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

Hey there… haven’t heard from me for awhile right? I had an extremely tough weekend… someone fairly close to me passed away on Sunday after battling sickness for a long time. It was really tough. Anyhow, that’s why I’ve been out for awhile, I just needed a bit of time.

So, this find is by me. It is the letters BP in building-ese. I couldn’t think of a snappy title so I’ve just called it Beep Bop for now. Oh, I guess that should be Be Bop actually. I just felt like injecting some roboticism into it. Robot Jazz.

Actually, the letters BP sort of remind me of the gas station chain British Petrol. At least I think it’s called British Petrol. On some long trips in California, I remember encountering stations with those letters once in awhile. It was up there in big green letters: BP. I thought I remember they were only way out in the boonies though…

You can see the letters BP from 15/18. The “P” is actually most visible because it is a bright blue. The B is actually not visible until you get into about 16/18. The word hints are a combination of me trying to be too clever and it being really hot out and me thusly nearly fainting in the heat. It goes like this:

“Lean the Bag over Der, Dad”

Easy, right? I know it will be for some of you Zen Rooglers. But hmm… is that herring soup I smell? Well you shall have a region hint soon enough, I thinks… good luck!

[Edit: 9:30 am PDT - Hey there, I think I will drop a hint quickly to start. The region is actually in the U.S. That’s right. What’s more, I was informed by Mark L that there is a near exact DUPLICATE of the clue nearby. Amazing really… it even fits the word clues. So because of this oversight by me, I will take solutions to either one. I actually would really like to know what this (these) buildings are as well… can it be coincidence that the buildings and driveway in front look identical?]

[Edit: 2:06 pm PDT - Ok, so here’s a bit of a clue. Try and rearrange the words in the word hint…]

[Edit: 6:43 pm PDT - Last clue for tonight, a direct one: Texas. Yes, we are in Texas AGAIN…]

[Edit: 11:26 pm PDT - Darn email is down so I can’t tell exactly how many have solved, it is over 9 people though. Also, all the solutions are in the email so that post will be coming tomorrow.]

[Edit: 10:00 am PDT (next day) - OK, I got all your names down finally… solution page up soon]

Clue Name : “Beep Bop”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Solved (15)
Duration: Wednesday 8/10/05

Solved By: Judy B, Mark L, Jon G, Moose, Richard K, David H, Mike B, Chorbansi, Tim J, Bryce H, Aaron B, Vlado K, Astro T, Matty L, Trecherus

Word Hints : “Lean the Bag over Der, Dad”
Magnification Needed: 15/18

SOLUTION TO “Beep Bop”

Whew, hello there again. If you are new to the site, thanks for visiting. There were quite a few new people coming here the past 3 days. Anyhow, I decided to start putting up more Scavengeroogle Bounties … I am still not sure about whether this works to have no word clue, but we will keep doing it that way for now till I get more prizes, and more time to work on the site.

This may be a lame one because it’s not really distinctive… I’ve called it Square Rivers, but perhaps it should have been called Right Angle Rivers. It is actually visible quite far up, at 12/18 magnification.

I’m going to experiment with something that Mark L had originally mentioned… give a VERY general description of where on the planet the clue is. I think I will go with the standard “Seven Continents” structure of Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. For the time being at least you will get a “continent hint”

The continent hint for this one is: Asia.

On that note I am also thinking of changing the terminology of “word clue” to “word hint“. It was a bit confusing because the graphical clues that are given are called “picture clues”… so I’ll call them Word Hints from now on.

Ah, the prize. Of course. This is a quickie, just a postcard, but a pretty cool one of the little town of Solvang. You see old fashioned Danish style windmills in the picture which is not that unusual except that Solvang is located just north of Santa Barbara, California.

I have been here several times, it’s a stopover for a lot of folks heading up the California Coast. But some hard-core Solvang fans make trips exclusively to there. A bit of a tourist trap. The back of the postcard reads:

Numerous Danish styled windmills, homes, store buildings, bakeries, foods, and Danish customs give this quaint village the old-world charm that has earned Solvang the title “Danish Capital of America”.

Okily dokily. Now remember, don’t spend the rest of tonight, tomorrow and this weekend on this bounty. They are meant to be something just in the back of your mind, just leisurely incubating there while you solve daily clues or ‘Roogle around for fun. I keep saying it, but don’t stress over these things!

Bounty Name : “Square Rivers”
Submitted by: Scavengeroogle Admin
Status : Collected by Mark L.
Time Elapsed: 2 days, 9 hours, 27 min
Word Hint : NONE
Continent Hint : Asia
Magnification Needed: 12/18

Reward: Solvang, California Windmills Postcard

Continue reading “Bounty: Square Rivers” …

My, my, the clues will fly. Hello there. I got this cool find from Judy B. of what looks like two moths in flight. Obviously, they are buildings of some sort but the resemblance is pretty cool. Well, they could also be alien spacecraft… but of course we all know there’s no such thing as UFOs right? Sorry, that was the government agent in me speaking…

Anyhow, the mothies are visible at a fairly respectable 14/18. You should be able to see them flutter from high up on your scavengeroogle viewing port. I have decided to mangle Judy’s clues a bit. Here you go:

“Patton Lucks Out”

I have a feeling that there may be some who don’t have any trouble at all with the clues, but I am prepared to region drop if need be! Until later on: May all your clues be live and your roogle solutions be monstrous!

[Edit: 10:10 am PDT - How’s it going? A few solutions so far, so I will wait a couple more hours b4 considering a region…]

[Edit: 12:34 pm PDT - OK, I’ll start off with a very general region clue, actually a region exclusion. The Metal Moths are NOT located in the U.S.A. That should start the ball rolling for some…]

[Edit: 12:51 pm PDT - I see a lot of people coming here from I-Am-Bored and MetaFilter … if this is you, hello and welcome to ‘Roogle central! Take a look around at some of the past clues and submit some of your own if you get a chance.]

[Edit: 6:10 pm PDT - OK, one last clue for this one: Near Belgium…]

Clue Name : “Metal Moths”
Submitted by: Judy B.
Status : Solved (10)
Duration: Wednesday 8/02/05

Solved By: Tom, David H, Mark L, Adam M, Chorbansi, Chris Re, Citizen, Moose, OtherChris, Tim J

Word Clues : “Patton Lucks Out”
Magnification Needed: 14/18

SOLUTION TO “Metal Moths”

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” …

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 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…