Hello everyone this TerryPG your roving reporter who has confirmed ( on a very small scale so far) that Google has shifted video to the number 1 featured spot .
This was discovered by our reporter @abermans in London England . See Here
I have spent the last 24 hours traveling the world ( via Google maps) to try and confirm this. After checking on 3 cities in U.S.A, 2 in Canada , 2 in Europe and 1 in India, This looks like it is true.
In my own area is was 100% videos and 8/10 were mine,
In the balance of countries it was 60-80% WERE videos. LONDON was 100%
I randomly chose 10 locations from each map.
Beside my own video which was now the main #1 featured video the following guides now all have The number 1 spot for their Star Video. Congrats.
This will be huge for those of us that jumped on the Video Bandwagon.
DISCLAIMER this is only showing up on mobile and not desk top.
I am asking for some help and participation. To all guides please check your own area.
Please let me know here.
Terry, I am so loving your images. Can you just clarify for me, do you mean you are going to the city and looking at the images that are there for the whole city or are you going to a specific point of Interest in each of the cities?
Thanks Rednewt, I chose 5 of our guides from the top 100 video albums, thatās how I found your Star video.
I also checked random cities, went to maps clicked on 10 random POIs for findings in each area.
Iāve been meaning to go back and count through that last 6 months about how many videos I have in first or second place and how many of your quote unquote Daily Doubles i have. Thank you for keeping the focus on videos. You are Stellar convert!
noticed a lot a couple of days ago, but seems like a lot more #1 spot videos.
biggest and highly frustrating issue is that so many are not videos of that POI!!! so annoying.
at least blurry and really poor images are often at the bottom of the pile of pics, now there is so little to choose from itās mostly defaulting to adverts uploaded by the business, shaky cams and videos of peopleās families.
Excellent reporting, @TerryPG! This is a massive observation that aligns perfectly with some technical audits Iāve been conducting over the last week.
I was actually preparing a post on this very topic after noticing the same shift while investigating some āHidden Mediaā issues on my profile. Here is what Iāve observed to add to your research:
Mobile vs. Web Discrepancy: I can confirm that while the Mobile App is aggressively promoting videos to the #1 spot, the Web/Desktop version still defaults to photos.
Header vs. Gallery: Interestingly, on Mobile, the Video takes the āCoverā spot in the main header, but once you click into the āAllā Gallery tab, the ranking often reverts, showing a Photo as the Featured item.
Visibility Fluctuations: Iāve noticed that while some videos are being promoted to the cover, others (like my 3.2M view āStar Videoā) have recently become āinvisibleā.
You can see one of my videos now acting as a cover here on the Mobile app.
This is a huge win for those of us who focus on high-quality videography! Thanks for sharing your observations.
Your observation re different cover photos at the top of the place pages vs under Photos | All is something I also noticed but never knew what to think about. Is the Cover photo concept branching into:
Placesheet cover
All photos tab cover
Desktop cover
How often are they different?
Are any if the three lingering longer than others?
Which one is used on search results pages?
Which one yields the most views?
Hallo @TerryPG, ich kann es grundsƤtzlich bestƤtigen und mir sind bisher einige meiner Videos in den Top-Positionen aufgefallen. Nur alles durchzugehen ist mir zu aufwendig, zum einen habe ich im Vergleich zu euch geringere Aufrufe und ich habe von Anfang an auch immer Videos zu Maps hinzugefĆ¼gt. Es wƤre also eine unheimliche Suche bei meinen vielen Videos.
Maps is definitely positioning the video in the primary Feature spot on the landing page. However, from what Iāve seen so far, the photo takes the primary Feature if one clicks on the Photos tab.
It would seem as though Google is slowly working towards a complete push for video Features, but might not want to make the full jump immediately? Interesting times!
I did see your post last week Mike, The fact that videos are now on the landing page is huge for us videographers and can only increase exposure and views.
I do have some videos that appear in the lead spot on both pages.
Either or itās a win win for our contributions.
Hi @TerryPG thanks for the mention. My experience is that if you upload a quality video which showcases the POI then thereās every chance it could turn out to be the Featured Video but itās not always the case. Thereās alot of factors at play including competition from other guides, the quality and relevance of the photo compared to whatās already featured, the existing mulitmedia already featured etc.
As someone who has worked with professionals in this field showcasing promotional videos thereās no real substitute to putting in alot of time and effort if you want to create a quality video. Iām not convinced that the majority of instantaneous, unedited videos we see on Google Maps meet those standards. So taking a video in my experience doesnāt automatically lead to featured status. The filters in place will still favour a static photo as the featured photo instead of a video if the video is not up to standard. The problem Iāve got is that I cannot afford to devote alot of time to create a quality well edited video so Iām guilty myself of uploading a quick video image from my smartphone. Some of these are featured but many are not. I have said to other Guides that once you spend a lot of time creating a great video you, in the case of a buisness, almost deserve to be paid directly by the business, as itās part of their marketing budget to promote good multimedia content across social media and related platforms. I believe we start to cross the line depending in the type of POI.
Yes I believe you are right to say that things have changed recently with Googleās preference to feature a decent video. My star video is a good example you have highlighted. It never used to be the featured video but it was in the first 10 images you would see when checking O Gato Negroās profile. I have other similar cases where the growth in views is fantastic.
So yes itās great that videos are the way to go but Iām concerned that the majority as per exisitng practice with the other social media platforms are uploading too many poor quality images. Further guidelines should be issued to help Local Guides. I mentioned some of these in my previous article.
Hereās a summary :
Keep the shots mainly static but progressing to some short pans and tilts always using a tripod or being very steady in your movements.
Everything should be smooth and steady and preferably pretty short clips of 8-10 seconds.
Well written post @MarkAuchincloss thank you, I agree that are are also so many videos out there that donāt even belong to the POI. Yes photos will predominately always be the āfeatured/Cover Imageā But I do now have over 70 videos as the now lead image, and that is the purpose of this post. Things are changing.
Great points in your tips.
