When it comes to media contributions on Maps, each day we’re seeing more and more Local Guides contributing awesome videos, sharing their experiences so that others can get a much better appreciation and make better informed decisions about visiting the places they enjoy. This post is about such videos. More specifically, it’s about showcasing the “best” videos taken by Connect Local Guides from all over the world. In the absence of a better metric, we use the number of views that a video has gained as a measure of that video’s “quality” and we refer to the video having the most views as being our star video.
The post includes leaderboards for different Local Guide levels and in this way, whether you are a level 10 or a level 5 Local Guide, if you have contributed video on Maps, you can join in to showcase your star and it’s simple to do. To join the fun, sharing and learning about video contributed to Maps simply hit this link or leave a message on this post and someone will help you get started.
So what can you learn from the Star Videos Leaderboards?
By sharing our video contributions and achievements we can learn a lot about how to improve the quality of our videos so that we can achieve even better outcomes in terms of video views and the impact that they have on our communities. We have been doing this successfully with photos over many years and we can do the same with videos so join in and let’s see if together we can learn what type of videos work “best” on Maps.
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 posts associated with them, simply hit this link
Readme - How to Read the Star Video leaderboards (January, 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.
1. The leaderboards in this post present details about the star videos of participating Local Guides from all over the world. If you have contributed videos on Maps then you will have a star video, it’s your video that has the most views and we call this, the star video.
* As well as an overall leaderboard, you will see leaderboards for different Local Guide levels which provide you with direct comparisons of your star video’s performance with that of your peers. Finally, there’s a leaderboard ranking the top 100 star videos by average star views per day which gives an indication on how good your star video is. To be included in this leaderboard, you must have updated your star video’s views in the period since the date of the last average star views per day leaderboard as posted here on Connect last month.
2. The average star views per day is calculated by dividing the star views by the life of the star video expressed in days. The life of the star video is equal to the number of days between when you first uploaded your star video 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 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.
3. 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 video.
4. If the Maps Category of a star video 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 Videos post, a “star video album” if you will, of star videos.
5. If the Maps Category of a star video is shown on a colored background then that star video has been selected as one of the best that meets the formatting requirements as specified in the star video album post. Select that star video’s category and see why it has been rated as one of the best and read more about that star video on the “star video album” post.
6. Preceding some of the leaderboards, you may see a number of screenshots of featured star videos. If so, these are a selection from those that best meet the requirements as detailed in the “star video album” post.
7. Clicking or selecting any of the featured star video images shown will take you to where you can view the Local Guide’s video.
8. 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.
9. Where shown, ( ) around leaderboard sequence numbers indicate that this Local Guide levelled up/down onto this leaderboard.
10. An asterisk (*) shown after a Connect Username indicates that that Local Guide is a Connect Moderator.
11. Double asterisks (**) shown after a Connect Username indicates that that Local Guide is a Googler.
12. 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.
13. Selecting a Connect Usernames will take you to that Local Guide’s Connect Profile.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. The data for the leaderboards in this post was read at 1340 on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 (UTC).
17. 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.
Well it’s great to see that some star videos like that of @LightRich, @ig_shevchenko, and @MarkAuchincloss are gaining views, but is the pattern here the same as it was this month for star photos with vey few stars increasing in views? Or is it that less are updating their star video details? I myself appear to have had a significant jump in star video views but in reality, I don’t think the jump was actually as significant as it appears. Because of the difficulty in finding the stars when one has thousands of media contributions, I may have missed that my current star video had become a star one or two months earlier
That’s one of the benefits of filling out the table on the album post. I’m able to see monthly movement in my video, and you can see that I’ve updated every month based on the entries.
My Star Photo got stuck for a couple of months, but my Star Video has been steadily humming along.
Was having a think about adding to the star video post, my top 2 videos (70k & 60K views) have recently lost their featured positions and they just ain’t gonna get any more views however : / would feel like a bit of a dead entry in the spreadsheet.
grabbed a 3 second video the other day and it got 12k views in less than a day, it wasn’t featured at the POI, who knows what the heck list that was added to initially haha . like most media, the views just stopped completely after a few days.
No, Adam. I’m seeing an 1,800+ increase in my Star Video views almost every month. This is correct re: the 1% rule. Now that the views have gone past 190, 000, the next increase should be about 1,901 views if accrued by the end of this month.
Prasad, I’m agreeing with you. On another board I told @AdamGT that the backlinks to December did not work, but November and previous were okay. The same thing is happening here for me.
Links have been an issue since moving to the new Connect platform and as you know in any one month there are well over 1,000 links on the Leaderboards. This month with the January Star Video leaderboards, I did notice a problem with links to the December leaderboards but decided to run with posting and will fix the links in a day or so. Thank you for checking and picking this up.
That’s actually one of the driving motivations for introducing the star media history tables @JustJake. Back in February 2024 when the method/timing of counting views seemed to change, I had the thought that it would be good to be able to quickly show the impact of this change on our media views.
Good to hear that while your star photo limped a bit, your star video is steadily attracting eyeballs.
When you consider that that equates to 60 views per day on average, 1,800+ star video views each month is very healthy @tony_b. If and when your next increase happens at 1900 views, do prompt me and refer back to your comment here. It would be nice to add this as further proof of the 1% hypothesis.
Yes it seems to regularly be the links to the previous month @tony_b. I have to say, I keep “plugging” the links issue but have not been able to lock it in yet.
haha . like most media, the views just stopped completely after a few days.