Hello all, pretty sure this has been talked about, but wanted some clarity since maps views’ counts has been a strange topic of late. I posted this video the other day, and it is not listed in the top photos of the place, and not featured, and not really supposed to get a lit of views. I kerp checking, and in 24 hours, over 12,000 views. In case my link does not work, its called Ruby’s Diner, citadel outlets, commerce, ca.
Good morning Steven!
Good question! I have several of those, including my “Star Photo”, which got almost 2 million views in about three month, but I never found it, where I uploaded it, but did find it under the city pin.
My guess (whoever knows better, can tell and proof me wrong):
Google choose that photo (besides many others of yours), not only to appear at the pin where you posted it, but also on one ore more geographical features, such as the area, city, county, state, country … and at least on one of those it appears at prominent position. Now, go and search for it …
Besides myself, @tony_b had the same experience. Unlike me, he really found one of his at such a pin in a prominent position.
@StevenBerlin@tony_b@WilfriedB (plus @TerryPG )
I thought we explained it once:
It is the Maps “Explore” function.
So indeed at random Google picks (mostly videos) and shares them in the geographical area that includes your posted location.
Don’t ask me who uses “explore” but it seems to be popular…
If you search for the location in which you shared your video, center the map on it and step back, you should see the explore feature.
Here is my 3 days ago sampler.
The feature of Finsbury square garden bar (great place) got shot to 26k in 3 days.
While it is featured (at about #10) on the location, you can see that it was picked on the Shoreditch “explore” (currently about the 4th video - it may have been the first two days agao and it will gradually move down the list).
Being a very popular it does get many views in short time but again… this is short term “fame” as these photos are going to be replaced frequently.
In some case the “explore” can be at a higher level - zooming out of Shoreditch will allow to “explore” London and them all UK etc.
So sometimes the video can be found in different levels.
This is a very good explanation, @abermans! I was always thinking of searching a city or area by name reveals many of our photos, but tapping Explore might happen much more frequently.
I am still convinced this did happen for my “star photo” (wich is not really a star) gaining thousands views daily for a short time, than only dozens and didn’t move at all since 04/2024, while it never appeared at the posted location, but I found under the pin of the city, which is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Germany.
Thanks for tagging me Abermans. I think you answered the question very well. I too am seeing I guess some unbelievable views in videos . Besides receiving views in Explore there are more ways that will boost your views quickly.
Depending what part of the world you are in and how many people are using Explore will determine the views you receive. I noticed in London’s explore the contributions change hourly whereas in a couple of small towns close to me it’s more likely weekly. So yes you will receive more views in mega cities.
Your video or photo will always appear in the “latest” section of contributions shown in the POI . So again depending on how busy your POI is and how many contributions they receive it can stay there a few days or weeks.
Don’t forget that videos now occupy the #2 spot in a POI’s P/V’s(photo/videos) spot. If your lucky enough to garner this spot your views will increase.
This video also surprised me receiving 75K views in 4 days.
This video was from the City of Toronto, major city. I don’t go there enough because the traffic sucks.
I also have another video that is going “viral” at least for me . Posted a month ago its receiving over 9K views a week. At this rate it will become my star video in a few days.
Remember what I have said before .Videos are the future and the future is here now
Hello, interesting and very detailed. I dont know tge difference between panning out regularly and just selecting the city, then county, state, vs using explore. Perhaps i am missing something. When i click on explore all it does is allow me to pan out just like i normally would.
It not only allows you pan out the map, but also shows some places in the area you see on the map. Users who click on one of those photos might increase the view without really opening the listing. At least this is, how I understood @abermans.
@WilfriedB I don’t know what counts as view on the explore tab but I suspect it is just based on browsing down the list and not selecting an image. Hence the quick volume of views accumulated for these…
As we cannot impact the selection it is just a random boost of views that we all get if using videos (or can we?? I never thought why is something picked for the explore function).
I said it enough time, I personally don’t like videos. I think that the trade off between data volume and information provided, they are not a real improvement.
Do we really learn much more on food or the location compared to image?
It is more engaging and that is what Google map goes for I believe. Capturing the eye for a little more time.
So if we can’t beat them, join them and do videos as your chance of featuring a d helping fellow map users is higher (especially against an already “saturated” imagery location).
