As Local Guides it’s often amazing which of all of our many photos that we contribute to Google Maps has the most views. We’ve come to call this our star photo and this post is all about such stars. It includes a set of leaderboards that showcase the star photos of hundreds of Local Guides from all over the world and presents a very detailed comparative analysis of their performance.
We all have a star photo, so you can join in to showcase yours and it’s simple to do. Simply hit this link or just leave a comment in this post and someone will jump in to help you.
So what can you learn from the Star Photos Leaderboards?
Well from the very detailed analysis of the star photos of the hundreds of participating Local Guides from all over the world, you can learn a lot about what type of places and what type of photos seem to get the most views on Google Maps and remember, views are important as they provide a fairly good indication on how helpful your photos are to Maps users.
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 Maps contributions made by Local Guides. To see an index to these different leaderboard posts and all the posts associated with them, simply hit this link.
Readme - How to Read the Star Photos leaderboards (March, 2025)
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 photos of hundreds of participating Local Guides from all over the world. We all have a star photo, it’s our photo that has the most views and we call these, the star views.
As well as an overall leaderboard, you will see leaderboards for different Local Guide levels which provide you with direct comparisons of your star photo’s views performance with that of your peers. Finally, there’s a leaderboard ranking the top 100 star photos by average star views per day which gives an indication on how good your star photo is. To be included in this leaderboard, you must have updated your star photo’s views in the period since the date of the last average star views 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 photo expressed in days. The life of the star photo is equal to the number of days between when you first uploaded your star photo on Maps and the date that you last updated the star views and thus, will be different for each participating Local Guide. Therefore, for accuracy of the information it is important 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 photo.
Hovering over any star photo’s Uploaded Date will display that star’s screenshot date.
If the Maps Category of a star photo 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 stored on the Local Guides, 2024 Star Photos post, a “photo album” if you will, of star photos.
If the Maps Category of a star photo is shown on a colored background then that star photo has been selected as one of the best that meets the formatting requirements as specified in the Local Guides, 2024 Star Photos post. Select that star photo’s category and see why it has been rated as one of the best and read more about that star photo on the “photo album” post.
Preceding some of the leaderboards, you may see a number of featured star photos. If so, these are a selection from those that best meet the requirements as detailed in the Local Guides, 2024 Star Photos 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.
Local Guides suspended or who have left the Local Guides program as well as those who have hidden their Maps profile are excluded from the Leaderboards.
Local Guides that have not updated their star photo details in the month covered by the Star Photo leaderboards will be excluded from the Average Views/Day leaderboard.
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 0435 on Wednesday, April 2, 2025 (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 17 above.
Well don’t the star photo leaderboards this month tell a story! Perhaps it’s the same story we’ve seen for a number of months about our photos. What do you think? Has your star photo increased in views this month or is it that you haven’t updated your star views?
Congratulations to @LightRich who has levelled up from being a level 8 to 9 Local Guide and in so doing, added some excitement on the March star photo leaderboards
Vielen Dank für diese März Listen.
Ich habe es aktualisiert obwohl mal wieder Stillstand herscht.
Ich kann es nicht fassen wie bei
Sven Jacobs die enorme Anzahl an Aufrufen zu Stande kommt.
Sagenhaft! @AdamGT
Mine, still has the number of views it had by the end of December 2023. It gained almost 2 millions within view weeks during the summer of 2023, then in fall dropped to very few daily until Feb 7, 2024 when it dropped to the numbers it already showed in December 2023 until now.
Anyway, thanks a lot @AdamGT for choosing another of my photos as the banner for this board! I need to dig out some details about that one.
Had 2 count updates during March, that’s something I’ve not seen before. Maybe the timing was just good, but also I appreciate that it’s a relatively total low count of 1M. Thanks for the boards again this month @AdamGT
Hi @AdamGT I’m trying to fill in the registration form for the leaderboards but I cannot find when I first joined. It was sometime near the start of 2017. That much I know. I cannot find the welcome letter either. Any tips? How accurate does the start date have to be for the leaderboard form?
@Annaelisa Thanks for that! How did you find it? When I click on my profile I can’t see those details.
I’m a little confused. Because I just found an email from Google on 31 May 2017 with a report saying that my 18 Jan 2017 photo was making a difference. So I must have posted the photo before then.
Or is posting a photo different from signing up as a local guide? Because I don’t have an email saying ‘welcome to google’
So I am still confused.
Updated: It seems that when I look up my own profile through the account it doesn’t bring that info up but when I click on my profile in the chat itself it comes up! How bizarre.
