Views of indivual Photos reduced drastically or show zero for new uploads

Google Maps tips & tricks
1701

@tony_b,
I tried doing a takeout once but found the whole process confusing. Also I don’t see the point in comparing the numbers for the takeout to the public numbers.
Like you I don’t have a ton of photos and videos so finding my star and keeping track of them hasn’t been a problem. I don’t ever expect my star photo to get any additional views given its place in the gallery at the poi.
The next 1% jump of my star video will move to the #5 position in my media. Just have to wait patiently. :roll_eyes:

2 Likes
1702

Thanks for tagging me @tony_b. Yes I’m interested in this topic and even discussed it off Connect with a group of T100 Leaderboard System participants including @WilfriedB. It’s a complex process but I was thinking of automating it and making it easier. I have other priorities at the moment so for now it sits as a menu item on the Leaderboard System’s Pro features list.

1 Like
1703

Good morning @tony_b :smiley:

I don’t know, what Google’s intention was @tony_b, but my approach was, by writing a little Python script to collect the information in all those JSON files and combine it into a single spreadsheet for a better overview. If you have Python installed on your PC, I can try to create a version of that script, which doesn’t need my database.
CC @AdamGT @Rednewt74 @JustJake

1 Like
1704

Thanks @WilfriedB. We discussed this some time ago and given the interest by others let’s continue that discussion and see if we can progress this a little further. However, given that the Leaderboard System stores user data, my preference is to do this without needing a user to use a Python script. Chat soon.

1 Like
1705

I absolutely agree with that @AdamGT

1 Like
1706

I agree @Rednewt74, but not only that. It demands a very stable Internet connection and sufficient storage space to hold twice all the photos you ever uploaded (I don’t know, if it includes videos too). There is no way to select only a part and you always need to download all image files, even if you are only interested in the much smaller JSON files.

However, requesting the takeout at least once, was very essential for me to

  • Keep track and understand which photos I did post in the past and when
  • Identify duplicate and redundant photos, I was not aware of before.

Doing so once, was very interesting, I learned:

  • Even though, I don’t see any change for the number of views under My Contributions,
  • apparently, Google uses multiples different to count the views. Only one third of the photos show higher numbers under My Contributions (and the stay higher during months!), while the rest has consistently more views according to the takeouts.

CC @AdamGT @tony_b @JustJake

1 Like
1707

Thanks for your response @WilfriedB. I note your occassional reference to Python. So, are we saying this is no use to me without additional software?

1708

I don’t know @tony_b. This is my solution, but I there might be simpler way besides looking into each file manually, as you already did.

2 Likes