Which is the most recognisable county indoor opinion?

DEDICATED FANS of

Google

Use synonyms

Street View, which lets users explore cities and towns around the world via panoramic street-level imagery, have come up with dozens of applications for the tool, from house-hunting, to holiday planning, to experimental art. The most entertaining use of the service may be “

Geoguessr

Use synonyms

”, a game created in 2013 by Anton Wallén, a Swedish IT consultant. The premise of

Geoguessr

Use synonyms

is simple:

players

Use synonyms

are dropped at random places in

Google

Use synonyms

Street View, without any information about their locations. They are

then

Linking Words

scored based on how well they guess where they are.

Geoguessr

Use synonyms

is a fun way to kill

time

Use synonyms

. But it

also

Linking Words

offers a clever way to determine which parts of the world are the most recognisable, and who can recognise them best. With

this

Linking Words

in mind, The Economist obtained some 1.2m guesses from the online geography quiz, submitted by 223,942 people in 192

countries

Use synonyms

and territories between January and August 2020. We

then

Linking Words

used these data to compile a “recognisability index” for each

country

Use synonyms

, defined as the share of

players

Use synonyms

who guessed correctly where they were dropped minus the share who guessed incorrectly. (We excluded games in which a player was dropped into his or her own

country

Use synonyms

and

countries

Use synonyms

that appeared in the dataset fewer than 20,000 times). According to our analysis, Japan is by far the most recognisable

country

Use synonyms

.

Geoguessr

Use synonyms

players

Use synonyms

dropped there correctly guessed their

location

Use synonyms

64% of the

time

Use synonyms

; those dropped elsewhere incorrectly guessed Japan just 9% of the

time

Use synonyms

. In

second

Linking Words

place is

America

Use synonyms

, which

players

Use synonyms

guessed correctly 79% of the

time

Use synonyms

and incorrectly 40% of the

time

Use synonyms

. Russia ranks

third

Linking Words

, followed by Italy, Brazil and Britain (see chart). As for which

countries

Use synonyms

were most often confused for one another, 18% of

players

Use synonyms

who reckoned they had been dropped in

America

Use synonyms

were actually in Australia. Spain and Mexico were

also

Linking Words

frequently mixed up. Not all of the guesses made sense: at least one person mistook Luxembourg for Mongolia. Germany and Switzerland are home to the best

Geoguessr

Use synonyms

players

Use synonyms

, followed by France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. At the bottom of our list is Turkey, followed by Russia and

America

Use synonyms

, where

players

Use synonyms

correctly guessed their

location

Use synonyms

just 45% of the

time

Use synonyms

.

Geoguessr

Use synonyms

scores do

however

Linking Words

depend on how close the guesser is in kilometres to the right

location

Use synonyms

. If borders are involved, some guessers might score highly even when they plump for the wrong

country

Use synonyms

. So picking Vancouver would give a greater score than New York, if the dropped

location

Use synonyms

was Seattle. Curiously,

players

Use synonyms

in Norway, Sweden and Colombia are better at identifying the

country

Use synonyms

where they are dropped than the precise

location

Use synonyms

. In

America

Use synonyms

, the skills are reversed. Americans score about as well as Brits in figuring out their approximate

location

Use synonyms

, but are abysmal at picking the right

country

Use synonyms

.

Such

Linking Words

results should be taken with a big pinch of salt. Not all

countries

Use synonyms

are included in

Google

Use synonyms

Street View. Of those that are, many have incomplete coverage. Most streets in Germany,

for example

Linking Words

, are missing from

Google

Use synonyms

Maps because of privacy concerns; China is

also

Linking Words

missing, with the exceptions of Macau and Hong Kong. With those caveats, it is still pleasing to be the

country

Use synonyms

with the landscapes and cityscapes considered most distinctive. Japan’s tourism industry, after all, is unlikely to complain.