out, possibly at 14/18. So… the infamous and dangerous word clues (courtesy of Kilovh):

“Olive Plum Place”

And no… nothing to do with Melrose Place. Yeah, I know you watched that show.

We haven’t done region drops in awhile… I think due in some part because we’ve gotten closer to our pursuit of the perfect AVERAGE clue. But anyway, I always check in at least once a day during the clue duration. So if it comes to it, I’ll let fly with one. Have fun ‘roogling!

[Edit: 9:30 am PDT - I am bit stunned that no one has solved this one… at first I was wondering if it had actually “launched” or not. Maybe I should have made it a “bounty”! Well, let’s start off regioning by announcing that this is NOT in the US…]

[Edit: 11:52 am PDT - Hm.. very weird. I think my email may have been on the blink for the past 1/2 day or so. So if you sent in the solution to the clue earlier (Mark L, Mike B: I got yours), could you please send it again? This might explain the lack of solutions.]

[Edit: 1:20 pm PDT - Wow, still nothing. Ok, let’s break it down some more: Thailand]

Clue Name : “Sea Snake”
Submitted by: Kilovh
Status : Solved (10)
Duration: Monday 7/25/05

Solved By: Mark L, Mike B, Tim J, Markus B, Richard K, Chorbansi, Peter M, David H, Don R, Vlado K.

Word Clues : “Olive Plum Place”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Sea Snake”

This is more a curiosity than anything else. While I was checking out the new Hybrid feature of Google Maps I zoomed sort of far out and took a look at the U.S. Interestingly, my eye was immediately drawn to Indiana of all places, because the entire state looked like it was a “grey” color. I zoomed in for a look and saw that they appear to have mapped nearly the ENTIRE state in “High Res”. I don’t believe this was here before (but someone correct me if I’m wrong).

Now, this is no slap at Indiana but there are only 2-3 larger “red dot” cities in the state so it was surprising that the entire state would be mapped at super High Res. That’s why it stood out for me. And it was distinctive because the color of the mapping seems to have very little green in it. Right next door in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan, everything is green and also not mapped in high resolution.

I took a look around and saw that Massachusetts also seems to be mapped entirely in that same shade of grey/brown, but not sure if this was there before. I don’t know what this means, but I think it is Google getting new satellite data or at least switching some of it out. Maybe Indiana was a test or something first before switching out the rest.

In any case, this is generally good for Scavengeroogle if they are going to make more High Resolution mapping available. That’s more potential places for clues to be found in rural areas. The one interesting thing is going to be that as they switch out the maps, our “temporal” clues (such as google map defects that were clues), are going to disappear! That’s OK though, because I had noted this eventuality when we first started playing. So I guess don’t be surprised if you come across an old clue that is not longer in the current Google Map…

I hadn’t gotten a chance to Scavengeroogle around the past day or so really, so this morning when I woke up I fired up Google Maps and saw that those zany Google Engineerios are at it again. Apparently, the idea of Google Map Transparencies was so good that they just had to integrate it with the actual app. Incidentally, it was super smart of them to release the Google API nto the wild because there are a huge number of people who want to develop additions or google mashups, and by the terms of the agreement they can have their pick of any new developments and integrate it back into the main app. It’s like having a bunch of freelance Googlengineers working for free!

Anyhow, so they’ve introduced a “Hybrid” Mode which can be activated from a button right next to the “satellite” and “map” buttons. I really like the overlay, I’ve found it very nice to be able to tell approximately where you are initially without having to go back and forth.

Their overlay is also a good nicer and seems to highlight the roads and stuff better. One note is that it seems to take a tiny bit longer time to render, especially when you are zoomed far out and scrolling around. That’s probably because it has to do both maps at once.

In any case, this is a great development for Scavengeroogle and may make finding clues and coming up with clues a bit easier…

This is actually an old Mike Z. clue from a ways back in early May. Interestingly, this is NOT the clue that he sent in but is very close to it. (Mike, sorry that means ya can’t solve this one!) It resembles a wineglass being tipped over with the contents spilling out. Hm… do you say “spilt wine” or “spilled wine” or are both OK? Whatever…

You can see it at 14/18 and the word clues for this one will be “Minus Our Minotaur”. Hm… ponder that for a bit.

