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Geocaching & SEO?
By David Brown | April 22, 2008
Happy Earth Day all! Yeah so the site is going to become more interactive… for years I’ve blogged over at n7v.net - which was nice because I could cut loose a bit more than I could on a ‘business’ site. Well thanks to the rules of social and web 2.0 that’s no longer a concern and you’ll see many updates a week on the site! Not all will relate to SEO / SEM / SMO / DFO or the likes, but I will try and tie them together as best I can when relevant.
Geocaching & SEO - what could they possibly have in common? Other than the common thread of ‘Search’ both involve ‘Technology’ to some degree, it can also involve Google. And what brought me to my exciting adventure this weekend was actually SEO! John Chen (co-author of Outlook Express for Microsoft) started a very exciting Corporate Team Building company after leaving MSN. GeoTeaming is Team Building based on the game GeoCaching… So what is Geocaching, you ask? It’s a treasure hunt gone high tech! I know I’m coming to the party a bit late… but at least I made it 
The basic idea is that people all over the world hide ‘Cache’s’ and add the coordinates to geocaching.com Where you then log in and find cache’s you’d like to go and Hunt for!
So geocaching is using your internal Search Engine (ah… bet you didn’t think I’d pull out another parallel to SEO did ya?) Here’s what Team Brown did this weekend… we picked out 5 cache locations and loaded them into the Garmin eTrex H and set out on our treasure hunt! Our first stop was a cache called Stonehenge…
N 48° 48.262 W 122° 30.140 Stonehenge:
the only clue given was “You are surrounded by Muggles…but you know what to do.” then if you decrypted the extra clue you’d find that it’s “Under on the right” Not a lot of info you say? The hunt is half the fun… like I said before, use your internal Search Engine… And 5 minutes after finding the correct location my son A.K.A. “Mini Me” found the cache! Inside we signed the log book, dated the find, Ashley traded a Vancouver BC Gold Charm for a purple rock. *note* you don’t have to trade items in the cache but you can if you’d like… it makes it seem more like a real treasure hunt if you do it this way! So 1 down and 4 to go! Next we headed down to Whatcom Falls Park.
N 48° 45.264 W 122° 26.128 Whatcom Falls Creek:
One of the clues on this cache was to find the ‘Dog Nose’ in a rock formation… If I was a bit better at PhotoShop I could really make the dog nose stand out. I really enjoyed this cache hunt! I grew up going to the falls and hiking around this area… however I’ve never been down this trail until we started hunting for the cache! This one in particular was well hidden and had a plethora of goodies inside! Cody traded out a Super Mario Bros gameboy game for a box of sidewalk chalk, we all signed the log book and re-hid the cache. This particular cache was a ‘Cache in Trash out‘ find - simply put when you find the cache and there’s garbage bags inside… you take an empty sack and fill it with garbage on your hike back out… seemed very fitting considering today is Earth Day!
So anyone else interested in geocaching? You can check out our profile over at geocaching.com I go by the whompa chick magnet handle NeOBlog. If your a geocacher too be sure to add us as friends! And how could I pass up the opportunity to give a quick pitch for my favorite clients? Anyone looking for a great Team Building experience should definitely check out GeoTeaming ™
Oh I should probably mention that we have the blog set up to start taking on comments - you don’t have to sign up… Just leave a comment if you wish
David Brown / NeO
Topics: Geocaching, SEO |
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Cool! I’m sold. I love a good treasure hunt. Possibly, I’m part pirate…
I’d heard of it a few years back but never really knew how organized it was. It sounds like so much fun. A great motivation to get your butt off the couch and trek around outside.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Dude! That sounds like an awesomely good time. Team building, in any corporate environment, is very important, and your take on combining search and geocaching is a cool analogy. I’ll definetely check out GeoTeaming.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:09 am
Yeah it looks awesome! I bought my GPS unit yesterday, and I’m going to get into it today!
May 1st, 2008 at 8:14 am
This weekend will be our second outing… I am now thinking I should have bought the more expensive version instead of the $100 one. Just because it connects to the my.garmin.com site and will allow you to import the coordinates directly into your GPS unit.
Either way it’s a blast! Anyone up in the Bellingham area have some good coordinates?
db
May 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Geocaching is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and spend time with family. Kids love it, adults love, heck my dog even loves it. I can’t wait to take my mom out geocaching for mothers day.