YouTube contains a cornucopia of weird stuff: Sniff around long enough, and you’re likely to stumble upon some truly bizarre videos.
Luckily for us garbage hunters out there, a simple-to-use website exists to help us sift through the piles. Called Geo Search Tool, it lets you enter a specific location to see what videos have been uploaded around there. You can also select a search radius as well as an upload date range.
According to the site’s about page, the tool “geo-codes text entries into latitude and longitude coordinates and then searches using the YouTube APIs.” All you need to do is enter an address, choose the upload date range, and select the search radius. (You can also refine the keywords and limit the search specific channels.)
To test out the tool’s capabilities, we decided to uncover what was happening recently in a few newsworthy locations.
My Brooklyn neighborhood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmo7U4wDW8
This appears to be a comedy video lampooning a fake grocery cart business (?).
River Oaks, Texas
According to the Houston Chronicle, Ted Cruz voted in today’s Republican Super Tuesday primary in River Oaks, Houston. The above video was uploaded near there.
Area 51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJKxCPoQZQ
Though Area 51 is difficult to find on a map, searching for Groom Lake—a nearby salt flat—turned up this clip.
Trump Tower
A segment about the dangers of gluten free diets broadcast on Fox News. How appropriate!
The White House
This clip features an interview with Vermin Supreme, a performance artist slash presidential candidate, and the boot he wears on his head. At least he’s not Trump!
Unfortunately, the tool only works for videos that have been geotagged, so there’s a decent chunk of stuff out there that will fly under its radar. Still, it’s a fun way to search, and you might just find some gold.
What weird videos are people posting in your neighborhood? Post them in the comments!
[Geo Search Tool via Business Insider]
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