I used Gemini and Google Maps’ Ask Maps to find the weirdest spots in my city — and these 7 oddities didn't disappoint
AI Google Gemini I used Gemini and Google Maps’ Ask Maps to find the weirdest spots in my city — and these 7 oddities didn't disappoint Features By Elton Jones Published 16 September 2026 Making my way to “out-there” attractions When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. There’s so much more to see and do beyond just walking around Times Square, taking the boat to Ellis Island to stare at the Statue of Liberty and taking a selfie in front of Madison Square Garden. I’m always on the lookout for speakeasies, arcades packed to the brim with retro games, quirky museums and other sorts of unique locales.I already had two AI tools in mind when trying to come up with a list of strange places to head out to: Gemini and Google Maps’ trusty Ask Maps feature.
- ▪AI Google Gemini I used Gemini and Google Maps’ Ask Maps to find the weirdest spots in my city — and these 7 oddities didn't disappoint Features By Elton Jones Published 16 September 2026 Making my way to “out-there” attractions When you pu
- ▪There’s so much more to see and do beyond just walking around Times Square, taking the boat to Ellis Island to stare at the Statue of Liberty and taking a selfie in front of Madison Square Garden.
- ▪I’m always on the lookout for speakeasies, arcades packed to the brim with retro games, quirky museums and other sorts of unique locales.I already had two AI tools in mind when trying to come up with a list of strange places to head out to:
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| Original publisher | Tom's Guide |
| Canonical URL | https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/i-used-gemini-and-google-maps-ask-maps-to-find-the-weirdest-spots-in-my-city-and-these-7-oddities-didnt-disappoint |
| Publication time | Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:30:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-16T07:38:41.555Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-16T07:38:41.555Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | VC3Vy5W4bf65 · 1 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
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AI Google Gemini I used Gemini and Google Maps’ Ask Maps to find the weirdest spots in my city — and these 7 oddities didn't disappoint Features By Elton Jones Published 16 September 2026 Making my way to “out-there” attractions When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Copy link Facebook X Reddit Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter As a native New Yorker, I’m sure some of you can relate to what I’m about to say: my city hosts some of the most eccentric locales anyone has ever seen.Forget the usual hotspots that tourists flock to while they’re adorned in “I LOVE NY!” shirts and caps.
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