2022
1 - Introduction:
As Local Guides it's often amazing which one of all of our Google Maps photos is the one that attracts the most views. We've come to refer to this photo as our star photo and this post, which follows on from the Local Guides 2023 Star Photos post, is where Local Guides can join in and share their star as we all have one. So if you'd like to share yours then jump on board because, regardless of how many views it has or how good a photo it is, or even what Local Guide level you are at, or where in the world you are located, we'd all love to see your star! Together we can build a photo album of stars in every corner of the world.
As well as adding your star photo in this album, if you wish, you can also have more fun and learn a lot more about star photos by joining the Top 100 Local Guides Star Photos leaderboards, and details on this are provided below.
2 - Questions:
We want this post to very much look like a photo album. Therefore, if you have any questions or wish to comment about star photos generally, or a specific Local Guide's star photo in this album, or how to participate here or on the star photos leaderboards, then please do not add them in comments in this post. Instead, post them in a comment on the Discussion on the Local Guides, 2024 Star Photos post, a post specifically setup for this. Please note that any such comments added here will be moved to the special discussion post.
3 - Steps to add your star photo:
To participate, you need to take a screenshot of your star photo and add it in a comment on this post. Because we want a consistent format of entries in this album, please follow the basic formatting criteria as outlined below. A good idea is to use the steps mentioned as a checklist and make sure you cover each step. Your screenshot should:
- [20 points] include only one image of your star photo, clearly showing the current star views overlaid over it. Larger screenshots are best but do not over enlarge your screenshot at the expense of quality/resolution;
- [20 points] only be of your star photo and not show any Maps details that are not overlaid over your star photo itself on Maps;
- [10 points] preferably be taken in landscape (more wide than tall) layout as these photos look better than portrait or vertical layout (more tall than wide),
- [10 points] be posted centered,
- [5 points] have only one blank line (i.e. no text) at the top between the screenshot itself and your Connect avatar and post date details,
- [20 points] include a caption using the following format
Caption: Star photo by @YourConnectUsername of [name of the place] uploaded onto Google Maps on [include date uploaded] and showing star views of [enter star views] as at [include star views date]
Note:
* If you're participating in the star photo leaderboards, the caption to be used will be automatically generated for you 😉 Simply copy and paste it with your screenshot;
* If you're adding your screenshot on a desktop PC then add the caption as part of the Insert Photos process (📷) so that it is better integrated with the screenshot itself.
* For a good general read on uploading a photo on Connect, read the guidelines here. - [10 points] The caption must shows the correct star date & star views (screenshot) date.
- [10 points] The star views shown on your caption must be the same as that shown on your screenshot and if you're a Top 100 Local Guides leaderboard participant, it must also be equal to the star views you have entered for your star photo on the Top 100 System!
- [5 point] Add one blank after your image and caption but not before!
Note: The Connect editor at times adds extra blank lines and for best readability on mobile devices we don't want these extra blank lines, thank you! So after you save your screenshot, check it and if you see too many blank lines, delete them. For better readability you can also add one blank line at the very end of your screenshot post 😉 - [15 points] Add the name of the place, city and country as a heading and that heading must be the shared link of your star photo on Maps. Interested Local Guides can then simply select your heading's link to visit and view your star photo on Maps.
- [20 points] Immediately under the heading (no blank lines before) tell the story about your star photo or the place or meal etc. This is important so make it interesting so others, including Search Engine robots, will enjoy reading and like your story and you just never know your star photo might be featured in other places on Connect as well as the Web and thus build on its impact 😉
- [5 points] Include in your description details of make and model of the camera/smartphone used (e.g. Google Pixel 6a, Samsung Galaxy S24).
Things you could mention include:
(a) Is this your best photo?
(b) Was this just a point and click shot?
Important Notes:
- After adding your star photo screenshot, you should check it on both mobile and a PC for formatting, layout and consistency (especially line spacing). Compare yours with others in the album;
- The points shown in red against each of the above requirements (maximum 150), are used to measure how well your star photo screenshot fits in with the specified formatting criteria mentioned above.
