Thank you so much @AdamGT for your kind words and for you advice. I’m so happy see new or updated idea from you!!! 
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There are many still locked up in their bunkers with COVID and not traveling or guiding much if at all so this diversion may help some @katydarhel . Enjoy!
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Hi @AdamGT ,
Thanks for the continued work. It’s time to update my own star photo. The former “star” is now 7th in my internal ranking.
The new lead picture is at a Target (category Department Store) with 11,868,756 views today 2/2/21.
The picture was taken on May 27, 2019 (photo metadata). Most likely published on Google Maps within 2 weeks of that date.
It is a good photo of a Target store, but clearly not my best photo. My best photos never get the traction I’d like to see on Google Maps 
It became the star photo because Target is a quite popular store, the picture has good colors on a sunny day and it shows what is expected of the front of a business.
If the intent is to get to the largest amount of photo views possible for a picture, I think the following steps are crucial:
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take a good picture (obviously) on a clear sky day and make sure to have at least 20% of your picture with the sky. I believe the GM algorithm likes to see blue sky for some reason (
… rise of the robots…) -
take a picture with the best camera you can. The more pixels you have, the happier the GM algorithm feels… I guess it eats bits and bytes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and it’s always hungry
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take a picture of a highly frequented destination (mall, department store, park…) where the “owner” is not managing too much the appearance (because good owner pictures always take precedence over LG’s pictures) and there is not already 10,000+ pictures (because you’ll be diluted very fast)
This star picture was taken from a Samsung S8+ mobile phone.
Thanks again!
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@AdamGT thank you.
Apologize as I am new to local guide, and had difficulty responding in the format you requested. Will do better next time
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@AdamGT Here’s my latest update. Shine bright, shine true my star photo! Lead the way to more glorious views! 
For those interested:
https://goo.gl/maps/6argCH2mxDNwzK2o7# (review)
https://goo.gl/maps/dDC8EMMq6wr1GQ539 (photo)
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I love your background photo @AdamGT very sharp and clear!
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Ah… congratulations for becoming CM, what an achievement @AdamGT but you definitely deserve it.
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Thank you @Sophia_Cambodia . The feature photo was taken in Dubai. It’s incredible that because of the sky haze I was able to take such a photo of the sun. Thank you also @Sophia_Cambodia for your congratulations however, please note that the proper place for this is on the Meet the Connect Moderators post.
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Hi @AdamGT this is my new top photo: Griffith Observatory
- The screenshot
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Category: Observatory.
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Date: well I’ve a problem here. I took pictures to the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California many times, all of them before I started as a Local Guide, the last one was in 2018. And this is interesting, I discovered that I’ve never uploaded any pics on Maps of it before. In my first weeks of isolation (March & April of 2020) I did it, I uploaded some pics of different travels (this place never change). So, I’m pretty sure that my new top photo was taken on March 10 2013 and uploaded latter on March 2020 (don’t tell anyone but I still not write the review lol)
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Is it my best photo? nop, but I like it much more than my previous top photo.
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Why is my “star photo”? Not sure but maybe due the impossibility of travel for many of us yet the people is looking for more vacation places on Maps.
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Important factors: not sure, a good quality photo is important but not definitive.
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Device used: my first iPad.
If something is wrong please let me know.
Greetings.
Silvy.
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Hello @AdamGT . Here is the screen shot of my most viewed pictures. It happen to be a movie theater named Prostor
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Update to my consistent photo with the highest views as of February 9, 2021. This is a good picture. However, to my surprise, viewers have decided to make it a star photo. This is a gentle picture. Viewers with a little imagination can walk right into it.
Cercis
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Thanks for the update @Cercis however, unfortunately your image is so small that I cannot read your star’s photo views. Can you please edit your comment and type in your star photo’s new views value.
Hey all, I hope you’re well, details of my ‘Star Photo’ as follows 
- * A screenshot or photo of your “star photo” - My most viewed photo is of Pure South Kitchen
- * The Maps Category is a Restaurant and my photo shows the shop front.
- * Date of your Star Photo - The photo was taken and uploaded to Google Maps in June 2021
- Tell us if this is your best photo. Not at all, I have no idea why its viewed so much. I prefer this one here
- Tell us why you think it’s your “star photo”. Its a popular place.
- Tell us what you think are the important factors that contribute to photo view stats. Constantly contributing every week helps, I try to add images to places that dont really have many photos for the general public to view.
- What camera did you use? I used a iPhone 12 Pro
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Greetings!
- * A screenshot or photo of your “star photo” - My most viewed photo is of a Walmart in Richmond, CA which I visited with @Shirley before one of our Connect Live events.
- * The Maps Category is a Discount Store and my photo shows the organized aisles.
- * Date of your Star Photo - The photo was taken and uploaded to Google Maps in October 2017
- Tell us if this is your best photo. Definitely not; it’s a helpful photo as it’s important to know how Walmarts are organized but I like this photo of a secret basement area in NYC way better.
