Top 100 Google Maps Local Guides Star Photos (August, 2025)

[tony_b]

@AdamGT

Top 100 Local Guides
Star Photos Leaders Summary
(August 2025)
Leaderboard #303

There goes @SvenJacobs puffing out of the station. Congrats on that high score.

[TerryPG]

@Yaryman

Except for those new LG’s wondering how in the heck did people get so many views for their photos. My highest viewed photo under the new system has 357K views and was uploaded in June of 2024.

Agreeing with you @Yaryman newer guides will wonder where our crazy views came from.
@tony_b @WilfriedB @AdamGT since Feb/24 my newest photo uploaded in April/24 received to date 565,129 views, 2nd highest uploaded in Aug/24 had 405,669 views.
In comparison My star photo Walmart Newmarket, received an increase of 820,000 views ( this number actually surprised me)
Whereas my video views are going nuts. My Star video hit 2 million views in 5 months this year and I have a another 3 with over 1/2 million views.
I know I keep preaching videos but I am glad I read this, and did some digging.
Thanks @Yaryman

[tony_b]

@Yaryman

Not to worry, I usually stop in front of the venue to take the photo, then drive on to the next location. I always fix the photo in Photoshop. That includes fixing exposure, straightening vertical lines, and cloning out my truck’s reflection if possible.

No!! I stop a bit further back, so that neither me nor my vehicle are reflected in the glass front. That of course means my photos would be at an angle to the store front, rather than straight on.

[AdamGT]

@WilfriedB

For takeouts requested after April 2025, The names are all in the form yyyy-mm-dd-hxhxhxhx with hxhxhxhx being random hex digits for example 2025-04-29-773db9c0.jpg.

So am I right to assume that since April 2025 it is much more difficult to associate the takeout listing with the photo both on Maps and any personal storage of same?

[AdamGT]

@Yaryman

“Reno-Si-Amigos” is the name I gave the photo.
That was the name Google used for the photo until I did a takeout yesterday.
Then the photo was named as WilfredB explained in his post.

@Yaryman I understand now thank you for explaining this and the views count.

[AdamGT]

@tony_b

There goes @SvenJacobs puffing out of the station. Congrats on that high score.

Is that a high speed train that you are referring to that we will no longer be able to take a trip on

[AdamGT]

@TerryPG

Whereas my video views are going nuts. My Star video hit 2 million views in 5 months this year and I have a another 3 with over 1/2 million views.

You’re showing us the possibilities @TerryPG. Keep guiding us.

[AdamGT]

@tony_b

No!! I stop a bit further back, so that neither me nor my vehicle are reflected in the glass front. That of course means my photos would be at an angle to the store front, rather than straight on.

Interesting @Yaryman and @tony_b. Would I be right to refer to these as drive-bys?

[WilfriedB]

@AdamGT

@WilfriedB

For takeouts requested after April 2025, The names are all in the form yyyy-mm-dd-hxhxhxhx with hxhxhxhx being random hex digits for example 2025-04-29-773db9c0.jpg.

So am I right to assume that since April 2025 it is much more difficult to associate the takeout listing with the photo both on Maps and any personal storage of same?

On Maps it is and was always difficult to locate the photo, @AdamGT and @Yaryman . For that reason, I always keep the permalink to the place as well the one to the individual photo under My Contributions. It involves additional work after uploading, but I consider it useful for me.

To locate the images on my local storage, I always used the time stamp of photoTakenTIme, because also before April they were exceptions for photos being uploaded from mobile. Some, probably older photos, even had the name of the place, which I never figured out when or why this happened.

So I cannot confirm much more difficult. However, I almost gave up requesting a takeout because of the huge size of the download and since I also record the date of upload now manually, the takeout doesn’t give me any advantage anymore. The difference for the number of views is still a mystery, but so far we don’t have any clue, why this happens.

[AdamGT]

It all seems like a lot of effort and I just cannot imagine this being done in the case of the volume contributors @WilfriedB

[tony_b]

@AdamGT

Is that a high speed train that you are referring to that we will no longer be able to take a trip on

Adam, your comment made me curious. Following the links back to find the train, it took me to the post by @SvenJacobs in the 2024 album, rather than the 2025. I also found the table underneath the photo appears to be manually created, and not the auto-generated 12-month Star Views table that we all get from the Leaderboards data entry process.

This is puzzling, as my own link correctly takes me to my post in the 2025 album. Any thoughts on this @AdamGT?

[tony_b]

@AdamGT

Would I be right to refer to these as drive-bys?

I would refer to them as spontaneous opportunities. The only required caution is to be sure the other passing vehicles are not police. Using a cellphone camera while being in control of a vehicle is a $2000.00 offence.

[WilfriedB]

@AdamGT

I just cannot imagine this being done in the case of the volume contributors

While I also believe, most would not like do the same, I consider it just a matter of organization, optimization, automatization and habit

[WilfriedB]

@tony_b

The only required caution is to be sure the other passing vehicles are not police.

Be careful @tony_b if you ever get to France or some other countries. They recently installed speed radar systems which also use an AI to recognize drivers having a cell phone in their hands. Not sure this also applies to standing cars, but it might

[tony_b]

@WilfriedB

if you ever get to France

I did get to France, but I didn’t drive. And my driver was going too fast for me to take any photos.

@WilfriedB

Not sure this also applies to standing cars, but it might

Yes. If the engine is still running, I’m legally in control of the vehicle and should not be using a cellphone even if the vehicle is briefly stopped.

[AdamGT]

@tony_b

This is puzzling, as my own link correctly takes me to my post in the 2025 album. Any thoughts on this @AdamGT?

It simply means that @SvenJacobs has not added his star photo to the 2025 star photos album and looking at his star views history, he hasn’t updated his star photo’s data since 12 March, 2024; confirmed by hovering your mouse over the Date Uploaded on his listing on any of the star photo leaderboards since that date on which he is listed (e.g. the August Star Photos Leaders Summary leaderboard). On visiting the Grand Central Terminal pin on Maps, you will see that Sven’s photo is no longer the cover photo. All this could mean that while Sven’s photo might still be his star photo, it has not had any views since 12 March, 2024 or has been caught up in the photo views issue that we all experienced on or about February 2024. If the latter then of course it will be a long time before there is an update in Sven’s star views

[AdamGT]

@tony_b

Using a cellphone camera while being in control of a vehicle is a $2000.00 offence.

Wow $2,000 fine is certainly a BIG deterrent. Here I believe it’s $611 but on top of that you get 4 demerit points and if you accrue too many points, you risk licence suspension or disqualification.

[AdamGT]

@WilfriedB

I consider it just a matter of organization, optimization, automatization and habit

@WilfriedB is that what you would describe as a nerd

[tony_b]

@AdamGT

All this could mean that while Sven’s photo might still be his star photo, it has not had any views since 12 March, 2024 or has been caught up in the photo views issue that we all experienced on or about February 2024.

Thanks for clarifying that @AdamGT. Of course @SvenJacobs should do the monthly update even if there’s no change in the numbers. From March 2024 to August 2025 I’ve been updating the same number over and over again.

[AdamGT]

I totally agree @tony_b and with the star views value defaulting to the last updated/checked value it’s ever so easy to do. If the star views hasn’t changed simply select the calendar and today’s date and submit.