I noticed today that there are star icons that have replaced the city names of Scottsdale, Arizona (USA) and Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix is above, here’s the Scottsdale icon:
Before the big brains pounce on me for naïveté ( @MortenCopenhagen & @JanVanHaver ), yes - this is the same icon for the ‘Starred Places’ that you find under lists. HOWEVER, I have those hidden from my map. For the uninitiated, here’s what a normal ‘Starred Place’ looks like:
What’s odd now, is that this isn’t every major city. Los Angeles is not a Star. Tucson, Arizona - which I frequent on a monthly basis - is not a Star. And when hovered over with the mouse, the normal Highlight pop-up shows:
My question to you, astute Local Guides (including the aforementioned Big Brains), is: What Gives? Could it be that our hometown & capital are now highlighted by this Star Icon? Do you see stars over your own home area? Have I just bumped my head?
I was unable to find the LG stars on Google Maps for desktops. Maybe you could share dropped pins close to the ones you see.
I believe you are aware that lists now can use self-chosen icons (even some that we upload ourselves) This might explain what you are seeing.
Or could it be that places on your stared places are shown with this icon? If so, I think it should be fixed so it does not look like the LG-level badges.
It’s a perplexing situation @MortenCopenhagen . The links in the post to Phoenix and Scottsdale are directly from the Stars themselves.
My list of ‘Starred Places’ has only been used for travel and does not include any locations in Arizona. I’ve toggled the hide and unhide option to confirm that the intentionally starred locations are showing and disappearing.
For S&Gs HERE is a pin for a location right next to the star:
My Starred Places list is the oldest one I have. They are all places from a trip to Europe in 2016.
One thing just came to mind. I have a family account, could I be seeing something saved by a member of my Google Family? I can find no reference to it, or a toggle switch (like on the calendar) to turn the view on or off.
Well, @MortenCopenhagen , I’ve figured it out, but now I’ve got more questions.
When checking to see if the stars were showing on mobile, I went into my saved lists to make sure they were all hidden from the map, and I noticed a Following button on the bottom of the Saved Places screen.
But the question now is how did these get here, and where does the option to follow a location appear on the map? If I select any other cities, there’s no Follow option. Even if I select Save while highlighting a City/Town, the Follow button isn’t there.
@MortenCopenhagen I understand that. It’s just that the two mystery marked locations happen to be hiding under this Following button. I don’t know anything about Following a location.
A business can be followed. And you will see their updates. But I don’t think you can follow an area.
If you can not start following a new area this could just be an artifact not worth persuing. I think unfollow them will solve your issue. Maybe these got converted at some point in time
I can’t see the star on the location shared by you, @JustJake , unless I add myself the coordinates in a list.
In Google Maps you can define the areas you are interested in, @MortenCopenhagen , but the areas you are following are not identified with a star in the map.
The list of areas can be modified manually, adding or removing places, but it is also changed by Google Maps according to location, searches and contributions. Tokyo was added on my list when I started to search places for organising my trip.
When an area is in the list you are receiving notifications in the Updates section of the App
Glad to see you have figured it out by now @JustJake . When I first read your post, yesterday, I was also seeing stars - as it was late in the evening over here in Belgium already, so looking outside revealed a starry sky
And my first thought (when reading the post title) was that you might have been drinking a few Belgian beers again with the seeing of stars then as a result
On a serious note: my best guess is that the Follow option was there at some point, but is no longer available now (the infamous Google graveyard is HUGE). And by the way, have you heard the new podcast episode already? Your “handyman” news item is included in it.
Thanks to all of you Big Brains for your help and attention - @MortenCopenhagen , @ErmesT , @JanVanHaver . I think we have discovered an artifact. Now, I’m reluctant to unfollow them since they’re antiques that could be worth something someday!
Jan - my final Westvleteren 12 has been properly aged and is awaiting the perfect evening that can afford my full attention. Sadly, it was not this night. More likely that I was seeing stars from banging my head on my desk trying to figure out what was going on. – The new podcast announcement was featured right below your comment, I was heading to that post right now, actually. I need to set up an alert on my Google Podcasts app … until that becomes another relic of Google’s past in April. THANK YOU for what you give to the community, and I’m more than honored to have found something newsworthy for you.
Yes, As @JanVanHaver mentioned, the Follow button was available before, for a short period, when we used to open a knowledge panel of a city. I also followed some cities, and those were in the following even after removing the Follow button. But now I checked again and see those cities are no longer available on my list.
Thanks for the history @Amiran , I honestly don’t remember that ability to follow cities. It was odd to pop up, seemingly, out of the blue that day. Since there have been many new features that are being discovered by LGs here, rather than being announced officially by Google to us, I thought I had found something new! Turns out it was just something old
in the map.
Loved reading the thread replies and learning more about these stars. 