

Tell HN: Go to Google Maps. Type Your Twitter Handle (with @) - hodgesmr

This is getting mixed results from people. For some, it&#x27;s gives a pretty accurate location of either where you are or a place you go. For others, not so much.<p>I don&#x27;t geotag tweets, and it still did a pretty good job. It appears to be content based.
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mindcrash
So after giving it some thought and doing some additional research it looks
like they are building a superdetailed graph based on your relations, textual
content etc. etc., try and determine and geocode locations based on the
analyzed data and then plot those locations through Google Maps. It looks like
it is even smart enough to go through your followers, determine the kind of
relationship you have with that particular person, and if you and the other
person are closely related enough pick certain locations up from their
timeline and share those locations between your profile and that of the other
person (something which supposedly has happened to a friend of mine given the
returned data.)

Anyway, not scary at all, nope. </sarcasm>

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jarcane
It pinpointed an (old) address for my future workplace and I haven't even
started there yet, presumably because I follow several of my future co-
workers.

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breakingcups
This is pretty scary actually, it managed to pinpoint me to locations that I
hadn't mentioned on Twitter at all, incluing where I work.

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breakingcups
I've since determined that Google scrapes our corporate website, which lists
employees.

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mindcrash
Just did a small test: It gave the approximate location of my office (luckily
off a few streets, so my privacy is not too badly damaged).

Coincidentally, my office is the only spot where I am logged in to Twitter
using Google Chrome. Using Firefox at home.

UPDATE: If your Twitter handle gives a false result at first, try prefixing it
with the term: twitter

E.g. 'twitter @whateveryourhandleis'

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JacobAldridge
Interesting.

I'm licensed through a company called Shirlaws Group - Australian HQ is where
I work in Brisbane; global HQ is London. Google Maps pins 'me' at Shirlaws
motorcycles in Aberdeen, Scotland.

So it's smart enough to make some connection "Jacob Aldridge = Shirlaws" but
must be missing some wider data or geo information.

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jayhuang
Mine goes to University of Michigan...which is a different country altogether.

Just tried @Obama, Guantanamo Bay Detention camp.

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bopf
@potus is super accurate - the White House...

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bopf
I was put into the Yankee Stadium (@bopfger). It must be able to read my mind
as I would love to be there. Not sure, how Google would put me there, though
as I have never been there and never tweeted from New York either.

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mrsteveman1
I've got "Columbus Ohio" listed right in my twitter bio (as a location rather
than just included as text) and GMaps went directly to some swimming related
retail business in Valencia, CA, weird.

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LuizCentenaro
Mine is somewhat accurate, I was here a month ago.
[http://imgur.com/8m8tbr2](http://imgur.com/8m8tbr2)

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stephenr
Pretty terrible result frankly. I geocode a number of tweets, but it shows my
"location" as that of the office for a company I've conversed with here in
Thailand.

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auganov
Doesn't seem to work for me, anything special you have to do? Maybe the
feature is locale dependent. Could you post a link if it's serialized in the
url?

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Joona
Doesn't seem to work here (Finland) either.

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jarcane
Works for me. (Finland also)

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d23
It gave a city outside my hometown. I've definitely never used twitter there,
so I'm puzzled as to why.

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mapster
perfect. plus random sampling of my follower/ees was dead on to their business
location.

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bartozone
Hahahahahahah I got CERN labs in Switzerland. I'm pretty excited about that
actually.

@bartozone

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MichaelStubbs
The result it gave me is in a country I've never set foot in.

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codydabest
Mine returned the last account I tweeted at, Puma's HQ...

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ehershey
Mine and the few friends I tried are nowhere close.

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buffington
With my handle (@go), I get a store in Poland.

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kentaronyc
I got the whitehouse and I am not sure why.

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mobiplayer
I got Avebury's Stone Circle... wtf

