1 - Introduction
This post is an “album” if you will, showcasing Local Guides’ star 360 spheres. It’s the place to showcase our “best” 360 spheres contributed to Maps and is fundamental to and integrated with the monthly Star 360 Spheres leaderboards focused on the performance of these 360 spheres. It follow on from the Local Guides, 2023 Album of Star 360 Spheres post.
2 - Questions:
Because we want this post to very much look like an album, if you have any questions or wish to comment about star 360 spheres generally, or a specific Local Guide’s star 360 sphere in this album, or how to participate here or on the Leaderboards, then please do not add them in comments in this album post. Instead, add them in a comment on Discussion on Local Guides’ 2024 Star 360 Spheres post. Please note that any such comments added here will be moved to the special discussion post.
3 - Steps to add your star 360 sphere:
To participate, you need to take a screenshot of your star sphere thumbnail shown on Maps and add it in a comment on this post following the formatting criteria as outlined below. A good idea is to use the steps mentioned as a checklist and make sure you cover each step. Your screenshot should:
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[20 points] include only one image of your star 360 sphere, clearly showing the current star views overlaid over it. Larger screenshots are best but do not over enlarge your screenshot at the expense of quality/resolution;
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[20 points] only be of your star sphere and not show any Maps details other than those overlaid over your star 360 sphere itself on Maps;
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[10 points] preferably be taken in landscape (more wide than tall) layout as these photos look better than portrait or vertical layout (more tall than wide),
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[10 points] be posted centered,
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[5 points] have only one blank line (i.e. no text) at the top between the screenshot itself and your Connect avatar and post date details,
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[20 points] include a caption using the following format
Caption: Star 360 sphere by @YourConnectUsername of [name of the place] uploaded onto Google Maps on [include date uploaded] and showing star views of [enter star views] as at [include star views date]
Notes:
- If you’re participating in the star 360 sphere leaderboards, the caption to be used will be automatically generated for you. Just copy and paste it with your screenshot;
- If you’re adding your screenshot on a desktop PC then add the caption as part of the Insert Photos process so that it is better integrated with the screenshot itself.
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[10 points] The caption shows the correct star date & star views (screenshot) date.
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[10 points] The star views shown on your caption must be the same as that shown on your screenshot and if you’re a Top 100 Local Guides leaderboard participant, it must also be equal to the star views you have entered for your star 360 sphere on the Top 100 System!
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[5 point] Add one blank after your image and caption but not before!
Note: The Connect editor at times adds extra blank lines and for best readability on mobile devices we don’t want these extra blank lines, thank you! So after you save your screenshot post, check it and if you see too many blank lines, delete them. In my own screenshot post here, for better readability I have also added one blank line at the end of my screenshot post
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[15 points] Add the name of the place, city and country as a heading and that heading must be the shared link of your star 360 sphere on Maps. Interested Local Guides can then simply select your heading to visit and view your star 360 sphere on Maps.
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[20 points] Immediately under the heading (no blank lines before) tell the story about your star 360 sphere or the place etc. This is important so make it interesting so others, including Search Engine robots, will enjoy reading and like your story and you just never know your star 360 sphere might be featured in other places on Connect as well as the Web and thus build on its impact.
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[5 points] Include in your description details of make and model of the camera/smartphone used (e.g. Canon, EOS 7D, icoh Theta, Insta360).
You might also like to mention:
(a) If this is this your best 360 sphere ?
(b) Was this just a point and shoot 360 sphere ?
Important Notes:
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After adding your star 360 sphere screenshot, you should check it on both mobile and a PC for formatting and consistency (especially line spacing). You will be able to compare yours with others in the album;
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The points shown in red against each of the above requirements (maximum 150), are used to measure how well your star 360 sphere screenshot fits in with the specified formatting criteria and is explained in more detail in the Discussion on Star Photos, Videos & 360 Spheres post.
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Why did I say use your imagination and make the story about your star 360 sphere or the place or meal etc interesting so others, including Search Engine robots, will enjoy reading it? It’s because our contributions are not only shown in this album on Connect, they are also shown in the public domain and therefore will end up on general Google Search Results Pages (SERPs) etc. If we make our descriptions interesting, this will help generate generic “hits” to our 360 spheres which means more views.
So when writing your description for your star 360 sphere screenshot, think of it as a mini post of it’s own. Give it some thought, make it interesting but there’s no need to go overboard!!!