Of course you are interested in your reward, right? Up for grabs is a cool National Park Service map that I got when I visited the Devil’s Postpile near Mammoth Lakes, California. I think it is actually downloadable on their site, but this is the real printed one I got from there.

I used to be a regular in the High Sierras, going there every single year. Sometimes twice in a year. What for? Why, mostly fishing and camping and hiking. Luckily, my parents were the type of people to spring for a motorhome as opposed to a luxury sedan… It surely saves on lodging when going up there. I don’t do much skiing, but I’ve also been to Mammoth for that. The more popular areas of Mammoth are hell of crowded at times though. I think certain areas are like Yosemite where you need to be bussed in if you don’t get there before a certain time of the day.

I’ve been to the Devil’s Postpile several times… very cool hexagonal rock lava structures. You should visit if you get the chance.

Bounty Name : “Spilt Wine”
Submitted by: Mike Z.
Status : Collected by Chris Re.
Time Elapsed: 10 minutes
Word Clue : “Minus Our Minotaur”
Magnification Needed: 14/18

Reward: Devil’s Postpile Park Map

Continue reading “Bounty: Spilt Wine” …

I couldn’t decide whether this looked like a pencil stub or whether it looked like a rocketship. In the end, I decided it looked more like a pencil stub but that “Rocket Ship” just sounded plain better as a name for a Scavengeroogle Bounty!

The ship can be seen from fairly far out at 14/18, though I’d say 15/18 to be safe. The word clue for this bounty is going to be: “He had a stroke when he was 24″. I think this will probably be tougher than the earlier clue. Watch your herrings… note that anything goes with bounties. I’ll definitely start to make them harder should people solve them too quickly!

Like I said, I am still experimenting with difficulty. I would, however, like for the average Bounty to last at least 2-3 days. The whole point of them after all is to give everyone something to chew on for a bit, and give me a bit ‘o breathin room to come up with clues! I hope to build up a surplus of 2-3 open bounties. This weekend I’ll try put in a few extra hours to find some. Also, I may be using some of your old clues that you sent in that were too difficult as Bounties!

The prize for this bounty is a Colorado / Wyoming AAA map circa 2002. I know, I know… these things are basically free. Well, actually you DO have to be a member to get them and there IS a price on it of $3.50… I have good memories of planning trips on AAA maps though, they are kinda cool in that respect. You can destroy one by writing on it and not worry about it at all.

But anyhow, this kind of brings me to an idea that I’m going to write more about in another post. Judy B, winner of the very first Scavenger Bounty, suggested that we have geographical “prize” donations. I think this would be very cool. It would be optional of course. If you have some inexpensive old maps, postcards, souvenirs, anything basically that you think someone else might find interesting, I’d ask that you send it in so that it could be used as a Bounty Prize… Like I said, I’ll write more about that soon, but just letting you know as a heads up. What do you think?

Ok, I’ll be quiet now while you try to find that rocket ship… good luck!

Bounty Name : “Rocket Ship”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Chris R.
Time Elapsed: 7 hours, 5 minutes
Word Clue : “He had a stroke when he was 24″
Magnification Needed: 15/18

Reward: 2002 Colorado / Wyoming AAA map

Continue reading “Bounty: Rocket Ship” …

I woke up this morning and fired up trusty FireFox as normal. Google is my home page and I always enjoy it when they change out the graphic to fit with the holiday or other special day. This being July 20, the anniversary of the first manned Moon Landing in 1969, they changed the graphic to a moon themed one.

But not only that… usually when you click the graphic you get related Google results. This time you get Google Moon, an addition of NASA Moon imagery to Google Maps. A very cool thing… it looks like the Google staff themselves are having fun with google mashups.

