Google’s Smarty Pins map game tests your knowledge about location-based events

Google released another web-based game today called Smarty Pins that will most likely distract you from other things that you should be doing. Powered by Google Maps, this quiz game tests your knowledge about historical and current events by asking you location-based questions. To answer a question, players drop a pin on the correct location and instead of earning points, you’ll rack up miles to keep the game going. As a slight help, the pin starts out in the same region as the correct answer, so there’s no need to move too far across the map.

Now about those points miles. You start a game with 1,000 and if you answer a question correctly, you get to keep them, as well as earn bonus miles for fast answers. However, if you happen to give an incorrect answer, the game will deduct the total number of miles between the location you selected and the correct answer. So games can end quickly if your answers are too far off.

While the questions can be tough at times, there’s a “Favorite Categories” option that lets you pick from topics like Arts & Culture, Science & Geography, History & Current Events, Sports & Games and Entertainment. There’s also a Featured Topics category that narrows things down even more. Today’s featured questions  are about March Madness and World Cup Trivia.

Know-it-alls can share their scores via Facebook, Twitter and of course Google+, so feel free to show off if you’re good at remembering locations.