Recently, a French guy Benjamin Netter invented a cool way to travel using Instagram*, Foursquare and Wikipedia. The most impressive part of this method is that, on average, you spend no more than 13 minutes on this site and learn new cool places that you would like to visit.
Netter claims that professional photos convey much less the real atmosphere of the place than photos from Instagram* taken by ordinary people. When he realized this pattern, the idea was born to see the world through the eyes of other people.
Every time he stumbles upon beautiful photos of an abandoned city, desert or ocean on Instagram*, they are sent to the Somewhere database — a service that gives an idea of unusual places around the world.
The script automatically selects 150 Instagram images* for a specific location. Thanks to the face recognition algorithm, the script excludes photos of people against the background of something and gives only a good selection of photos of beautiful places. After that, all the Netter has to do is pick up the most beautiful picture.
Somewhere also uses Foursquare and Wikipedia to pull out a map and a description of the area, so that you not only look, but also learn brief information. If you are interested, you can always click "read more" and continue exploring the area in Wikipedia or click on the map and see it in detail.
During the creation of Somewhere, Netter realized how huge the Instagram base* is. In fact, you can use it as a great platform for extracting useful information. For example, if you look at the most popular places on Instagram* for the last 7 days, you immediately see where the most tourists have gathered this season.
But the most beautiful thing about Somewhere is its switch. By clicking on the big blue "Somewhere else" button, you are transported to another area: you see a city, a natural landmark or an interesting building.
This service does not have a business model or any far-reaching plans. Somewhere is just a dream that you can make a reality.
Instagram Facebook and social networks owned by Meta Platforms Inc. are prohibited from operating in the territory of the Russian Federation.
*
