This post aims to showcase the best 360 spheres contributed on Maps by Connect Local Guides and when it comes to the “best”, we mean those having the most views. For convenience, we call these star 360 spheres.
Join in, Share and Learn
If you have contributed 360 spheres on Maps, then you can join in and share and learn. It’s simple to do. Just hit this link and register or add a comment in this post and someone will jump in to help you.
By sharing our contributions and achievements we can learn a lot about how to improve and achieve even better outcomes in terms of the impact that our Maps contributions have on our communities. We have been doing this successfully with photos for the past few years and more recently we started doing this with video. Now we can do the same with 360 Spheres. Together we can!
If you’re new here then you may not be aware that this post forms part of a series of leaderboard posts each covering different aspects of the contributions of Local Guides. To see an index to these leaderboard posts and all posts associated with them, simply hit this link.
How to Read the Star 360 Spheres leaderboards (March 2024)
Briefly, this is what you need to know about the leaderboards in this post. For more details see the Leaderboard documentation and the Leaderboard System’s online context-sensitive help information.
The leaderboards in this post present details about the star 360 spheres of participating Local Guides from all over the world. If you have contributed 360 spheres on Maps then you will also have a star, it’s your 360 sphere that has the most views.
As well as an overall leaderboard, in time you will see leaderboards for different Local Guide levels which provide you with direct comparisons of your star 360 spheres’ performance with those of your peers. Finally, there’s a leaderboard ranking the top 100 star spheres by average star views per day which gives an indication on how good your star 360 sphere is. To be included in this leaderboard, you must have updated your star spheres’ views in the period since the date of the last average star 360 spheres per day leaderboard as posted here on Connect last month.
The average star views per day is calculated by dividing the star views by the life of the star 360 sphere expressed in days. The life of the star 360 sphere is equal to the number of days between when you first uploaded your star 360 sphere on Maps and the date that you last updated its star views and thus, will be different for each participating Local Guide. Therefore, for accuracy of the information it is important that you enter the correct dates. When it comes to the date that you last updated the star views, point #2 above is very important.
As well as the star views and the date uploaded onto Maps, each listing on the leaderboards shows the Maps Category, and a description (e.g. Storefront, Building or Park) of the respective Local Guide’s star 360s.
If the Maps Category of a star 360 sphere is shown as a link and if the name of the relevant Place of Interest was provided by the respective Local Guide, then hovering over that link will show you the name of the place and selecting that link will take you to a screenshot with details of that place as posted on the Local Guides, 2024 Star 360 sphere post, a “photo album” if you will, of star 360 spheres.
If the Maps Category of a star 360s is shown on a colored background then that star has been selected as one of the best that meets the formatting requirements as specified in the Local Guides, 2024 Star 360 Spheres album post. Select that star’s category and see why it has been rated as one of the best and read more about that star on the “360s album” post.
Preceding some of the leaderboards, you may see a number of featured star 360s. If so, these are a selection from those that best meet the requirements as detailed in the Star 360s album post.
Where shown, around leaderboard sequence numbers indicate that this is the first time that the Local Guide has participated on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards.
Where shown, ( ) around leaderboard sequence numbers indicate that this Local Guide levelled up/down onto this leaderboard.
An asterisk (*) shown after a Connect Username indicates that that Local Guide is a Connect Moderator.
Double asterisks (**) shown after a Connect Username indicates that that Local Guide is a Googler.
Hovering over a Local Guide’s username will display the integration number that integrates that Local Guide’s details on the Leaderboards System and Connect; the umbilical chord if you will between the two disparate systems.
Selecting a Connect Username will take you to that Local Guide’s Connect Profile.
A superscript following a Local Guide’s username and the star views value shown on a background color indicates that some of that Local Guide’s data has been set to private. The Leaderboards System uses 8 different superscripts to indicate the varying states of a Local Guide’s profile however only 3 superscripts will likely ever be shown on the Leaderboards. In all the remaining 5 cases the Local Guides have been deleted from participation. On the Star Photo Views Leaderboards you will only ever see the following superscripts used:
[1] indicates that the number of photos and photo views values are private.
[3] indicates that both the number of photos and photo views values and the number of reviews and ratings values are private.
A ? or the words “Not set” in a cell indicates that the respective value cannot be determined or hasn’t been provided by or for the respective Local Guide.
The data for the leaderboards in this post was read at 3:30 PM on April 2, 2024 (UTC).
Local Guides included on the leaderboards must check their entries for any errors. If you should find any errors or omissions, please add the details in a comment on this post. Regarding omissions, please note point 15 above.
This featured star 360 sphere by Level 10 Local Guide,* @MattGatlin *was taken while he was visiting Jamaica way back in 2017 and when experimenting with photo spheres. Well done Matt on contributing in each of the different media types on Maps.
Having welcomed the newcomers I need to mention that for obvious reasons, even with the help of dear Lucy, it’s proving difficult to select a 360 sphere to feature. Unlike the photo and video leaderboard streams, we’ve yet to reach critical mass in terms of the number of 360 sphere contributors participating, some of the small number of participants are not updating (me included) and to top it off, a number are not adding their screenshots in the required format
So I’m putting this out there, what can we do to make this leaderboard stream as vibrant, exiting and interesting as the photo and video leaderboard streams? I’m all ears
Hi @AdamGT , thanks for the spotlight on this month’s 360 boards, and as always an even bigger thanks for your ongoing efforts in all the leaderboard postings!