4 - Examples of star 360 sphere screenshots
For a great example of how to post your screenshot of your star 360 sphere, I encourage you to check out the following 360 spheres posts:
- Centro Deportivo Chapultepec AC, Mexico City, Mexico by @LightRich which you can see here;
- The 360 sphere of “Giardino degli Aranci” (Orange Garden), Roma, Italy by @AT_Rome and
- Nuffield Health Taunton Fitness & Wellbeing Gym, Taunton, United Kingdom by @nigelfreeney which you can find here.
5 - Updating your star 360 sphere:
From time to time you might wish to edit or update your star 360 sphere. For example, you have made a mistake in your post or the star views may have increased or you might even have a new star 360 sphere! Simple! There are two different scenarios here, (a) editing or updating your existing star 360 sphere and (b) adding a new star 360 sphere!
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when editing or updating your existing star 360 sphere you simply re-visit your existing entry in this post and update it using either of the two procedures mentioned in Sections 5.1 and 5.2 below, which as you can see depends on whether you are or are not currently participating on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards.
** It’s important to note that when editing or updating your existing star 360 sphere you must not start a new comment for this.
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when adding a new star 360 sphere, you add it in a new comment on this post following the steps detailed in Section #3 above.
5.1 Participant on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards
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Visit your Maps profile and take a new screenshot of your new or current star 360 sphere thumbnail showing the current star views and in the format as specified in points 1 to 3 of the formatting criteria in section 3 above.
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Update your star 360 sphere details on the Top 100 Local Guides system.
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Copy the caption suggested on the Top 100 Local Guides system
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If you are adding a new star 360 sphere as described in point 5(b) above then add this in a new comment in this post following the steps detailed in Section 3 above and then go to step 16 below. If on the other hand you editing or updating your existing star 360 sphere (see point 5(a) above) then continue on with the following steps.
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Find your star 360 sphere as you previously added in this album post.
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Select the ellipsis menu (3 blue dots)
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Select Edit Reply
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Select the screenshot of your star 360 sphere
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Select the pencil icon to activate the edit function
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Delete your old star 360 sphere screenshot
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Add the new screenshot showing the updated star 360 sphere views
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Paste the caption copied at step 3 above.
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Select Done
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You could add in your description a brief mention of the change in 360 sphere’s star views for example:
Date Star views
Feb 2023 10,000
Mar 2033 15,000
Apr 2023 17,050 -
Select Save Changes
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Job done! Grab a coffee!!
* Notes Regarding Updating:
(a) Should you update your album entry if the star views did not change?
If your star 360 sphere’s views does not change you must update the “as at” date on the last date in the month that you checked your star. This is important to maintain the correct history of your star’s views in both the T100 Leaderboard System and posts on Connect, including the respective Leaderboard posts.
(b) Do you need to take and add a new screen shot, even if the number of views are the same as last month?
There is no need to update the screenshot if the star views remains unchanged, this is entirely your choice. However, it is still necessary to update the caption on the screenshot and this is to clearly indicate that the views are still what they are on the “as at” date. You will have the caption automatically generated for you after performing the step mentioned in (a) above and it will take no more than a minute or two, to add this new caption to your star post.
5.2 Non-participant on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards
- Visit your Maps profile and take a new screenshot of your new or current star 360 sphere thumbnail showing the current star views and in the format as specified in points 1 to 3 of the formatting criteria in section 3 above.
- Find your star 360 sphere as you previously added in this album post.
- Select the ellipsis menu (3 blue dots)
- Select Edit Reply
- Select the screenshot of your star 360 sphere
- Select the pencil icon to activate the edit function
- Take a copy of the current caption
- Delete your old star 360 sphere screenshot
- Add the new screenshot showing the new or updated star 360 sphere views
- Paste back the old caption
- Update the star views and star views date on the caption
- Select Done
- Select Save Changes
- Job done! Grab a coffee
6 - The Top 100 Local Guides Star 360 sphere leaderboards:
As mentioned in the introduction above, as well as adding your star 360 sphere in this album, if you wish, you can also join the soon to be released Top 100 Local Guides Star 360 sphere leaderboards. If you wish to join this fun, motivational and educational adjunct to this post, then hit this link. As well as the Star 360 sphere leaderboards, you will also see how you can join other Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards, namely the Points, Photo Views and Countries focused leaderboards which are described here.
7 - Conclusion
OK so now let’s start learning what are the best type of 360 spheres to contribute to Maps. I do hope that you will join me and the many other Local Guides interesting in learning how to improve the quality of our 360 sphere contributions to Maps.
