Does the #1 photo in POI gallery always have the most views? Tracking recent video vs photo uploads

[Rednewt74]

In my recent Local Guiding I have been consistently taking a storefront photo and and at least two videos for each POI I visit. Usually the video is an interior pan, a food “hero” shot (slow mo zoom or pan closeup of the food), or food closeup that switches to a storefront shot.

I had always assumed the #1 photo in a gallery would have the most views. But obviously this isn’t the case when a photo has replaced another photo for the #1 position. Depending on how long the old #1 shot had been up ( some of mine have been up six years), the new one will have less views and possibly it will never get as many views as the previous shot.

I recently found a newly opened ice-cream store, Nik’s Liks, that had very few photos. I added some photos and some videos. One of my photos became # 1 and a video became # 2.

In @Mikeinthefalls post , Photos or Videos -Which shall I post, he notes that Google AI seems to be adding videos to the number 2 spot. Neither of us have seen one go to # 1. and my guess is that we won’t.

What is interesting to me about this gallery is that my video in # 2 has more views than my photo in # 1.

This is a new place and it has only been two weeks, so I not prepared to reach any conclusions about what this means. But I am pretty happy about having the # 1, 2, 4 slots and that my video has almost 50% more views than the #1 photo.

[Mikeinthefalls]

@Rednewt74 Congrats on having your shared media Featured at #1 and #2. That’s always a great feeling, when the AI shows love to more than one photo!

This is an interesting case. Your video at #2 certainly has more views than your photo at #1. I had a theory as to why that might be the case so I pulled up Nik’s to take a look. My guess was that your video was the most recent post to the POI and when I checked, that is the case. So your video is getting the bump on views by being featured in a different way - as the most recent share in the “Latest” tab.

I also found something I wasn’t expecting - your video is also featured in the “Views” tab. This means the video has three distinct opportunities to catch Maps user views. That’s a solid way to increase views that I had not thought of before.

It would seem you’ve unknowingly created and shared a Triple Threat video - It’s amongst the Featured photos and it’s the Feature on both Latest and Views*.*

Nice work

[Rednewt74]

@Mikeinthefalls ,

Ooh, a triple threat sounds good .

Thanks for taking the time to comment. On my Android, I don’t see a views tab.

All, latest, videos, food and drink, and ice cream. I own the video tab since mine are the only ones. I had not noticed that my second video (it starts on ice-cream and pans up to the Storefront) is listed under both food and drinks and ice-cream. I find this really interesting, because you can’t add/label a video as a dish. It must be because the thumbnail is a view of the ice cream.

Thanks again.

[JustJake]

@Rednewt74 Interesting thought on placement vs counts.

Regarding @Mikeinthefalls finding you under Latest, I’m not seeing that photo category for this location, either. BUT, when I hit “Explore” button and look through the Latest In The Area list, you’re featured a few times!

[MortenCopenhagen]

@Rednewt74

Very interesting.

New places and places with no or very few images are not difficult to get featured on

Maybe we could discuss criteria for reaching conclusion on this. Should it be minimum 50 pics from as many different contributors before we have sufficient data?

Unfortunately we don’t have access to the numbers of views when others uploaded the photos/videos.

All the best

Morten

[MortenCopenhagen]

@Rednewt74

By the way great pics. Wonderful balance between the interior and the exterior light.

Cheers

Morten

[Rednewt74]

@JustJake ,

Thanks for looking out for me. Out here in the boonies of VT there aren’t a ton of guides. I had not noticed that I was showing up in the latest in the area, but I often check it. From the latest in the area I have started following 16 guides who do not appear to be active on Connect or the Top100. Their total views range from 3,226,559 to 137,934,788 with an av of 30,555,479. I try to learn everywhere I can.

[Rednewt74]

@MortenCopenhagen ,

There is a song about how you’ll never walk alone. Well, ever since I read your series on storefront photography, I keep hearing this wise, Danish voice whispering in my ear (shoot from the left, center the logo, is the light coming from the best direction…)

So a compliment from you on one of my shots is fabulous.