I suspect the main reason for lack of greater 360 activity is that the equipment required to shoot 360s isn’t as easily accessible to most people as stills and videos are. Even I no longer take 360s since my original Rico Theta quit working. Even when it was working, since it was a standalone device, it made the upload process more complicated than simply uploading stills and videos from my iPhone.
Maybe other sphere-tographers have thoughts about this as well.
Taking advantage of a few hours of tranquility on this Saturday afternoon (despite the pleasant sunny spring day that would make you want to walk around Rome), I’m trying to catch up on reading posts and rankings, having to fight (as I imagine many of you do) with professional commitments which doesn’t leave much time.
Speaking of this “Top 100 Google Maps Local Guides Star 360 Spheres” ranking of March 2024, for which I will never stop thanking @AdamGT for his tireless work, I note that it actually shows a limited number of participants, which obviously makes this ranking less lively, exciting and interesting than the others
Regarding what @MattGatlin expressed about the need for 360 degree photo equipment, I think it is interesting to note that years ago I owned a cell phone that allowed the installation of the “Google Camera” application (now no longer available, except for Pixels, I think)
That application could create a good quality 360 degree photo (compatibly with the quality of the phone’s camera) by automatically collating a mosaic of individual photographs, and this is how I took my 360 photo 7 years ago now in the splendid “Garden of Oranges”.
This allowed for interesting 360-degree shots without expensive equipment; today it seems that many things are unattractive if to make them you have to use tools other than cell phones (sometimes even films are shot with a well-known brand of cell phones)
Warm greetings from Rome, Italy
Thanks for your appreciation @MattGatlin and you do make a good point about the equipment. I myself tried to take 360 spheres using my Pixel phone but failed miserably.
A pleasant sunny spring day on a Saturday afternoon in Rome and you’re spending time catching up on reading posts and rankings!! Have you lost your mind @AT_Rome But of course I totally understand the addiction that the Leaderboards casts on us LOL.
On a more serious note, the much smaller participation number on 360 spheres is a problem and as you mention, makes this ranking less lively, exciting and interesting than the others. I’m not at all sure what can be done about this Alex.
I hesitated to respond to your question @AdamGT , but until I joined the Top100 Leaderboards I’d never heard about 360 spheres.
Although tempted to do just one sphere to be on the relevant leaderboard, I still haven’t felt the true urge to go through with it.
Statements in this thread which indicate it can’t just be done with my ordinary mobile phone camera also make it a moot point.
If the above are typical representation of most Local Guides, you have your explanation for the low participation. My feeling is that they can be reabsorbed into the same grouping as all the other videos rather than making this small under-subscribed category.
Thanks for your considered input @tony_b and I have to say I am of the same view. For example, we don’t have separate volume and impact metrics for 360s as we have for videos! Does this small under-subscribed category justify the extra time and effort in providing the monthly screenshot and stats on the part of 360s Local Guide contributors not to mention that on my part in producing the 360 sphere leaderboards? This is why I posed my question, and to be honest, given the lack of response to my question from the 20 or so currently on these leaderboards, it really makes me wonder.
Siento mucho lo tardío de mi respuesta @AdamGT pues el último par de meses no he tenido oportunidad de estar tan atento a los tableros como en los meses previos, pero coincido con el análisis de @MattGatlin .
¿Que ocurre actualmente con este tipo de fotografías?
En el pasado tomar fotos 360 era más accesible para los local guides que sabían de la existencia de la aplicación de Street View que permitía tomar fotos esféricas con su propio teléfono celular sin invertir en un equipo adicional. Pero la eliminación de esa aplicación impide que un número mayor de personas puedan tomar fotos de este tipo.
Actualmente necesitas comprar una cámara 360 para poder tomar fotografías esféricas y mi sensación es que los usuarios que invierten en este tipo de equipos ya no lo utilizan para tomar fotos 360, sino videos 360 principalmente. Los equipos actuales permiten grabaciones de video de alta resolución, incluso mejor que la de las propias fotografías, que permiten elegir el ángulo de visión en la post-edición y pueden aprovechar ese material para sus redes sociales. Incluso yo no me siento motivado a tomar fotos 360 para agregarlas a Google Maps aun cuando acabo de adquirir un modelo más reciente.
Mi opinión es que se puede dar unos tres meses mas para ver como evoluciona este tablero y si no hay suficientes participantes o un incremento en ellos entonces detener su publicación porque la info de la aplicación tampoco nos proporciona información específica sobre este tipo de fotografías.
Una vez más, escuchemos las opiniones del resto de participantes.
Yes I have noticed your recent AWOL and thought perhaps that full-eclipse had somehow knocked you out LOL.
Thank you @LightRich you have put your mind to this and given great input and information adding to what others have said, and @MattGatlin in particular, are the likely reasons why there is low participation in this stream of the Leaderboards. I also note your idea of giving it another 3 months to see what happens. Anyhow, as you have suggested, let’s wait for the opinions of others.
@AdamGT I’m fine with discontinuing the 360 boards. It’s too much of a niche to warrant its own boards. I take more panorama shots than I ever did with 360s, but I don’t expect them to be separately categorized. Until GM adds a Master Spherographer Badge, I vote for pulling the plug on this.
But of course I totally understand the addiction that the Leaderboards casts on us LOL.