Caption: This post is about stars and this photo, taken in Dubai, is of the star at the center of the Solar System! (Photo: @bmuu )
This post is no longer being updated. For details on the latest Top 100 Most Viewed Photos leaderboards see this post.
Background:
As Local Guides, it’s often amazing which of all of our great photos on Google Maps is the photo having the most views (I started calling this our “star photo”) and this post is about this very topic. It includes leaderboards of the most viewed photos. “Not another leaderboard post ?”, I hear you say! Yes but there are reasons why…Firstly, because of the overwhelming interest by Local Guides in the idea of a Leaderboard of most viewed photos, the previous Leaderboards of the Most Viewed Photos post hit Connect’s post character limit and I was thus unable to add the star photo details of Local Guides wanting to join in the fun (see this comment). Based on restructuring, this post continues on from where that last post ended. Secondly, I’ve introduced a participation limit, restricting participation to the top 100. Thirdly, I wanted to relax the rules or the information required to participate. You will see all these changes implemented in this new post. Now a qualification. Down the track we may again hit the character limit on Connect posts and if so, then further changes might need to be made. Until then, enjoy!
Structure:
There are 7 leaderboards. The first is a leaderboard of the Top 100 Most Viewed Photos of all participating Local Guides regardless of their respective Local Guide level. This leaderboard is then broken down into individual leaderboards for each Local Guide level with the most viewed photo of Local Guides at levels 1 to 5 shown consolidated on the one leaderboard. The essential idea here is that all things being equal, one would expect that a Local Guide at a higher level would have done more guiding or perhaps been guiding for longer than one at lower levels and hence would have likely attracted most viewed photos with higher views. Having leaderboards for each Local Guide level is an attempt at creating a more level playing field, at least for comparison purposes. In this way you can see how your most viewed photo compares with that of your peers; for example, a Level 8 Local Guide can see the number of views of his/her most viewed photo compared to that of other Level 8s, a Level 7 Local Guide can do the same relative other Level 7s, and so on! Note that each leaderboard contains up to 100 Local Guides ranked in order of the number of views of their most viewed photo and thus, while you may appear on the leaderboard of your respective Local Guide level, you might not make it onto the overall leaderboard!
Snakes & Ladders:
The leaderboards are dynamic in that they will be updated and at each update both your photo views value and your Local Guide level as well as that of other participating Local Guides, including new entrants, will determine your position on the leaderboards and because there are only 100 positions or steps on each leaderboard, as new Local Guides enter that board you might also drop lower or even totally off that board, shoosh! Additionally, when you jump from one Local Guide level to another, you will jump from one leaderboard to another, for example, from the Level 7 to the Level 8 Top 100 leaderboard! What this means is that if you were on a crowded leaderboard (say the Level 8 Top 100 leaderboard) this might be a blessing as you might jump up to a less crowded leaderboard, in this case the Level 9 leaderboard and being less crowded there, you will have less chance of dropping off the bottom of the leaderboard. However, if you jump onto a crowded leaderboard (say from the Level 7 to the Level 8 leaderboard) then this might not be such a blessing! In fact, if the leaderboard hat you’re jumping up to is full, you might not even make it onto that higher leaderboard. So as you can see there are different ways you could drop off the Top 100 leaderboards. It’s very much like the game of Snakes & Ladders; we roll the dice each time there’s an update, and both the changes in number of views of your most viewed photos and Local Guide level (as well as that of all new entrants and others on the leaderboards) determine where you end up! Your changes could bump others off one or more of the Top 100 leaderboards and similarly the changes of other Local Guide’s could bump you off the leaderboards! Keep in mind though that you can re-enter at any future point in time should the number of views of your most viewed photo increase sufficiently enough because of your improved photo performance. So you can see that as well as tapping into the element of gamification in the Local Guides program, with aims of showing the Local Guides having the top 100 most viewed photos, this post includes a bit of fun ?
How to join in:
To participate on these leaderboards please follow the instructions detailed on this form. Entries submitted before the end of August will be included in the next update in early September.
here are some basic requirements for participating. While it might look complicated, it’s not. It’s really simple. Just reply to this post with a message containing the following information. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are compulsory:
* A screenshot or photo of your “star photo” - Visit your Photos Contribution area and sort your photos by views to show your “star photo”, the top photo having the highest number of views. Take a screenshot or photo of your “star photo” clearly showing the number of views and add this to your reply message. You must make sure that you select a policy compliant photo. For more details about this step see the Taking a screenshot of your star photo post created by @Erik_van_den_Ham .
* The Maps Category of the place of your star photo (as specified by Google) and provide a brief description of what the photo is off.
* Date of your Star Photo - Work out the date that you uploaded your star photo to Maps and add this to your message. You might need to approximate this from the date of your review or the photo’s date created value (see your photo’s Metadata properties). Please also indicate the source of the date, for example (a) Date uploaded to Maps or (b) Photo’s meta Date created.
Tell us if this is your best photo.
Tell us why you think it’s your “star photo”.
Tell us what you think are the important factors that contribute to photo view stats.
What camera did you use to take your “star photo”?
Check and submit your information, and then show your support by liking this post?
To make it easy for you, and easy for me to include your data on the leaderboards, and also make things a lot easier for everyone who follows this post, when providing your information a standard format is preferred. In this regard, please provide your answers as a numbered list, for examples click on any of the Maps Category entries on the Leaderboards below. Please note that if you don’t supply all the information or in the right format you may not be included or at best you might be delayed from being included.
To update your data:
The Star Views Date column shows the date of your Star Views value. Unfortunately as the number of views of a Local Guide’s individual photos isn’t public, in order for me to update your existing entry you will need to provide your star photo’s updated details using this form. Should the Star Photo change to a different photo then full details on this new “star” will need to be provided (use the same form). As mentioned above, the next update will be in early September so if you wish to update your star photo details, then do so before the end of August to have this included in the September update. Should you decide not to update your entry then you’ll gradually drop lower on the leaderboards as both new and existing Local Guides with higher Star Views jump above you and eventually you’ll drop below 100 and off the leaderboard(s) altogether. In this way, the leaderboards are self cleansing ?
Conclusion:
I have said this before but for completeness is worth mentioning again. I didn’t plan this post to be nor see it as a competition to see who are the best Local Guides. Nor is it a post about Local Guide points as we don’t get points for views! Being keen photographers we want more and more people around the world to see our great photos and the photo views is a measure of how many people do see our photos! In this way, this post is about our contribution photos on Maps and their performance (views). So join in the fun and by doing so, I’m confident that you will learn more about your contribution photos on Maps. Keep in mind that this is not a competition. It’s about sharing your photo performance data so we can all learn and improve. Finally, do keep in mind that this post is about the number of views of just one of your photos, that is, your “star photo”. In the Top 100 Photo Views post, the focus is on the number of views of all of your photos.
Please note the following:
- As a participant it’s up to you to check your entry on the leaderboards and if there are any errors or omissions to advise me by adding a comment on this post.
- The Top 100 Most Viewed Photos Leaderboards are not official Google generated or endorsed leaderboards. They are generated by me with your permission and from the photo information that you provide!
- Any statements I make about the leaderboards or interpretation of the data within them are mine and are not in any way official statements of Google.
and note against your name for your attention. You will not be added on the leaderboards until you fix up any issues. Add a comment on this post when you have fixed the issue(s) and I will update the table.
