Caption: The cover image is a screenshot of two videos contributed on Google Maps by @TerryPG, a Canadian Level 10 Local Guide. The first is of the Scarborough Town Centre and the second is of the CF Fairview Mall, both shopping malls in Ontario, Canada.
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.
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.
Are you new to the Leaderboards?
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 (June, 2026)
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.
2. 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, your star video’s views must have been updated in each of the last 2 consecutive months.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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, 2026 Star Videos post, a “star video album” if you will, of star videos.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Clicking or selecting any of the featured star video images shown will take you to where you can view the Local Guide’s video.
9. 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.
10. Where shown, ( ) around leaderboard sequence numbers indicate that this Local Guide levelled up/down onto this leaderboard.
11. An asterisk (*) shown after a Connect Username indicates that that Local Guide is a Connect Moderator.
12. Double asterisks (**) shown after a Connect Username indicates that that Local Guide is a Googler.
13. 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.
14. Selecting a Connect username will take you to either that Local Guide’s Connect Profile or to their HUB.
15. If a number shown in small gray circle is displayed following a username, that number indicate the number of times anyone has selected that username to visit the respective Local Guide’s Connect profile or HUB.
16. 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.
17. If you have changed (a) your Connect username, or (b) your Maps profile in some way (e.g. changed your username or profile picture), (c) your Maps profile status from public to hidden or vice versa then you may not appear on one or more of the leaderboards. If so then you must provide the details in a comment on this post.
18. 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.
19. The data for the leaderboards in this post was read at 1145 on Monday, July 6, 2026 (UTC).
20. 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 18 above.
Thanks for the hard work, as always @AdamGT sir I’m always grateful for the effort you put into presenting all this data so clearly.
&
Because you seem to be the one behind these amazing data presentations, I thought you might not be attending Connect Live Singapore this time. Am I right, or are you attending as well?
Not sure what’s happening to Barbados this month @tony_b
But then again it’s been and is still being a rather hectic month for me.
I will try to do a manual fix on this now.
Edited: Done! Please check and let me know. Well done on your star video Anthony. It’s right up there with the best. I might just try the gloves trick
@AdamGT ok, I spent 3 hours perfectly adding in my star video and you still don’t show me. I no longer am going to try to sift through 1000’s of words on how do this. I will participate in photos views, but no longer stars. Sorry. At this point, don’t even try to give me instructions. It’s TOOO COMPLEX! However congrats to all who figured the instructions out. Good lord!
Thanks for the corrections. Looking good now, I think. That video was galloping towards a million views and then it slowed down in February. Slowly but surely we’re getting there. Already July’s delta is looking like more than June’s, so it will happen in August.
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful post! Excellent work, it is truly inspiring and uplifting to see such valuable contributions being added to the community. Your dedication to capturing these details makes a real difference, and I deeply appreciate the time and effort you took to put this together. I would love to connect with you so we can learn from one another and exchange valuable ideas. It would be fantastic to explore best practices together, share great stories from around the world, and perhaps even exchange tips on how to uncover and highlight hidden gems in our local neighborhoods. Looking forward to staying in touch and seeing more of your amazing updates!
I checked to see what went wrong @StevenBerlin but cannot see any attempt of you saving your entry. I can see that you added your star video into the album (see here) however your caption suggests that you manually created this and didn’t use or perhaps didn’t get as far as the Leaderboard System’s automatically generated caption. Anyway, you should have all your star video’s details so it’s a simple process to try again here but do make sure that you submit and print the final screen as evidence that you did submit.
