As Local Guides, it’s often amazing which of all of our many photos 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, as well as showcasing the star photos of hundreds of Local Guides from all over the world, presents a very detailed analysis of their performance. Whether we’re a Level 10 or a Level 2 Local Guide, we all have a star photo, so you can join in to showcase yours and 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.
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 are a pretty good indication on how helpful your photos are to Maps users.
Is this a competition?
While there is an inherent competitive element within the leaderboards, the aim of the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboard posts is to motivate us, help us to think about and monitor our contributions and performance, and show us how we can improve the quality of 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; mission accomplished!
So if you haven’t as yet shared your star photo thenregister nowas we’d all love to see it!
How to Read the Star Photos leaderboards (September 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 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 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.
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, 2023 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, 2023 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.
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 photos. If so, these are a selection from those that best meet the requirements as detailed in the Local Guides, 2023 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.
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 11 above.
Note: The screenshots of the featured star photos shown above are used with the permission and are the copyright of Level 10 Local Guides @indahnuria and @TravellerG respectively.
Note: The screenshots of the featured star photos shown above are used with the permission and are the copyright of Level 9 Local Guides @DFX and @SushilBhatt respectively.
Note: The screenshots of the featured star photos shown above are used with the permission and are the copyright of Level 8 Local Guides @AjitThite and @efcxp respectively.
Note: The screenshots of the featured star photos shown above are used with the permission and are the copyright of Level 7 Local Guides @Firedad and @ephraimfields respectively.
Welcome to all newcomers to the Top 100 Star Photos Leaderboards.
I don’t know about you but the star photos in this post never cease to amaze me and I believe we can learn a lot about what type of photos and what Maps categories etc seem to generate the most impact. I’m sure the same will be true when we introduce the star video and star 360 Spheres and if you haven’t as yet seen the album posts for these contribution areas then I suggest that you check them out soonest because the pages in these albums are filling in fast . As usual, first in best dressed Time is of essence and to save you the hassle of finding them, here are the links to each of the album posts: star video and star 360 Spheres.
As usual, the featured star photos in this post were selected based on a number of criteria but mainly how well the Local Guides followed the specification as detailed in the Local Guides, 2023 Star Photos post. Notwithstanding, some of these stars do still need some minor improvements and the main area needing attention, as usual, is the captions. There were others worthy of inclusion but just were too far out of date. Currency is an important factor in the feature selection process so update, update, update. The other important factor to note is that we have started to exclude those that do not update! This will likely be a continuing trend across all leaderboards streams!
Please check all the leaderboards in this post as it seems in each of the different September leaderboard series so far, new errors have been creeping in.
Congratulations @AjitThite and @efcxp on your featured Level 8 Star Photos. Nice to see you can get good views without posting photos of food and restaurants.
Thanks a lot for your appreciation and welcoming me to this board @tony_b !
I believe that department and clothes stores are the second most desirable location after restaurants.
What I appreciate about these boards is that you may learn a lot, understand where you stand, and decide on a course of action or seek advice from the best members. I truly admire the LGs here on Levels 7, 6, and 5 respectively and hope that many more people will join and learn here after watching them grow.
I greatly appreciate the enormous amount of work @AdamGT puts into these boards. Many thanks for it.
Hey @AdamGT , seems like @Firedad never made it to the Level 7 leader boards. Also, in the Current Top 100 Average Star Views/Day Leaderboard he shows up as Level 0, which might be the reason for this.
Edit to add, looks like there are a couple more newcomers ( @efcxp and @Darwader ) that show 0 in the same leaderboard as well and missing from their respective level leaderboards.
. As usual, first in best dressed 
Time is of essence and to save you the hassle of finding them, here are the links to each of the album posts: 