I realized after I started the post that there would be a lot of situations where the number one photo won’t have the most views- it was a seriously flawed premise. I was just fascinated to see my #2 video out pacing my #1 photo.

I don’t think a new POI (or one without a lot of photos) is the best place to try and judge things either; and since we can’t tell how many views any of the other photos are getting it seems like an impossible task unless you or a cooperating Connect guide have the top 2 or 3 pictures.

I will endeavor to take over the top 2 slots on several more POI’s and if you do the same, we can compare notes.

[tony_b]

@Rednewt74 and @Mikeinthefalls Allow me to add to the mystery. I have a video of a Burger King restaurant storefront that’s in the #1 position and has just reached 100,000 views after 2 months.

#2 is a photo at 3,784 after 1 month

The next two are by one LG

#3 has 16,788 after 1 year

#4 has 15,762 after 1 year

Followed by three others

#5 has 2,601 after 1 year

#6 has 9,438 after 4 years

#7 has 13,914 after 5 years

Clearly the position and number of views are not directly related, but I’ve also included the age of each photo so you can determine if time impacted the result as well.

I would love to go deeper but it is fairly tedious. I had to identify the photos and their ages in the POI, then click on each LG and scroll to find the corresponding photo in their profile to get the view count.

One LG had a single photo, another had just a few photos per year, while the other three had a massive number of photos to scroll through in this search.

I’m sure my video is a statistical outlier, but the order of the others don’t actually make sense either. Seems though that #2 as the newest photo would quickly surpass #3 and #4 if it continues growing at it’s current rate. #5 appears dead for whatever reason, while #6 and #7 have the advantage of longer years of exposure.

Hope my analysis helps the discussion.

[Rednewt74]

@tony_b , My friend,

Great minds think alike. I too have been thinking about this type of tracking. Since no two POI get the same amount of searches or interest, comparing the views to date or views/day between different POI doesn’t tell the full story. As your stats show your photo has far outperformed any of the other photos, especially in views per day.

My curiosity is about how my #2 videos are performing against the #1 photo (especially if isn’t mine). As you point out it is a tedious exercise. I also think doing it over a period of time would be important, so you can see the current views/day of your and the other photo, not just the historical number. I have been wanting to do this for 5-10 sites , say every two weeks for a month or two… But I have been unwilling to spend the time , because I am spending so much time on tracking my videos ’ performance.

Take care and thanks for taking the time to calculate the stats and share them with us.

[tony_b]

@MortenCopenhagen It is possible to get the views of the photos uploaded by others, but as I told @Rednewt74 , it is a tedious process.

You need to identify the photos and their ages in the POI, then click on each related LG and scroll to find the corresponding photos in their profile to get the view counts. And of course, this only works on mobile, not on desktop where I’d prefer to be. (Think of scrolling to find a 4-year-old photo in the profile of an LG who’s been very active for the last 5 years).

[Rednewt74]

@tony_b ,

When I wrote one of my posts earlier, I had not noticed that in fact you can see the view count for individual photos in someone else’s profile on the mobile app. But as you point out that can mean a ton of scrolling to find it if it’s old and the guide is active.

Sorry I don’t remember if you have an iPhone or an Android, but on an Android there is a app called Flex scroll. It’s fabulous it allows you to scroll page by Page or to do a variable speed continuous scroll ( I find that I can use 75 to 85% speed and still identify a photo when I see it). I can’t tell you how much time it has saved me just going back through my own photos. If you’re an iPhone guy maybe there is one like that in Apple App Store as well.

[tony_b]

Thanks for pointing that out @Rednewt74 I’m on Android, and I’m not aware if there’s a comparable scrolling app available. Will check it out.

[Rednewt74]

@tony_b , I have an Android phone.

Flex Scroll is available in the Google play store. Let me know if you try it.