Random Streetview on the Finnish coast?
November 17, 2020 11:36 AM   Subscribe

I was procrastinating on Random Streetview yesterday, and landed in this gorgeous spot in Finland that, much to my dismay, I can't find again. I wish I had clicked "save this view," but alas. It's also not in my browser history. This seems impossible, but I wonder if I can describe it well enough that anyone would recognize the location.

It was a narrow curving road right along the edge a waterway with a sheer rock cliff straight across a narrow channel. The street was hemmed in by a steep embankment on the side away from the water's edge, but not as rocky or steep. There were at least a couple stone stairways up the grassy, wooded embankment leading away from the water. It wasn't a rural highway - there were a number of older-looking houses - narrow, tall, and most of them white stucco, I believe. I remember some buildings that looked like barns or sheds as well, so not an urban area.

(As I type this, I realize what a fool's errand it is. How could anyone find a random spot in Finland based on such a vague description? But I suppose if anyone can, it's Askmefi. I've seen y'all find obscure books based on a half-remembered smell of one footnote. Thanks!)
posted by brozek to Travel & Transportation (4 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Some people I know were playing with this yesterday, and they described many of the same locations that I saw on my own computer. This makes me wonder how random the picks really are. If RS is using a PRNG, perhaps it cycles fast enough that you might catch it again, if you search just within Finland.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:04 PM on November 17, 2020 [1 favorite]


How certain are you that it was on the coast, as opposed to one of the large inland lakes?
posted by theory at 2:37 PM on November 17, 2020


Ok so after about an hour clicking They sucked his brains out!'s link, I can confirm that the same places seem to keep popping up. However I got no coastal images at all so I can't actually answer the question.

I did however have a similar ask about a chromecast wallpaper image that I ended up solving myself when the image randomly started popping back up into rotation like a year after I asked about it. So, don't give up hope I guess?
posted by Literaryhero at 4:19 AM on November 18, 2020 [2 favorites]


A spent some time - maybe 20 minutes - clicking through Finland and I only got rural or village scenes which I thought was odd.

Then I clicked on Canada for a while and different views of Iqaluit and area came up about 5 times which was statistically extremely unlikely.

Anyway, it's definitely not a random algorithm driving the selection.
posted by Rumple at 10:02 AM on November 18, 2020 [1 favorite]


« Older Showing videoconference videos - Zoom sucks....   |   Help me translate into Latin? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.