Background
Google Maps Community circulated to me their latest Newsletter on 26th of January 2023 with some tips for taking a video like a pro. Under the heading “Tips for making truly helpful videos” there are 3 headline points, the first of which says that videos should be “Vertical, not Horizontal”. That may be a big surprise to some Local Guides, including me who have been taking and uploading horizontal videos successfully for some time. My videos, the majority in horizontal orientation, have had 4.5 million visits on Google Maps! The same goes for photos as they are not normally vertical but users are accustomed to so why should it be any different when it comes to videos? So this post discusses the use of both vertical and horizontal videos on Google Maps depending on the circumstances. It’s worth restating that currently all videos should be no longer than 30 seconds in length or they are automatically shortened at the time of uploading.
Not long after I moved to Spain back in 2010 I set up a travel website and started posting web based content including photos. Most of this was desktop content as smartphones were pretty basic in those early days of Nokia. I also started posting on social media like Facebook and Twitter. It was a logical progression to extend to promotional videos first for the website and then on social media. The catalyst to this step towards multimedia was my collaboration with a professional colleague, Roland Quesnel who does it for a living. You could say this was ahead of the time as Google Maps was in its infancy and not even the local tourist boards had started adding video content.
So for desktop they were all shot in horizontal format (landscape) nothing in vertical (portrait). Here’s some examples :
My First Video !
Galicia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agG8oF6p9Cg
Typical Promotional Videos
Organic Biscuits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5a58WrnOUU
Winery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQacRYeRr8&t=4s
When I got into doing videos I was obviously nervous to start with and needed help and guidance. I was enthusiastic about the opportunities to promote places and businesses.I managed to pick up a lot of tips and good practice for beginners from my professional friend and colleague, Roland Quesnel.
Video from Roland Quesnel’s Business Channel:
I was taught to keep the shots mainly static but progressing to some short pans and tilts always using a tripod (this is probably a little less important with the excellent stabiliser technology in smartphones although people with really good devices still mess up by not being steady in their movements). Everything should be smooth and steady and preferably pretty short clips of 8 seconds always in horizontal mode for editing purposes. I’m glad that the basic tips of a decade or so ago remain, according to the Google Maps Community Newsletter, as relevant then as they are now. As they put it in their headline points 2 and 3 “keep motion in the frame“ and “keep it simple”.
In those early days before the growth of Instagram and other smartphone based platforms, the horizontal format was the standard in Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, websites etc. The TV-like view obviously ruled whether you’re making a short advert of 30 seconds, a documentary or film. We were producing a lot of content promoting tourist sites and sometimes interviewing clients as well. It was no surprise that video content/multimedia really started to take off especially when smartphones were introduced and other platforms started to grow like Instagram and then eventually TikTok came along. I benefited in the early days as there were few players and I did lots of simple videos of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trek taking various routes and ending in Santiago de Compostela. Again all of this was in horizontal format even when smartphones started to get popular.
Camino de Santiago
From Porto to Santiago de Compostela: Portuguese Coastal Way
From Sarria to Santiago de Compostela: French Way
Over the years I must have done over 100 videos for CaminoWays.com with over a million visits in total as they are pretty specialist videos on a very low key budget!
My latest collaboration with Roland Quesnel has had over 500,000 visits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUjtuNOZe4Y
In terms of length I was always advised that as the average user has a short attention span the videos should be not more than 2-3 minutes. The whole concept of attention span is a complex one. People who are researching a destination to visit have a longer span than someone watching another influencer eat apple pie!
Needless to say all are in horizontal orientation. You can see they’re fit for purpose covering the landscapes and sense of place, not just a person in portrait mode! They can all be easily viewed on smartphones even if you have to rotate the phone which is normally automatically done for you. Of course, the world doesn’t just revolve around smartphone usage. People still complement this with desktop, be it a pc, laptop, chromebook, tablet etc. There’s also too many bugs out there so you can’t always rely 100% on your smartphone. Some tasks in an Android or iOS have to be reverted to desktop or vice versa!
So what’s changed?
Yes so what’s changed and why are Google Maps saying videos should be vertical and not horizontal? The only reason Google Maps give in their “Tips for making truly helpful videos” is “Keeping your videos vertical will ensure that other people don’t have to turn their devices to watch”. Wait a minute what about photos? Besides my Google Chromebook is a device! So you certainly don’t have to turn that device to watch a video in Google Maps!! However, I get what the comment is trying to say because, in the mobile centric world that we now live in, most users will use a smartphone to open Google Maps and it would be easier or quicker for them to view in vertical mode. Are there many people out there like me who use Google Maps on desktop alot too? In addition it may be easier but would it be better? Well that depends if the video is of a landscape or trying to best capture the place or on a host of other factors which depend on the individual circumstances! I’ve also heard that Google thinks vertical videos get more views but I haven’t been supplied with any further detail to be able to open up the discussion.
It’s also true that dramatic growth in smartphone usage has spurred on the growth in social media and multimedia content with the likes of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook shorts etc so vertical suits smartphone users on mobile as we like to call it. Most of this content is instant and short in length. So I can understand why vertical is in the thinking.
The changes to video content originate from the Guiding Stars 2022 announcement where the selected smartphone video images appeared to be all in vertical mode like the scenic pan shot.
In the Contributor Conversation master class with Google Maps Product Manager, Masa Ui (see the September 2022, You’re invited to a Contributor Conversation post by @Kristen_NYC ) Masa mentions the importance of vertical videos. This is amplified in his advice in “what kind of videos we need” in the Contributor Conversations_ Video posted on 19th December 2022 .
But we can’t forget about purpose. A lot of Google Maps is about promoting landscape not portrait. In fact, having closeups of people in Google whether photo or video is discouraged but it may be better to capture the ambiance and promote say a restaurant in horizontal orientation!! I therefore believe that a vertical solution doesn’t always fit so there’s a roll for horizontal videos too. Other platforms like YouTube and Netflix are in screen mode so horizontal hasn’t gone away. So surely we should be able to continue to use both orientations, depending on context?
I remember that Google Maps was first rolled out on desktop where you could upload photos and videos. Now it’s getting into vertical videos which is fashionable. I don’t believe that means that we do away with horizontal orientation. Until there’s more restrictions on the parameters of what users can upload, nothing is likely to change anyway. Besides, there’s already a lot of successful video content on Maps in horizontal orientation. It would be too draconian for Google to remove all old video content. If you use Google’s own Movies App what do you get as an end result? Yes of course a horizontal video made up of vertical and horizontal clips if you like that sort of thing!!
What do you think? Do you think there’s a place for landscape oriented videos on Maps?
Johar someone will like us 