- Tell us why you think it’s your “star photo”. Walmarts are very popular!
- Tell us what you think are the important factors that contribute to photo view stats.I think it’s a combination of adding photos to Google Maps since 2012, very early on, so I bet a lot of my photos were featured.
- What camera did you use to take your “star photo”? It must have been a Pixel as I’ve had one for quite some time.
- Check and submit your information, and then show your support by liking this post
Done!
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@AdamGT Here is an update to my star photo
View count: 9,895,378
- A screenshot or photo of your “star photo”
- The Maps Category - University
- Date of your Star Photo - Apr 2018 (date uploaded to Map)
- Tell us if this is your best photo - not necessarily. However it is one of the good photos
- Tell us why you think it’s your “star photo” - It’s been the cover photo for some time. Google AI likes it so far.
- Tell us what you think are the important factors that contribute to photo view stats - It’s been the cover photo for some time. Google AI likes it so far.
- What camera did you use to take your “star photo”? - Nikon D750
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Hello fellow Local Guides, some comments on recent entries follow:
@TorM I have updated your entry as best I can and you need to respond to my questions posted here.
@Herve_Andrieu it’s interesting how you have a new star photo (Department store) and that your former star (Hardware store) has dropped to 7th in your most viewed photos ranking. I know you keep records so I want to ask, given the high views of your stars, was this new star’s views back at end July 2020 in the same ballpark of that of your former star or did its views just grow from a long way down at some incredible rate to take the lead? Also, are the view counts of your now top 7 stars all in the same ballpark and so there may likely be some further jokeying of positions here? It’s interesting also how your new star is Target (Department store) not too dissimilar to that of @TraciC 's Walmart (Discount store) but in your case yours is a storefont picture wheresas @TraciC 's is an internal picture. Perhaps this suggests that it would be wise for all of us to take both types of photos! Interesting also how you said that “it became the star photo because Target is a quite popular store” echoed by @TraciC 's thoughts as to why her Walmart photo was her star. Another one of your interesting observations is that you believe that the Google Maps algorithm likes to see blue sky in the photos! Lots of food for thought here!!
@AdrianLunsong and @SilvyC given my comments above regarding @Herve_Andrieu 's new star are there any observations that you can make about the fact that you also have a new star?
@ShipraMitra I noted your comment and did my best to add you onto the Top 100 Leaderboards based on the information I managed to find at end December 2020. Feel free to provide updated information and I will happily update your entry and there’s no need to apologize, give a shout-out if you need some help with this.
@SilvyC , have you written a review of the observatory the subject of your “star photo” yet? (Shhhh @AdamGT )
@Cercis thanks for the updated details of your star photo however, unfortunately your new image is so small that I cannot read your star’s new photo views. Perhaps you could simply edit your previous advice and type in your star photo’s new views value.
@Teana_K Thanks for your entry. Please read the post to supply the missing information.
@TraciC we’re all excited that you have joined us and shared both your star photo’s details including your insight into why you think it is your star. You mentioned that you visited this Walmart with @Shirley before one of the Connect Live events in 2017. Hmmm this led me to wonder if she also might have taken photos of that Walmart at that time. This would be very interesting in the context of this post about “star photos” as it would be the first time that we would be able to compare the photo views of photos taken at the same time of the same POI by two different Local Guides!!! Interesting also that like most of us, you have said that your star photo is definitely not your best photo but nonetheless is a helpful photo. I have to say that I can see why you think your photo of the secret basement at 21 Club way better (I love the wine cellar :-)). Thanks for your kudos 
With your very impressive overall photo views, we’d all love to also see you on The Top 100 Photo Views Leaderboards
@jayasimha78 thanks for updating your entry. However, please note that while I have no other way to obtain and then update the most viewed photo data in the leaderboards, as mentioned in the To update your data section, as a participant you don’t need to provide a complete new entry.
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@Robert24 I note your entry in the Achievements board however, it would be better to also provide your “star photo” updated details here as I, as well as everyone else participating in this post, might not see your post on the Achievements board.
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@AdamGT Thank You! Will provide only view next time, unless the star photo changes.
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@AdamGT Here is another effort. I think I have this procedure down pat, now. Once again, thank you for your patience. @Cercis
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@Cercis thank you for editing your entry and providing a much better image of your “star photo”. For now this is great however for future updates, rather than a collage including other photos, see if you can work out how to just provide an image of your 'stare photo". If there is only one photo in your image it should be shown larger and clearer. There are many good recent examples on what I mean and if you click on the category entry on the Leaderboards for the following Local Guides you will see what I mean: @TraciC’s recent entry, @Jb-Tranquille , @katydarhel , @TorM , @Herve_Andrieu , @SilvyC and @AdrianLunsong . Also to avoid potential readabiliy problems, as well as the image of your “star photo” you could type out it’s photo views value (in this case 227,603) in your entry.
@Teana_K thank you for providing the required information. Your entry has now been added onto the Leaderboards.
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