I want the map app to display my Street View photo in the correct orientation in the top image of the point search results.
In this article, we will analyze the behavior of the top image and study how to display it as intended.
Here is a general remark from my experience to date.
I haven’t found a reliable way to display my photo in the top image yet.
However, you can increase the probability that it will be displayed in the top image.
Now, make sure the Street View is pointing in the right direction when you tap the thumbnail to open the Street View image.
In the case of Blue Line Street View, it will be displayed in almost the correct orientation.
This is a feature common to all official blue lines and user-created blue lines (still image-derived, video-derived).
In Street View at the Blue Dot, we need to devise to orient the correct POI.
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This is the statue of the Tengu in the premises of Takao Station.
https://goo.gl/maps/VbU8aVhMAjShJUVe6
When I open this POI in the map app, my Street View photo is the top image and tap the thumbnail to see the Street View in the correct orientation.
https://goo.gl/maps/xWxR6ALKzdnkGSXi8
I captured how Street View is displayed in the correct orientation.
https://youtu.be/oWfXK8Tqpbw
I’ve always wanted to take Street View photos like this.
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I also shared this article with the following two Facebook groups:
I think that discussions will proceed in the future in each group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GoogleStreetViewTrustedPhotographers/posts/2115404288635273/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LocalGuidesWorld/posts/978811212761188/
I have a lot of cases where I would like to report a summary.
I will introduce them one by one.
I will show you what I know now.
The algorithm by which Google selects the Street View image displayed on the TOP screen when searching for POI (Point Of Interest) on Google Maps has not yet been identified.
The reason for this is simple.
If the algorithm is known, anyone can easily adapt their own image as the top image.
This would create a “Google Maps editing struggle” by dishonest users.
Therefore, the algorithm can never be identified in the future. If so, Google will fix the algorithm the next day.
However, it is easy to study the features of the photographs that are currently fortunately selected as Top images.
The thumbnail of the TOP image shows the equirectangular of the original image as it is.
Then tap the thumbnail to see the corresponding Street View photo.
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What I’m currently investigating is the direction in which the Street View photo will appear first.
If the Top image is taken from the blue line Street View, the Street View image will initially be displayed facing the POI.
This is true even if the blue line was converted from the user-created blue dot by uploading a still image before May 2021.
However, if the Top image is a photo taken from Street View with blue dots, the orientation of the image will vary.
I haven’t yet found a way to control that orientation.
But if I could figure out how to control the orientation of those photos, I don’t think Google would bother them and change the algorithm.
So I would like to continue this research hard.
Currently, volunteers are manually creating rankings for images with a large number of views for a particular photo.
These images should often have a large number of views because they were the first images displayed in the POI.
Of course, there are pictures for different reasons. Also, they are still not the TOP images of POI.
However, you will find a lot of information that can be used as a reference for this survey.
https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Top-100-Star-Photo-Leaderboards-February-2022/td-p/3159852
