Each day we’re seeing more and more Local Guides contributing videos on Maps. In these videos they share their experiences at the places they enjoy so that others can get a much better appreciation of them and make better informed decisions about visiting these places. This post is about such videos and more specifically, it’s about showcasing the “best” videos shared by Connect Local Guides. Like photos, videos have a view count and in the absence of a better metric, in this post we use the number of views that a video has as a measure of that video’s quality and we refer to our video having the most views as being our star video.
This post includes a set of leaderboards that showcase the star videos of Local Guides from all over the world and whether you are a Level 10 or a Level 2 Local Guide, if you have contributed video on Maps, you can join in to showcase your star 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 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 the impact that they have on our communities. We have been doing this successfully with photos over the past few years and so now we can do the same with videos. Let’s see if together we can learn what type of videos work “best”.
If you haven’t as yet shared your star video thenregister nowas we’d all love to see it!
How to Read the Star Video leaderboards (November 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 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.
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.
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.
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, 2023 Star Videos post, a “star video album” if you will, of star videos.
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.
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 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.
Clicking or selecting any of the featured star video images shown will take you to where you can view the Local Guide’s video.
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 14 above.
Stoked I made the Top 50 on this list @AdamGT . Though I’m a little bummed that I don’t get my brackets to commemorate my first month on the video board.
Yes you are certainly right @tony_b , my time has been spent elsewhere. In fact, since February/March 2020 I really haven’t done much guiding at all. However, I have to say that my time spent on developing and building up the Leaderboards and the tools behind them, has been very rewarding. It has motivated some, helped us see, manage and monitor our contributions better, and helped us improve on the outcomes achieved. As well as all this, it has brought many of us from some 80+ different countries and cultures closer together, in a fun and friendly competitive way.
Thanks for the congrats @tony_b , not that there’s much that I can brag about. Being at the bottom is one thing but seeing newbie Local Guides like @IzzyOz outperform me makes me think it’s time I got out there and did some serious guiding LOL.
Well done on making the top 50 @JustJake and I’m really sorry that you’re feeling a little bummed that you didn’t get the brackets BUT, as clearly stated at point #10 of the readme, which I know you have read because you read everything I write , the square brackets are used to indicate the first time that a Local Guide has participated on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards
@AdamGT Thanks for all you do. It’s true that @IzzyOz is doing very well. Congrats to her. Looking a bit lonely there at Level 6, and it is similar for @Mikeinthefalls and @EvaBar at Level 7. Sure these boards will fill up as video becomes more popular as an LG habit.
. Though I’m a little bummed that I don’t get my brackets to commemorate my first month on the video board.
, the square brackets are used to indicate the first time that a Local Guide has participated on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards 
I’m excited to see that my video is now in the Top 10 Star Videos and the avg views are currently plotting at