I am not sure if they will keep this up forever or what (a lot of their experimental subdomains have a habit of disappearing after awhile, although many people will attempt to mirror them). Anyhow, there are only 8 notches on the zoom sliding scale, but that’s enough to play around with looking for aliens on the moon. If you find any habitations, I want half credit for it for Scavengeroogle, haha.

Actually, my favorite thing is what you get if you zoom in to 8/8. Instead of the usual “Sorry we don’t have satellite imagery at this magnification”, you get what is pictured at left. =) It’s nice to see the Google Engineers have a sense of humor. Also, the humor continues if you read their “Google Moon Help”, especially the section on the development of their lunar hosting research center… haha. I think I will apply for this…

Whew, I am beat, I’m just going to list a few of the responses… We had a large number of solutions today with various times to solve (If I missed listing you, please tell me). Lots of new faces too. Here ya go:

Markus B.

When I realized that “mass” was for Massachusetts, I searched for universities in Masachusetts and found the city of Andover, then it was easy.

Took me over an hour, I think

Katie N.

This one only took me a minute. I knew it was Andover because of the capitalized A, and Mass. was then obvious.

Peter R

Good searching clue today. Didn’t catch onto the capital letter “A” in “And” until I had looked for “Pomp” and “Circumstance” in Massachusetts.

Looking around Andover lead to finding Pomp’s Pond on the map view, and easily found the sat pic right after. About 10 minutes.

David H

Probably about 20 minutes. At first, I was looking around Harvard and other Boston area universities. Then I noticed the strange capitalization in the clue and then, five minutes later, Pomps Pond.

Mark L

Mass part was easy and the landscape matched….. then connected Pomp and Circumstance to Harvard….. looked north

Theresa S

How long: About 15 min. After looking fruitlessly around Andover, Mass. for a while, I finally investigated the second part of the clue & found Pomps Pond.

Jon K

took about 10 min- the herringbone bit was odd, but Andover MA was pretty easy to pull out (all right, my wife did that part looking over my shoulder). Then just a matter of matching something with Pomp and Circumstance- pomp’s pond.

Ryan F

This one was so ironic because I’ve been looking for clue submissions in my New England home area for days but haven’t found anything noteworthy. I checked the clue this morning and couldn’t think of any leads at all. Re-visited page this afternoon and AND OVER just jumped out at me right away. Since I knew there was an Andover. MA right near me, this one then became real easy.

Don R

Took about 5 minutes. Immediately “saw” Andover, MA in the word clue. A quick scan and I found the tortoise head. Frankly, I didn’t even use the pomp = “Pomps Pond” hint. I just noticed that when I switched back from satellite to map mode after solving the puzzle.

Jake M

Hello, brand new to the site. It took me about an hour or so… spent a lot of time looking in pompano beach Fl. Tricksie. But, in a flash of light, it came to me… great clues. Have a nice day.

Adam M

Wow, I after about 10 minutes and a lil help from my boy Shawn. For some reason Andover, Ma. was in my head, but I wasn’t even sure if it was a city. I must have heard it on a movie or something.

Steve C

Hey, good clue. took about an hour. I went on a different trail for a while. I looked up Edward Elgar, the composer of pomp and circumstance, and looked in worcester (his birthplace) except in massachutesetts, but that didn’t work. so i looked in andover mass, and was stumped for a while. then i saw lake pomp or pomp pond, then bingo there it was.

Phil M

This started out hard and then got easier as I figured out the clue. I first looked up things like “Pomp and Circumstance” or “Mass Pomp” or “over circumstance”. That didn’t get me very far. Once I looked at the clue a little harder I put “Mass” together with “And over” and got “Andover, MA”. From there on it was cake. 5 mins.

Justin

I found it odd that the word “And” was capitalized in the word clue, so I figured it must have been pretty important. It was not long after that I realized that the clue refers Andover, Mass. It took about 5 mins.

By the way, I forgot to mention that you are all mad, MAD Scavengeroogle geniuses… it still surprises me how many people actually solve these things!!

Solution to “Tortoise Head”“