Introduction:
This post is all about Local Guide photo contributions on Google Maps, and more specifically, about the views these photos rack up. It’s an update on the November Photo Views post of 5 November. The post consists of a series of leaderboards showcasing the view counts of Local Guides at different levels and no you don’t have to be a “top gun” Level10 Local Guide with a mega million views to participate as the leaderboards have been specifically designed so that Local Guides at any level can join in, and you’ll see many do. So, whether you’re an entry level Local Guide or from a small country, town or village, or a top level Local Guide from London, New York, Paris or New Delhi, you can join in and it’s simple to do! If you want to get on leaderboards, then use this link.
Why are photo views important?
Firstly, we all know that as Local Guides we don’t get points for the views that our photos generate. However, views are important as they give us an indication on how we are impacting on our communities at the Local Guide level. Our photo views give us a good indication on how many people we have helped make a decision such as about a place to visit or a meal to have. So while we don’t get points for views, we certainly get an awesome feeling when we see that our photos are being viewed by many people and being visible across Google services, like Search means that our photo counts can increase significantly and you will see here on the leaderboards how significant these photo counts can get.
Is this just a competition?
While there is an inherent competitive element within them, these leaderboard posts are more than just seeing who has the best photos or the most photo views, far from it! They have been specifically designed to motivate us, help us to monitor our contributions and performance, and show us how to improve and make better contributions so that we achieve better results, all in a fun and enjoyable way! If this can be done then these leaderboards will have achieved their objective, their mission will be accomplished!
The Cover gif and photos!
Following on from the December Top Local Guides in each Country post, as we’re now in the holiday season and Christmas is fast approaching (hooray!), I decided to make the theme for this month’s Top 100 Photo Views Leaderboards post the holiday/festive season. With this in mind, I recently invited Local Guides from around the world to share through photos, a little about the spirit and celebrations in their part of the world and you will see some of these photos in the cover gif. Here is a brief description of these photos:
- The first four are were taken by @Stephanie_OWL , and I have to tell you, I absolutely love them. Maybe this is because here in the land down under, Australia we don’t have a white Christmas so seeing the lovely snow is just magical. In Steph’s first photo you can see how fog and snow can look very different if the structure of the trees is different. In describing her photo Steph elegantly wrote, as she usually does, “Everything around us was white, but some white was whiter than others”. Steph’s second photo, was the start of a birthday celebration sleigh ride in Sauerland, more precisely, in the town of Winterberg. I mean can you imagine a birthday celebration like that! It just amazes me! We see the horses emerge in Steph’s third photo and then a frontal view in the fourth!
- Now it’s because of Steph’s photos that I decided to add one of my own and this is the 5th photo in the gif. Just for comparative purposes, I took this photo just after 8pm tonight from the comfort of our airconditioned lounge room. There’s no snow, just a sunset with people on the beach some still in the water cooling off after a hot 34 °C day. It’s now approaching 1am and it’s 23 °C. We’re going to have a hot, hot, hot Christmas!
- The next photo, taken by @Mikeinthefalls using a Google Pixel 3, is of Christmas decorations in Hollywood Beach FL, where as Mike confirms, they also enjoy a hot sunny Christmas.
- The next photo, taken by @JustJake with a Google Pixel 2xl, shows a beautiful decorate garden scene at the Phoenix AZ Desert Botanical Garden’s evening holiday display. It features a set of barrel cactus decorated with their own halo lights. I can just imagine walking though that garden and loving every minute of it.
- The next photo, taken by @Mikeinthefalls with a Google Pixel 3, is of a snowman decoration at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Sadly because it was a portrait snap, I wasn’t able to show this photo at its best and better show how the bridge illuminates the background.
- The photo of the Lighted Rudolph statue was taken by @EvaBarwith an iPhone 11 Pro at the ‘Enchant’ Christmas event in St. Petersburg, Florida. Once again sadly because it was a portrait snap, I wasn’t able to show Rudolph’s head
However, I did heaps better in… - Eva’s next photo of a decoration in the shape of an ornament in a park overlooking Downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.
- @TerryPG contributed the next photo taken with a Samsung 10 and showing amazing Christmas decorations at Big Xmas Store at Oshawa Centre, in Oshawa Ontario.
- You gotta love the last photo, again submitted by @TerryPG . It shows Terry’s daughter’s great Pyrenees dog. Once again sadly because it was a portrait snap, I wasn’t able to show this photo at its best. The dog is posing for us wearing a Christmas hat
Du hast es schon wieder getan!!! Eine wunderbare Überraschung!!!
