Ich möchte gerne mal wissen wie die Kriterien für Fotos sind.
Mir ist aufgefallen das wenn man das erste Foto mit einer Außenansicht hoch lädt und alle anderen Aufnahmen im Innenbereich oder Essen darstellen nicht an exponierter Stelle erscheint, obwohl die anderen Fotos nichts aussagen von der Äußerlichkeit.
Dann noch etwas.
Warum lobt Google Fotos, wo nur 30 oder 40 Blicke drauf geworfen wurden? Andere Fotos haben hundert tausende Blicke kassiert und das wird nicht erwähnt.
Hello @Raggafreak
From your question I would like to recommend What-photos-should-I-share-on-Google-Maps ? It’s very detailed. The other one is talking about Tips-for-taking-storefront-photos-on-Google-Maps
In general photos get high number of views if they are very clear that means not blurry. If they show a key important information about the POI. The brightness,contrast etc also comes to play etc.
@MortenCopenhagen wrote lots of posts but maybe this one about 
Obvious-photography-missteps-to-avoidwill be of help
Happy guiding
Cheers
Das wäre zum Beispiel so ein Foto. Es ist die einzige Aufnahme von draußen, aber es erscheint im hinteren Viertel der Galerie hinter fotografierten Essen.
Hi @Raggafreak
I totally agree with you. Each time I get one of these ridiculous notifications that a random and recently uploaded photo of mine is being viewed. And a very low view count is mentioned. I have one image with almost 30 million views yet it was never mentioned in such a notification. 
(Update: I believe it is the first image uploaded on a particular date that leads to such notifications).
I have studied the photo selection AI for some time now. And it does make odd choices. But on the other hand, I have been able to keep my featured rated surprisingly high. You may want to read this post: https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Calculate-the-quality-of-your-photos/m-p/3567171
90% of a tiny sample of my photos got featured.
Google is not very talkative when it comes to photo guidelines. But if you keep usefulness and being helpful to Maps users top of mind you pretty much can’t go wrong.
Let me know if you are interested in links to the guidelines and feel free to ask again should you want more answers.
Cheers
Morten
We can only guess at the ranking algorithm they use - but I think a weakness of this photo is that the name of the business is not visible (Timberjacks Köln West). If the algorithm could extract the name your photo might have been ranked higher - but maybe there is no name?
You can try again - different viewpoint, different time of day etc - eventually you will probably get the top one. It can be very satisfying to succeed after a couple of tries - otherwise just move on 
Some places are difficult - also because the “SPAM” detector misclassifies genuinely good photos. You begin to see the cracks in the algorithm when you upload a lot of photos and study what the algorithm does with them…
Hallo @MortenCopenhagen ,
ich habe mit großem Vergnügen deine Berichte https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Storefront-Photography-Series-Index/td-p/3515527 über die Schaufenster Fotografie gelesen.
Heute habe ich es ausprobiert und zehn Fotos hoch geladen. Ich habe deine Tips und Tricks angewandt und habe eine für mich gute Quote erreicht.
Zwei Fotos haben es nicht geschafft unter den ersten zehn zu sein.
Zwei sind auf Platz 1, zwei auf Platz 2, zwei auf Platz 5 und zwei auf Platz 6.
Ich möchte mich bei dir bedanken das du dir so viel Zeit nimmst um die Dinge auf den Grund zu gehen Morten.
Hier habe ich einen Link zu meiner Seite https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/104288209133124127448/edits/@50.9915287,6.8122479,12z .
Ich konnte leider keinen Screenshot einfügen.
Thanks so much. I’m very pleased that it is working so well for you.
Cheers for better Google Maps photos
Morten
Das Angebot nehme ich gerne an.
Here we go.
First of all your photos look great. The following is not a detailed analysis, but some tips on possible enhancements to increase the chances of getting featured. Keep in mind this is purely based on empirical knowledge and not official guidelines from Google.
1: I would zoom in a bit more so the name sign gets bigger and positioned higher in the frame. Covering the entire width of the store is less important in my experience.
2: More cropping space on each side of the storefront will make the image work better when auto-cropped to a square image. Tilted a tiny bit to the right.
3: The name needs to be centered in the shot. You may need to walk forward and zoom out to avoid the tree. I would remove the top floor from the frame.
4: Could be centered better. But maybe that would make your reflection visible?
5: Perfect. Maybe the horizontal alignment could be slightly better.
6: Landscape mode will increase your chances of getting featured. Moving right to get the entrance and sign better centered might be good.
7: Nice pic, but where is the name of the garage/business?
8: Zoom in a bit more and use landscape orientation.
9: Not level. You cut the vertical sign. I might have made the same image. Nothing is easy when the signage and the entrance are not nicely centered.
10: When this image is cropped to a square image the name sign will be cut. This can be prevented by adding more cropping space/margin on each side of the shop.
Again, please do not take this as criticism. My intention is to help you and others who read this.
All the best
Morten
Vielen Dank @MortenCopenhagen !
Du hast mir die Augen geöffnet, um in Zukunft mehr aus meinen Bildern herauszuholen.
Deine Analyse ist völlig korrekt und zeugt von einer hohen Erfahrung.
Ich mache meine Fotos ausschließlich im Querformat außer in meinen Anfängen als Localguide.
Muss man denn alle Fotos in Quadratformat hochladen? Dies geschieht doch automatisch.
Gruß
Always happy to help.
We should never upload square photos, Google Maps will automatically crop the landscape photos to the square format when a square image is needed.
This is also why it is good to have plenty of cropping space on both sides of storefronts.
All the best
Morten
