Show HN: I built a fun AI tour guide into Google Street View

7 rohanm93 5 4/30/2025, 6:51:33 PM streetwhip.com ↗
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)

Comments (5)

vivzkestrel · 13m ago
did you hardcode all the locations or is truly random?
theWreckluse · 7h ago
This is so cool! It's a little clunky on the phone, but I had a great time. Thank you!
rohanm93 · 6h ago
Thank you so much! Means a ton.

Totally agree - the mobile experience need a ton of work, I'll try to figure out a better UX.

grigorecezar · 8h ago
This is cool!
rohanm93 · 6h ago
Thanks dude!