I have become tired of coming across some of my reviews images being re-labelled as incorrect subjects. Why this happens leads me to believe one of two things could be the reason.
Firstly, the Maps image reviewer does not like the content of the caption, and by re-labelling it, gets me to rethink it and rework it. Now, I am quite thoughtful about what I put in these captions, from what I think a reader may wish to know.
Secondly, there’s the possibility the image reviewer thinks the image is not worthy to appear as part of the review due to it being not useful. Hoping that I would choose to remove it from my review. Presuming I am continually revisiting these reviews, as if I have nothing better to do. I admit, as a newbie Guide, I do do this, just to see how many views a piece has received. It’s quite educational and has also been a factor in the removal of some images. I have been quite ruthless in this regard; the images with a truly low number of views get scrapped.
To give credit to myself, I have been picking up on the second message and have also been removing a number of fotos I have seen were not really useful, thinking from the marketing perspective of the business I have reviewed. This has become more obvious when doing the Q&A series of choices, as I am in the process of learning about Maps and its use as a marketing tool. Why the Maps image reviewer can’t just email me and say, Janina, we’d like you to re-consider these fotos in light of their not meeting the Maps policy re the usefulness of an image. I am a reasonable and mature person who is willing to listen and re-consider.
As a way of getting around this image re-labelling conundrum, I have been trying different ways of identifying the content in an image, so that it cannot be re-labelled. Here are two ways. I’m interested to
know what you think, please.
I would have posted this in the Idea Exchange except one cannot insert photos.
First way:
Firstly, (in the Idea Exchange forum) when I looked at the blank form in which we type our post, and looking at the editing tools just above the form, there was no camera icon (for inserting an image).
Secondly, Yes, I am referring to the images that I attach to my Reviews at the time of posting the review. I add a caption to each of them. Occasionally, too, when I have gone back to a particular business, there is the section near the top of images, I think called Menu Highlights, where I have seen one or two of my image captions having been altered. And also the Add dish name section too.
I’d just like to know why this practice happens. It doesn’t make sense to me!
Thanks for asking, I hope you are also doing well! : ]
Much appreciated also for the explanation. Would you mind checking again if the adding photo icon would be there, as in case not, would you mind sharing a screenshot of the missing option, as well as adding information of the device that it occurred (model, OS, browser version)?
Regarding the suggestion, when a dish name was added or a caption added to a dish photo of yours (that was picked to be in the photo section of Menu or Food and Drink), the caption would go missing, correct?
An argument against your proposal is that the automatic translation into other languages is completely disabled when you add text directly on to your photos.
Hence I would not recommend following your proposal.
Hello @MortenCopenhagen Thanks for your thoughts. I think it should be a simple action to select/highlight those words from the image and use the Google Translate feature. I’ll try it now and let you know.
It didn’t work – I could not select the text from the image, but that is here on the Connect forum, using my Samsung Galaxy TabA tablet 2017 model.
However, having said that, I have no doubt that if a translation is needed, the person could easily input the text into the Google Translate feature. Simple. Yes?
I suppose I should put, somewhere, possibly as part of my LG Connect posting signature (If only I knew how to do that), that I only do Maps reviews and edits using my Samsung Galaxy TabA 2017 model tablet, and on any future tablet upgrade I get. Currently, I notice in the latest Maps version on my tablet, there is no Google Translate feature.
Of course, our Australian maps are in English and, therefore, my image labelling will be in English. I have no doubt that if you are looking at my Reviews photos on your desktop computer, you will be able to access the Google Translate feature in whatever browser you choose to use.
I do know that the character map that comes as an accessory tool with my laptop OS does include the types of Danish letters you give in your comment.
One thing no-one has mentioned is that the purpose of putting a caption on an image seems to be mostly as an Accessibility feature for sight-impaired people.
To get back to the purpose of my post, about someone altering the captions on some of my Reviews photos, I am perplexed as to why this should happen, after I have gone to the trouble of writing appropriate captions.
@PaulPavlinovich has recently posted about Maps, on desktop computers only, now showing EXIF data captions for uploaded photos. And, as a comment on his post, I wondered if it would also work on my Samsung tablet Maps version. I will try that the next time I have a new Review with photos.
Firstly, I have just installed a screen capture app on my Samsung tablet and am trying it out. Once I’m confident with using it, I will try to get the shot of the blank Idea Exchange post editor for you.
And, secondly, if there are any of my Reviews photos still showing altered captions, I will try and get a screenshot of that also.
Thanks for reminding, do feel free to let us know when the steps are being proceeded! : ]
It is indeed came out as an interesting discussion with @MortenCopenhagen on the subject, as you may also feel free to link the current post to the upcoming idea.
Thanks for your reply. I’m still convinced that cementing captions into image files should not be a recommended practice for arguments already mentioned.
I acknowledge the differences between the three different platforms. I use all three and the limitations are honestly quite annoying. Many times I need to switch platforms to accomplice a task or even use two different devices simultaneously.
Having carefully worded captions removed is indeed a bad and upsetting thing. I wish I knew what caused it. But I too have had issued with them in the past.
One trick that might be valuable for you is to ask for the desktop version of Google Maps when using a browser on your mobile device. This way you can get access to the functionality of the web version on your device.
All the best
Morten
PS: On Google Maps English is not just one language. There are regional flavors. Also one understanding Arvo and Mate etc.
Caption vanishing, @PaulPavlinovich is changing it. You had something there, then it was gone! Perhaps when you now include an embedded caption, using your Lightroom software, you’ll be able to monitor this, to see if captions do get changed.
@PaulPavlinovich@MortenCopenhagen@sonnyNg Here is the latest Maps Review I prepared with two images with labelling in-photo in the polaroid style. The images have not been edited. I’m not sure I like the look and also that there’s just no room to expand the description in this style of frame, so I think I will not pursue the idea. For my next review, I will try the EXIF caption method and see what happens!
The exif approach turned out to be a bug @janina1 and has been removed.
The Maps app itself on phone will prompt you to add captions. You can add them as you add photos to the
review or you can caption them afterwards from the Contribute tab. Make sure you’ve got the latest app version.
I certainly would not write the captions on, the captions are for screen readers to describe your photo to unsighted people and for image recognition in Maps.
