© Google
© Google
© GoogleWhat a meta is
The word comes from "metagaming": playing with knowledge from outside the round. In GeoGuessr a meta is any detail of the coverage that identifies a place without understanding the language or reading a sign: how Google shot that area, which infrastructure the country uses, what the ground looks like. Top players call the country in two seconds because they have memorised hundreds of these details.
A meta is small, concrete and learnable. "Australian bollards are white with a red reflector at the front and a grey one at the back" fits on a card. That's why they work so well with spaced repetition: each one is a question with an answer, and there is a finite number of them.
The families, one by one
Bollards 1,222 clues
The short posts at the edge of the road. Shape, colour and reflector change by country.
The bollard is the most famous meta because it stands on almost every road and almost never lies. Look at the shape (round, square, black top), the reflector (red, white, yellow, none) and whether it has a band or a ring. Every European country has its own; outside Europe they differ in Australia, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil and many more.
Poles 7,134 clues
Wood, concrete or metal; holes, ladders and the top of the pole give away the region.
After the bollard, the pole solves the most rounds. Material (wood, concrete, metal), shape (round, square, H-shaped), holes or steps, painted marks and, above all, the top: insulators and crossbars give away the region within a country, which is why there are so many pole decks for Brazil, India, Peru or Vietnam.
Road lines 4,117 clues
Yellow or white centre, edge lines, doubles, dashes: one of the most reliable metas.
Lines are among the fastest clues: yellow or white centre, single or double, solid or dashed, and the colour of the edge lines. Combined with the driving side they close off half the world in a second.
Licence plates 940 clues
The blue European strip, colours and shapes stay readable even blurred.
Even though Google blurs licence plates, the background colour, the shape and the European blue strip remain perfectly visible. They work for country and sometimes for region (United States, Germany, Russia).
Camera car 6,875 clues
Camera generation, antennas, mirrors and the colour of the car that shot the coverage.
Google has used several camera generations and many different cars. Image quality, the halo, the car colour, antennas, mirrors and camera artefacts (bars, smudges) give away the country and often the era of the coverage. The "Google cars" and "coverage" decks live here.
Signs and chevrons 5,820 clues
Yellow or white backgrounds, red or black chevrons, the shape of stop signs.
Yellow warning signs (Americas, Asia, Oceania) versus white with a red border (Europe), curve chevrons (red on white, white on black, yellow on black), stop signs and pedestrian crossing signs. Road codes and US highway markers belong here too.
Architecture 6,729 clues
Roofs, fences, bricks, balconies and the colour of houses.
Tile or sheet-metal roofs, wooden or concrete fences, exposed brick, balconies, the colour of houses. Less exact than a bollard, but it narrows the continent and often the country: Swiss, Indonesian or Japanese architecture have decks of their own.
Landscape and vegetation 18,662 clues
Red soil, palms, eucalyptus, mountains and the type of crop.
Red soil, eucalyptus, palms, cacti, snowy mountains, tundra and the type of crop (sugarcane, coffee, rice). It is the clue with the most metas in the whole catalogue and the one that helps most in region maps.
Street furniture 5,364 clues
Bus stops, street lamps, mailboxes, hydrants and kerbs.
Bus stops (Sweden, the Nordics), street lamps, mailboxes, hydrants, kerbs, water tanks (Brazil, Bolivia) and satellite dishes (Indonesia). Small details that are often the only ones in a rural round.
Three ways to ask
Not every meta is asked the same way. MetaSpotter has three card modes:
Country
"In which country do you see this pole?". Multiple choice with the countries it's really confused with, or a typed answer.
Region
"Japan: in which prefectures does this kanji appear?". You tap the country map. This is the regionguessing mode.
Identify
"Which camera generation is this?", "Which script is this?". A canonical answer, with choices or typed.
In which order to learn them
Order matters. These are the milestones the app's onboarding proposes:
- Week 1: flags, driving side and basic bollards. With World · Basics (58 cards) you already call the country in many rounds.
- Month 1: poles, lines and plates from every continent. World · Beginner and the theme decks.
- Month 3: regions and rare metas. Regionguessing for Brazil, Japan, Indonesia, India, the US and the rest.