Show HN: I built a fun AI tour guide into Google Street View https://ift.tt/jZFah3p

Show HN: I built a fun AI tour guide into Google Street View I love culture + travel, and one of my favorite pastimes is dropping into random streets on Google Street View. I just LOVE getting a tiny snippet into how people live, the architecture, and discovering hidden corners of places I'll probably never visit. I'm kinda weird like that. When AI came along, I started asking it to explain what I was looking at - and I learned a ton. I couldn't stop using this combo. So I built Streetwhip. It's kinda like reverse Geoguessr - instead of guessing where you are, you get educated about places as if you had a smart local guide with you. What used to be just "some random street in Buenos Aires" becomes a rich learning adventure about Argentine architecture, why things look the way you are, and stuff about the history and way of life. I've been having so much fun with it. I LOVE when I'm on an ordinary looking street and suddenly I find out there's a WILD historic story behind why the architecture is a certain way. A couple of tips: - make sure you log in! If you don't, things aren't really real-time (I had to do this because Street View's API costs can get expensive and this is just a fun hobby project for me). - play around with the categories - they're fun. I'm curating in more places over time. - the search is not perfect - when it works its magical (totally llm-driven). But sometimes it isn't. - don't use this on mobile, it kinda sucks Would love to get your thoughts on the concept and what you could see it turn into! :) P.S. Oh and one of my favorite features: radio! You get a live radio from a stream in the country (please mute it if you get annoyed - but I promise you it makes things a whole lot more immersive) https://streetwhip.com/ May 1, 2025 at 12:21AM