''PlaceSpotting'' is an online game, based on

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

. Its server is based in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and has English- and German-language versions. In international Media, ''PlaceSpotting'' is recommended as a "challenging amusement" and an "educational way of wasting time on the internet".

Overview

The way ''PlaceSpotting'' works is simple: *To create a new quiz, move and zoom the map until it shows an interesting place. Provide some hints for the person who will try to solve it and a message one will see if the riddle is solved. After saving the quiz you can send it by mail to a friend or embed it in your homepage as a picture. *If someone wants to solve the quiz their task is to find the place shown in your picture on a second google map. The site additionally has a blog to share questions or hints, a search function, and the possibility to rate quizzes. *Players are scoring an approximate 11% success rate. *In the first 30 months after going live approximately 3.3 Million quizzes were opened and 20,000 created. *''PlaceSpotting'' is free and can be played without registration. A registration is possible and allows to use special functions like "my quizeees" or "quizzes I solved" *There are some

Google Adwords Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the result ...

on the page.

Development

''PlaceSpotting'' was developed for people who used email communication to send their friends screen shots of interesting places and wanted them to guess what place was shown in the picture.

Different platforms

Beside the web page ''PlaceSpotting'' can be played as a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Application or as an iPhone App The iPhone Application was released 4 October 2009. A free version is planned. The application received the award App of the week in December 2009 in

Community

''PlaceSpotting'' is present on

and StudiVZ and on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

is a short Video about how to play ''PlaceSpotting''.

External links

placeSpotting.com

Media coverage

Story in German magazine, Heise onlineA story in the Swiss online magazine ''20minuten.ch'' An article in the Swedish online newspaper ''Metropol''An article on the page of ''Deutschlandradio''

References

{{reflist 2009 video games Online games Google Maps