2022
I love coffee shops and this is an especially nice one. The local chain has several stores in Syracuse. This is in a converted older home, with really nice architectural features
When I took this in mid May, 2023, I was just beginning to experiment with taking videos for Maps. I was having trouble finding a shot that I thought would make a compelling video; one that would help people to choose this coffee shop. So I created a montage of photos (there is one short vertical video of the interior included) to tell a story. It starts with their sign, expands out to show the storefront, then zooms to their hours signs, and then shows several interior views. I made it in Capcut. I added transitions so the change from image to image wouldn't be to jarring. Doing a photo montage has the advantage that if the place is busy, you can use an app (android blur photo) to obscure faces, if need be, before you put the montage together.
This video has a horizontal aspect (landscape about 16:9). Since this video, I have made a couple more montage videos, but have become more comfortable shooting traditional video. Also, almost all of my videos are in a vertical aspect (Portrait 9:16) and are shot in Cinematic Pan mode (Pixel 7 pro) which slows the speed down by 50% and gives you smoother footage.
Collingwood Town Hall, Abbotsford, Australia
Burger King Restaurant, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados
This is a video of a popular fast-food restaurant, taken when I was out for my early morning walk. I had recently seen discussions on Connect about video becoming more important, and as I walked I was looking for opportunities. This place gets very busy at times and is one of the few places in our area with a breakfast menu. There's also an indoor play area catering for kids, and parties are sometimes hosted here.
CCaption: @TravellerG's Star Video of Sri Kattu Veera Anjaneya Temple uploaded onto Google Maps on 2021-06-15 and showing star views of 51,470 as at 2023-09-04.
Shree Kattu Veera Anjaneya Swami Temple, Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, India.
Hindu Temple - a very peaceful and holy place.
Legend:
It is believed that if you pray for a specific benefit, after tieing a coconut in a bag (provided by temple authorities), and do 11 rounds of the temple (Pradakshinam) by chanting "Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram", your prayer will be granted within three months - this is the main ritual performed here.
Location:
The temple is in Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu), around 100 km from Bangalore - almost one km inside from the National Highway.
Rituals:
Along with the above pooja, there are other special poojas available, including marriages, with prior permission.
Facilities:
Drinking water and washroom facility, etc.
Taken At Lone Star Texas Grill in 2019. for my birthday, Click here to see the the video and turn up the volume to hear the Sizzle
Caption: Star Video by @jayasimha78 of Papa Kona Restaurant and Bar uploaded onto Google Maps on 2021-07-11 and showing star views of 2433235 as at 2023-12-25
I visited this restaurant in Kona, Big Island, Hawaii on July 11th 2021 on our 28th Anniversary for Brunch. Located right next to the ocean with great views. This has more than 1.5Million views in 2 years. I was surprised to see that, since I don't pay much attention videos, even though I have posted around 1200 videos so far.
Tokyo Japanese Restaurant, Clemson, South Carolina, USA
Enjoying some sushi at a local place that I have going to for almost two decades. They do a lunch special that is a good deal and it is conveniently located. This probably isn't my best video, but it makes me happy to have such a popular video.
Ved Van Park, Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar, India
Ved Van is a theme park based on Vedic Theme. One of its kind of unique park in India situated at Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. The park was existing since some times back but the theme based concept is evolved and inaugurated in June 2023. The park is sub-divided into seven parts depicting Saptarishi. The park depict the Vedic culture and has the plants as mentioned in the Vedic Literature. Six days in a week there is a laser show describing the Vedas of Indian scripture. The video is of colorful water fountain runs post the laser show in the evening. A drone is moving on the top layer of this water fountain.
The change in video's star views in last two cycles:
Date Star views Change in Star Views
09-September-2023 719 ----
30-September-2023 749 30
Asda Taunton Supercentre, Taunton, United Kingdom
This was one of the first videos I uploaded onto Google Maps. The carpark view gives a hint about the huge size of the store which is a little misleading from the front view. The video was taken with an iPhone 10 Pro Max. (The display is truncacted from the full landscape image because of the way that it is currently presented ina desktop browser.)
The ASDA sign lights up and during the 'golden hour' with the clouds shinining with a golden hue, it is actually quite a beautiful building. I have had more success with still shots as it much easier to control how many people are captured. They have some interesting advertising displays which I have filmed but I usually avoid filming inside the store.
it appears that Google have improved the bandwidth for videos so it now possible to have higher quality videos shown nearer to their original quality.
I now video shopfronts by walking from one side to the other. This gives a complete view of the shop. However, you have to be careful not to get caught in the relection of any windows.
Chandler Museum, Chandler, AZ., United States
Edit: Just recently, I learned a great tip and trick from @Rednewt74 and @MattGatlin on how to find the star video, which was truly a lifesaver! 🙂 Here are the steps on dropdown Most Viewed scroll search and steps on searching by timestamp that they've respectively posted. 💖 To stay consistent with how other Guides were picking their Star Videos based on the highest number of views, I used the new tip I learned and found my actual star video.
I've moved my old post down below the line for reference as it still shows a recent video I took at a Western museum that had some success with over 1000+ views in a few days. What's interesting is that recent video (taken September 2023) and the updated star video (taken 2019) are both recordings of a museum POI. They were also both filmed with a 360 motion where I stood in the middle of the exhibit and moved the camera around me. Both videos incorporate sound and capture the essence of the museum by showing the variety of displays.
The story behind my updated star video: I still remember dragging myself into the Chandler Museum about 4 years ago. The weather was hot and I could feel a dampness through my shirt. I was dealing with a migraine, but I knew that the weekend was about to come to an end and I didn't want to squander my last few hours before Monday sitting at home watching Youtube. I knew I'd feel better after going outside, so I went to the museum to cool off- a nice short easy walk. The best part was reading about and seeing the display of 1,000 paper cranes, which symbolizes hope and healing in tough times. I took a video in a central spot in the museum that captured a little bit of each of the exhibits including the cranes. 💖
Below is the video I initially picked and wrote about on 9/07/2023 --
Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, Scottsdale, AZ, United States
I've featured other videos in my video tutorial posts: Ideas + Reasons for Posting Videos to Google Maps and Food and Drink: Features to Film Videos for Google Maps. For this post, I instead wanted to use a fresh new video that I uploaded a few days ago. With it being recently posted, the views are still on the lower end. To align with the format recommended by Masa (Google Maps Product Manager), the video was filmed in portrait mode and kept short with a time of 7 seconds to keep viewers engaged.
The story behind the video is: on a steaming hot Labor Day weekend, I decided to cool off indoors by visiting a new museum (which was voted the #1 Western museum in all of the United States). While it was recommended to visit the rooms in order, I noticed a large crowd in the first main exhibit, so I went in reverse order- stopping first at the art gallery room. There were no existing videos of the art gallery, and most of the existing videos were off the optical illusion exhibit that seemed to moved when you moved. I thought it would be helpful to capture something different.
Holding my phone steady, I recorded a near 360 of the paintings- which a singular photo would not have been able to clearly capture. The video also shows a peek of the stairs and other rooms behind, allowing visitors to visualize the expansiveness of the museum. Additionally, keeping the sound on lets visitors feel the relative calm ambience. I avoided making any edits, because I wanted to show the museum in it's authentic state. 💙💚
