Why share my photos?

[system]

I know this may well go ‘against the ethos’ of the Local Guides, but I’m wondering “Why should I share my photos to help Google make money out of maps, with little real… curation/input on that?”

I’m happy to do things like answer questions, update hours, correct routes - because that’s something where the information is wrong, and it’s useful to me and others to correct it.

But photos? Firstly, I’ve little interest in taking photos of ‘This is what this cafe looks like’ barring perhaps the unusual case of somewhere very easy to miss. But I do take a lot of photos. Of street-art new and old, of unusual sights (an elephant doorknocker), juxtapositions (two bras and a half eaten sandwitch left on the wall outside the professional association for surgeons) and other things that just catch my eye and seem like they might interest or amuse others. I share those in a few places. But there I can caption them, I can concentrate on sharing that moment that made me interested.

Maps is often asking me to share photos, saying ‘Only X more photos to level Y’ and similar. And I get that if I shared photos, and they were liked, that might ‘level me up’ and get me cool perks (I don’t know; are the perks cool?). But as the person doing the photography, it feels like I have much less input into it, less curation, less ability to go “This is my collection, this is what people think of it”. I think it’d also share under my real name, which I’d prefer not - I like being able to put a distance between being found based on what I’m sharing unless I choose to let more.

I do get that photos in googlemaps aren’t meant to be art (though they could share that there’s art in an area), are there for information, and that yes, Google’s making money off it, just like the sites where I do share make money in other ways. That sharing photos through GoogleMaps may just not be for me.

But I figured there were other guides out there who might like taking photos of the interesting an unusual, might have an opinion on this, might win me over on it. And if not, then I can just keep ignoring the 1001 prods to share photos, or work out how to tuurn them off…

[system]

Here’s an example of the random sights I’m talking about, that make me smile. Though for some reason, shared sideways…

[ErmesT]

Your question is indeed interesting, @user_not_found

I frequently check the photos uploaded by other users, @user_not_found , if I have to go on a new place, especially for restaurants and hotels.

I like to see how the business is, before to go, so I generally found the photos extremely helpful.

Not all, of course. A lot of Local Guides mostly upload photos for receiving points, fortunately several times they become ex Local Guides.

I wrote a post time ago exactly about this subject, and I believe you will find it interesting: Local Guides in The Mirror - How useful are our contributions?

[system]

I have very little interest in taking photos that are ‘useful’ except insofar as ‘There is or was this interesting thing here’.

I’m not interested in doing work to help a random business and google make money off the back of me sharing a photo of them. I’m interested in provoking wonder and delight in the weird and wonderful, the strange and the beautiful that surrounds us.

So, yep. You are making me think that as I both

a) don’t really want my work shared against my real name
but moreso b) used primarly just to advertise,

that better I keep my photography away from Google Guides, unless it’s a friend’s shop or business I want to help out.

[Erik_van_den_Ham]

Hello @user_not_found I started out on Panoramio which was developed by to Spanish guys an offered an opportunity to add pictures to Google Earth and later also to Maps.
Next to sharing your pictures there was a great system in which people could comment on your pictures. You could tag your pictures ‘doorknocker’ and so make a collection of normal to special doorknockers. There was curation as each picture was reviewed before it was allowed on GE.
Sadly the system suffered from bugs that in some way could not be get rid off. Google who bought Panoramio from the developers decided not to continue the site anymore.
There were millions of disappointed users as it also became a online meeting place for people from all over the world sharing beauty and ugliness and just whatever their interest was. There was tons of information underneath pictures … that all was lost when Google killed the site.

It was a community with friends that shared great places and spots for photography. Organised meetings in real life to see who was behind the name on screen.

Compared to that Local guides is a huge step back and now completely focused on providing info on POI’s

So why do I still share? I value looking up info and on places I’m going to visit or just explore some area for fun. I hope my pictures and reviews inspire others and make them go to places they otherwise would never have discovered.

I can virtually travel the globe and see places I will never see in my real life. Sometimes these places look so great they make me go there to see for real.

[C_T]

Your query is interesting @user_not_found

When I want to make a leisurely visit to any place, I neither go through the reviews nor photos.
In my opinion, that creates a bias.
However, when I have to visit a place in a hurry or an emergency, I go through that carefully. That saves a lot of trouble in locating that.

Thus, if the intention is to help the prospective visitors to overcome any adverse situation, sharing photos & reviews do serve a great purpose.

[system]

That’s not the intention.

The intention of taking photos is to take interesting or beautiful things and share them with the world. And do so in a way where I have a hand in that, I have curation and recognition. And based on what everyone’s said, Google Guides is not the place for that.

Reviews? If I give a place the honest score of 3/5 - “It was okay, but didn’t knock me off my feet” - then I get a comment from the place going “We’re sorry you had a bad time, tell us how to improve!” And also, the review element puts the money making element for google front and centre. Which ain’t what I’m interested in.

“I’m exploring this bit of the city, and I see that there’s this route not marked on the map/the route that is marked is locked and for residents only” - is something that helps me if I walk that way again and have forgotten the last time. It helps my notional clone, also exploring. It doesn’t put the money making front and centre.

And answering questions? Is easy, is a way to pass little moments of time, and is still stronger on the ‘informing’ than ‘advertising’ side. And TBH, there I don’t mind helping out a little in order to earn some points, because points might mean prizes.

But the pictures I want to take, are both not ones that GoogleMaps will find useful, and they are not ones I want to share with GoogleMaps.

So, thank you everyone for your thoughts, I probably won’t venture back on here. But it’s been useful to confirm my suspicion that I should just see if I can tell the app to quit asking me for photos.