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

Well, this was a pretty good one. We did get five people to solve it but not all at one time. It took a little while. Incidently, I accidentally deleted the emails that said what this building with the flower on it actually was… someone said something about “Riverwalk”? Please comment if you know. I remember it was in San Antonio, TX though. Also I think Mike Z., who submitted the clue, said the flower was actually visible from another building if you climb to the top and look down.

Solution to “Yellow Rose”

Well, this was the most difficult clue to find to date. Only three people found it, and that was probably because the word clue was ambiguous on purpose. The building is actually the old Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri. As I had suspected, living nearby or knowing about the origins of the graphical clue seems to help when the word clue is really ambiguous. From Jason:

Just had a hunch and I was right, so it took me about a minute. This is the planetarium that’s part of the St. Louis Science Center. Of course I live in St. Louis.

As a separate note, there is a “swinging arm” which is also part of the Science Center that extends across the freeway that is also interesting in this location.

Solution to “Midwest Aliens”

Ok, this was cool… the solution took about the amount of time that I thought it should. A few people got it in under 5 minutes, but the majority took about 10-15 which seems about right to me. I’m surprised there aren’t more “Writings” that are being found in Google Map sightseeing places. I knowthere are more unknown ones waiting to be found, I’ll have to look around more carefully.
Solution to “Keep Your Forests Green”

Dammmn. After posting this clue, I just went to make a sandwich for lunch. I came back and there’s all these solutions already! So, anyhow sorry if these are too easy! Of the first 15 or so people who solved it, the average time was about 7 minutes. You are all kick-ass at using Google Maps, much more so than me.

Solution to “Silver Spoon”

Almost everyone thinks this is a water tower, and now looking at it, that’s what it seems to be. From Josh:

This is clearly a water tower just East of the Illinois-Central Railroad. To picture it think of a sphere on top of a tower, and account for the angle of the satillite that took it.

One reader mentioned that it’s not the graphical clues that are too easy but it’s the WORD clues that are the giveaways. They suggest not to include any geographical location in the word clue at all. Hmm. I think I might take that advice into account, or at least cut down on the number of giveaway locations in the Word Clue. It’s tough though. I think I would be happy with an average time to solve of about 10 minutes.

Ok, give me some time to come up w/ more clues…

A lot of people got this one in a hurry too. I’m getting so many solutions at once that it’s difficult to tell who’s first, so I might start listing the first 5 or first 10 correct solutions to give more people credit! Anyhow, so yeah I think it is some sort of plane since it looks like there is a walkway with a plaque. What I originally thought it might be is a helicopter landing port, since I’ve seen some that look like this since I first posted the clue.

Solution to “Flying Fish”

Damn, this one was easier than I thought too. Nearly 10 people solved it within a pretty short period of time. I think I’m going to have to start making the word clues harder or something. So, apprently according to more than one person who submitted the correct solution (RP, Josh), “Unicom 1230″ is also an airport frequency which is how they found the answer. Kinda cool… Here is some further fun info from Josh:

“UNICOM 1230″ is telling pilots using this airfield to maintain communications with the UNICOM communications system on frequency 1230. UNICOM is a privately controlled system for communicating at airports without a central controller/tower. As you can see from scanning the airfield there is no tower structure to guide and control air traffic.

Solution to “Unicom 1230″

Yep, this one was definitely too easy and kinda stupid too. I’ll try harder to come up with better clues..

Solution to “Yucky Green Lake”

I think this one was easier than I suspected because the structure was so big. It could be easily found on pretty low magnification.

Solution to “Purplex”