Hey everyone! Apologies if this is the wrong topic to pick to post this issue but I couldn’t find a way to post on the helpdesk thread. I am unable to add pictures to google maps. I have a ton of photo spheres, landscape images of various areas but I can’t seem to find the button that is stated in the google guide here: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/2622947?hl=en&ref_topic=3257381&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&oco=1
I’d like to add photospheres people can see with street view, but I don’t have a video to upload here: https://streetviewstudio.maps.google.com/ - Just static 360 photo spheres that are off-road at viewpoints. And I can’t seem to add any normal 2d images to a location.
“Welcome to Connect! If this is your first visit, you’ve come to the right place. This post will serve as a guide for everything you need to know about contributing content and engaging with the Local Guides community on Connect”. This is the first of the information that you will find in “Your guide to Connect” , the introductory Guide of the community. In there you will find all the necessary information to know how to better contribute in here.
It means that we will have to follow the same rules of flat photos, because the “Add photo” button is available only on listings in Maps, as mentioned in the help’s article shared above: “You can’t add photos or videos to addresses or coordinates”
Do you have a doubt about how to do something here or in Maps? The Help desk is here for you,with a long list of post with detailed indications on how to post.
Which kind of contents we share in the community? What are Connect topics? will give you an explanation
I see you got great replies from the fellow Local Guides. Thank you @PaulPavlinovich and @ErmesT .
I just want to let you know that I will change the topic of your post to How-tos to keep Connect organized. This is the place where you can ask questions, share tips and feedback about Connect and the Local Guides program.
If you want to dig deeper and understand the differences between pins/points of interest and stuff on maps that we can not edit and add photos to, please see
One more thing you may like to know. When you are looking at an area like a city or country, you will see some photos and often no “Add photo/video” link or button. This is when Google uses an algorithm to select some of the best photos added to places (pins/places of interest) inside the area/city/country. It is confusing to see photos from others and at the same time not be able to add any. This is just the way it is.
I consider having some of my photos also shown under cities and countries etc to be an honor. I encourage you to visit your city and country and look for the “By you” tab to check if any of your photos were selected. If so, check which ones got picked. In my experience, the algorithm really likes super colorful pics with deep deep blue skies.
You can add solo 360 images to pins/places of interest from within Google Maps as any flat photo.
The part I’m confused by is how it would even get selected. So for example in my OP it says Rhigos which is where I live, I have taken some lovely pictures of the area that appear on the Wikipedia pages for Llyn Fawr lake and Rhigos the village, but there is no point of interest here. So adding the image to the local convenience store or to the doctors office down the road surely wont work as I’m not uploading an image about the area, or any image with coordinates. So how would Google know to go “Yep, this is a good image I’d like to auto select for Rhigos” if it isn’t uploaded under the “Rhigos” area as a vague area?
The other part i’m confused by is the 360 images. When I click and drag the street view man I can see small spheres in the middle of nowhere, on mountain tops, or points of interest that aren’t marked on the map, for example the 100s of peaks we have around the South Wales valleys which aren’t all named mountains. But if I can only add the spheres to existing points of internet, how do I go about uploading it for an area. For example, I have a 360 aerial image of Rhigos I’d like to place where the image was taken, right in the middle of Rhigos for people to appreciate but can’t seem to find a way to do this?
Please don’t add any photos to places that do not clearly show the place. So adding a landscape/nature photo to a convenience store is an absolute no-go. Unfortunately, there is no way you can add photos directly to areas as explained in the link. This is Google Map’s awkward way of saying “No thanks, we don’t want your photo”. A parallel example is when we want to add a new place on Google Maps. If the exact category is not available, this means we should not add the place. If you try to work around this your image will sooner or later be taken down.
I speculate that if Google allowed adding photos anywhere the usefulness could go down.
Some of the small spheres can be from the times when other ways of adding photos to Google Maps were available as explained by @ErmesT . Flat photos shown in this way can be from even further back. And they can also no longer be added.
Unfortunately Google has decided to remove the feature that allows people to upload 360 Photo Spheres to geographic points on a map. Instead you have to upload a photo and tag an existing place to your photo. This is a ridiculous thing for Google to do. I travel to places in the middle of nowhere and take 360 photos, but I can no longer pin them onto Google Maps unless there is a known place that already exists on the map. For example, if I take a photo in the middle of a field or a river, Google is stopping me uploading these photos anymore unless there is a known place that exists there such as a tourist attraction. In addition, tagging 360 Photos to a place on Google, won’t show the exact location on a map where the photo was taken, just that is was taken in the general area. As a landscape photographer, Google removing the Street View App will seriously affect my ability to create and upload 360 photos anymore. I am now thinking of selling my 360 camera and just giving up. Thanks Google, your loss as Maps won’t be receiving any 360 photos from now on!
Com o fim do aplicativo Street View agora você deve enviar suas fotos unitárias esféricas de 360° ou panorâmico conforme descrito aqui pelo @ErmesT
No entanto, se você quiser enviar “vídeos” de caminhos, coleções ou várias imagens de 360° de um mesmo percurso, você pode utilizar o serviço Street View Studio . Clique aqui para acessar.
Tendo informações de geolocalização corretas, o Google emenda o Street View da empresa com as fotos 360° do usuário. Outros usuários poderão continuar navegando em 360° pelo local.
O serviço não tem aplicativo, funciona em um navegador web no telefone móvel e no computador.
MUITO IMPORTANTE : Verifique se suas imagens têm informações geográficas, pois elas determinarão onde sua imagem será posicionada no mapa.
Caso seus arquivos não tenham informações geográficas, você pode gerar com outros aplicativos um arquivo GPX separado com as informações de localização de sua foto e enviar junto com sua imagem:
Just out of interest @eaglewolf it was never within the realm of what a Local Guide should do.
There is a place for your 360 photography Google Earth where panorama images at pinpoints is allowed and encouraged. This site explains how to do it fairly well
I got a DJI about 6 months ago, started posting 360 views of my area with exact geo locations on Google Maps, worked great and were online in minutes but as we know Google put a stop to that.
About 2 weeks ago I posted a 360 now tagged to a location, works okay but no longer can someone go to Google Maps and just click on the blue dot to see the 360 view.
Yesterday I tried posting again but this time its just a flat image which as we know looks distorted and a bit pointless, what is going on? I can no longer post 360 jpg images?
Google contribute seems to have gone backwards. In the past I’ve been easily able to add many photos at locations I choose. Now when I look through Google photos and choose contribute it just seems to offer the photos at defined Places, almost like they just want to sell pictures that advertise businesses or buildings. All my photos have GPS location data on them. I want add photos from the middle of the countryside but I’ve spent an hour and gone around in circles trying to find out how.
MUITO IMPORTANTE : Verifique se suas imagens têm informações geográficas, pois elas determinarão onde sua imagem será posicionada no mapa.