2022
This is a post in the miniseries called Getting In and Out of Trouble as a Local Guide. If you want to start by reading the first post, please find it here or scroll down to find an overview with links to more posts in this miniseries.
Violating the guidelines for photos can result in some or all of your photos being hidden, so only you see them. And you can get suspended for photo violations.
In this post, I will explain the 5 most frequent photo problems I have seen Local Guides get in trouble for.
Don't show faces
Some Local Guides use Google Maps as their private photo album. This is a very big and very common mistake. Google Maps is about the places and not about the people randomly visiting the places. Faces in Maps photos are unwanted distractions and they can block the view of important details.
Such photos should be flagged for concern of privacy.
You may think you have the acceptance of family members and even children to share their photos on Google Maps. Just don't do it. You and the kids can't know for sure if they later would like not to have their faces shared publicly.
So sharing selfies, group photos, family photos, and any photos with recognizable faces is clearly against the guidelines. So are uploading photos showing children.
Also, license plates on cars, etc. should always be blurred for privacy.
Never upload duplicates or similar photos
Don't double post any of your photographs. You can be suspended for this as mentioned here. If you did double post any pics, please remove them now under Your Contributions.
Duplicates can happen if your internet connection is unreliable. Or you could think it's okay to upload again when Google Maps suggest so. You should regularly check for duplicates in your list of photo contributions.
While duplicates are super easy to define and understand as a problem, the next violation is open for some interpretation. It's called near-duplicates or similar or redundant photos.
You may take more than one pic of each place. If you do so, you should evaluate them and keep only the best one. All but one should be deleted rather than uploaded. This is to prevent you from uploading near similar pics to Google Maps. Just changing the angle or zoom does not give you more or extra information. Consider if scrolling past similar photos is helpful to you as a user of Google Maps. How often have you seen the same dish shown from different angles in Google Maps?
Goggle is very clear on this. We should not upload similar photos.
If a Maps User is looking for a particular detail, then scrolling past a lot of very similar photos is not helpful.
Avoid violating copyrights
If it’s not your photo, don’t upload it!
It sounds super simple, but copyrights issues are another very common violation seen on Google Maps.
Some Local Guides wanting to be helpful mistakenly search for photos of the place online. They save them and then upload them to Google Maps. This is called stealing. You may not think it's a crime, but it is. Imagine a professional photographer making a living taking and selling high-quality photos - and then Local Guide just steals a copy!
It is mentioned specifically in the guidelines that Local Guides can be removed from the program for copyright violations. Uploading screenshots, stock photos, GIFs, fake and manipulated photos are also considered serious violations.
Some photos are under Creative Commons or you might have found royalty-free images, or you might even have bought some rights to use a photo. Here Google Maps is more strict than let's say Wikipedia. On Google Maps we can only share photos we have taken ourselves. Period.
For the trained eye, it is pretty easy to spot stolen photos. The resolution of screenshots is often suspiciously low. And if the photo quality suddenly jumps up way beyond what the Local Guide's phone can normally produce, this can also raise suspicion. It's easy and quick to check if a photo has been stolen from the internet by doing a reverse image search on tineye.com or images.google.com.
You can join the fight against stolen photos by reporting them. But make sure to first delete all stolen images you may have uploaded to protect your account.
Uploading a photo more than once is a big no-no
In some photos, you can see more than one place. In that case, many Local Guides wrongly believe they can upload the same photo to two or more places on Google Maps.
Double posting is a very common violation that can get you in trouble. Never reuse photos by uploading them to more than one place on Google Maps.
A solution could be to take more photos from different angles or even better try zooming in so only one place is shown in each shot or at least try to center one place in each of your shots.
If a place on Google Maps has two or more pins on Google Maps you should report the duplication and not upload your photo to the different pins.
Give up on low-quality shots
Some photos are not good enough to represent a place on Google Maps. Use the following tips to check the quality of your shots before uploading them. The following should not be uploaded:
- Night shots and very dark photos.
- Blurry shots. I have seen photos taken from a moving car at night time!
- Photos with very bleak/faded colors
- Pics with very little contrast
- Backlit photos. Always aim to have the light source behind you.
Sometimes it is better to not take photos for Google Maps if the conditions are not optimal. It's better to come back when the weather and time of day are perfect.
Some phones don't have a very good camera, then it is even more important to make sure the lighting is the best possible.
This concludes my post on Common Photo Violations. Let's summarize:
- Don't show faces (Selfies, group photos and family photos, and all photos with recognizable faces)
- Never upload duplicates or similar photos
- Avoid violating copyrights
- Uploading a photo more than once is also a big no-no
- Give up on low-quality shots
Next up is Other Common Violations where you can study some typical violations related to making edits on Google Maps and conflicts of interest.
Cheers
Morten
Miniseries overview
How to Get In and Out of Trouble: The Main post
Count your hidden contributions on a Desktop
Count your hidden contributions on a Mobile
Photo Violations (= this post)
Thanks for this article.
I understand about all violated photos ( flat ) you mentioned, but I just need to know about the 360 shot !
In a 360 shot, you can' see a number of people that they can't be removed from the photo ! If you try to remove them as they are a ( group ) , the photo will be not in a good quality or in a beautiful display . As a SVTP, I think the 360 shots with different rules ! but I am not sure . If the 360 photo contain a number of people and they are away ( far ) inside the photo, I think it's not violated ! because there are a historical landmarks in my country, and in a different countries in the world can be full of guests , and you can't let them go because you want to shoot a 360 photo.
Like this one 👇
The Archaeological Site of Jerash
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fFFUkBzRkt4XtfS37
I didn't see a Google guidelines about the 360 photos so far !
I saw and red the rules of the 360 photos and the Street View shooting , like ( 120 to 180 ) ( 1.2 ) and 4K, .... etc but there is no mentioned if there were a people inside the 360 photos if the existence of people are violated or not !
Thanks
Please what did you mean by ( old photos ) !?? here 👇
Example : if I have an old photos for a place, can't I publish them to the place that the photos belong to ? Just because they are old shot ? Or what ?
Thanks
