When it comes to media contributions on Maps, we hear a lot about photos and more recently videos. However, another class of media contributed by many Local Guides which this post is all about is 360 spheres. In particular, it aims to showcase the best 360 spheres contributed on Maps by Connect Local Guides and when it comes to the “best”, we mean those having the most views. For convenience, we call these star 360 spheres.
Join in, Share and Learn
If you have contributed 360 spheres on Maps, then you can join in and share and learn. It’s simple to do. Just hit this link and register or if you want to know more then see this How-to post by @AZ_2021.
By sharing our contributions and achievements we can learn a lot about how to improve and achieve even better outcomes in terms of the impact that our Maps contributions have on our communities. We have been doing this successfully with photos for the past few years and more recently we started doing this with video. Now we can do the same with 360 Spheres.
How to Read the Star 360 Spheres leaderboards (December 2023)
Briefly, this is what you need to know about the leaderboards in this post. For more details see the leaderboard documentation:
The leaderboards in this post present details about the star 360 spheres of participating Local Guides from all over the world. If you have contributed 360 spheres on Maps then you will also have a star, it’s your 360 sphere that has the most views.
As well as an overall leaderboard, in time you will see leaderboards for different Local Guide levels which provide you with direct comparisons of your star 360 spheres’ performance with those of your peers. Finally, there’s a leaderboard ranking the top 100 star spheres by average star views per day which gives an indication on how good your star 360 sphere is. To be included in this leaderboard, you must have updated your star spheres’ views in the period since the date of the last average star 360 spheres 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 360 sphere expressed in days. The life of the star 360 sphere is equal to the number of days between when you first uploaded your star 360 sphere on Maps and the date that you last updated its 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.
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 360s.
If the Maps Category of a star 360 sphere 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, 2023 Star 360 sphere post, a “photo album” if you will, of star 360 spheres.
If the Maps Category of a star 360s is shown on a colored background then that star has been selected as one of the best that meets the formatting requirements as specified in the Local Guides, 2023 Star 360 Spheres album post. Select that star’s category and see why it has been rated as one of the best and read more about that star on the “360s album” post.
Selecting any of the Connect Usernames will take you to that Local Guide’s Connect Profile.
Preceding some of the leaderboards, you may see a number of featured star 360s. If so, these are a selection from those that best meet the requirements as detailed in the Star 360s album 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.
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.
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 13 above.
I’ve cheekily used this reply to alert you to a PM which I have just sent to you relating to a number of issues which I hope you will find interesting.
Because @davidhyno took his star sphere 7 years ago I was curious what camera he took it with. He has used the classic “please ignore me acting as a monopod pose” in the days before monopds were as sleek and stable as they are now. Of course, in France, most tourist venues have banned tripods, monopods and selfie sticks for health and safety reasons. I did get away with attaching mine to a baseball cap whilst I went around the Louvre. I did expect to get a tap on the shoulder at some point but in fact I was never questioned about it.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice for your art. Apart from looking a bit of a dork, my head became a bit sore in places with the weight of the camera after 5 hours.
I have an extension that I can add between the camera dn the hat adaptor which raises it about 6 inches. In places I was advised I couldn’t use it but in fact I ened up going back to the “please ignore me acting as a monopod pose”. In one location the limit to taking photos was explicitely that the cameras had to be hand held. I think this is not the best solution by places of interest as I probably ended up ruining lots of othe people’s photos.
Dear @nigelfreeney , I have used a Theta Ricoh V kindly lent to me by the Google StreetView team when the rental program was still active.
I obtained this photo without the stick as it was not possible to use it. However, I have always used a tripod to have a much clearer and less blurry image for all the other photos and tours taken over the years. To be honest, I use the 360° camera very little as now, thanks above all to Google’s new Immersive View technology (through the “neural radiance fields (NeRF)” it is possible to recreate easily explorable environments combining a few dozen interior photos): I recommend you visit (only via smartphone) the inside of this restaurant in London German Gymnasium where you can find an example of the above. The Immersive View of this venue is currently only visible via smartphone, later it will also be available on desktop.