- Why did I say use your imagination and make the story about your star photo or the place or meal etc interesting so others, including Search Engine robots, will enjoy reading it? It's because our star photos are not only shown in this album on Connect, they are also shown in the public domain and therefore end up on general Google Search Results Pages (SERPs). If we make our descriptions interesting, this will help generate generic "hits" to our photos which means more views 😃 So when writing your description for your star photo screenshot, think of it as a mini post of it's own. Give it some thought, make it interesting but there's no need to go overboard!!!
5 - Updating your star photo:
From time to time you might wish to edit or update your star photo. For example, you have made a mistake in your post or the star views may have increased or you might even have a new star photo! Simple! There are two different scenarios here, (a) editing or updating your existing star photo and (b) adding a new star photo!
- when editing or updating your existing star photo, you simply re-visit your existing entry in this post, and update your star photo using either of the two procedures mentioned in Sections 5.1 and 5.2 below which as you can see, depends on whether you are or are not currently participating on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards.
** It's important to note that when editing or updating your existing star photo you must not start a new comment and add an updated screenshot showing the new star views, - when adding a new star photo, you add it in a new comment on this post following the steps detailed in Section #3 above. A good idea is to add a permalink back to your original star post.
5.1 Participant on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards
- Take a new screenshot of your new or current star photo showing the current star views that is compliant with points 1 to 3 of the formatting criteria in section 3 above.
- Update your star photo details on the Top 100 Local Guides system.
- Copy caption suggested on the Top 100 Local Guides system
- If you're adding a new star photo then you add this in a new comment in this post following the steps detailed in Section 3 above. If you are adding a new star photo as described in point 5(b) above then go to step 16.
- If editing or updating your existing star photo (see point 5(a) above) then continue on withthe following steps.
- Find your previous star photo in this album.
- Select the ellipsis menu (3 blue dots)
- Select Edit Reply
- Select the screenshot of your star photo
- Select the pencil icon to activate the edit function
- Delete your old star photo screenshot
- Add the new screenshot showing the updated star photo views
- Paste the caption copied at step 3 above.
- Select Done
- You could add in your description a brief mention of the change in star views for example:
Date Star Views Delta Views Feb 2024 540,000 ?? Mar 2024 765,000 225,000 Apr 2024 867,050 102,050 - Select Save Changes
- Job done! Grab a coffee!!
5.2 Non-participant on the Top 100 Local Guides leaderboards
- Take a new screenshot of your new or current star photo showing the current star views that is compliant with points 1 to 3 of the formatting criteria in section 3 above.
- Find your previous star photo in this album.
- Select the ellipsis menu (3 blue dots)
- Select Edit Reply
- Select the screenshot of your star photo
- Select the pencil icon to activate the edit function
- Take a copy of the current caption
- Delete your old star photo screenshot
- Add the new screenshot showing the new or updated star photo views
- Paste back the old caption
- Update the star views and star views date on the caption
- Select Done
- Select Save Changes
- Job done! Grab a coffee
6 - The Top 100 Local Guides Star Photos leaderboards:
As mentioned in the introduction above, as well as adding your star photo in this album, if you wish, you can also join the Top 100 Local Guides Star Photos leaderboards and you can see the latest of this by hitting the Star Photos link shown in the signature below. If you wish to join this fun, motivational and educational adjunct to this post, then hit this link. As well as the Star Photos leaderboards, you will see how you can also join other Top 100 Local Guides leaderboard, such as the Points, Photos, Videos, 360 Spheres and Countries focused leaderboards.
7 - Conclusion
You are invited to join the many hundreds of Local Guides from across the world to showcase your star photo. Let's share and learn how to improve the quality of our photo contributions to Maps. Together we can do more.
Target, Cheltenham, Melbourne, Australia
Not so long ago, this storefront photo of a Melbourne Target department store took over from my previous, long time star photo, a rather unimpressive photo of a car park at a hardware store which had turned into being somewhat like a red star in space, which are dying stars in the final stages of stellar evolution. Now sadly, it seems that this new star has also turned into a red star! As with most of my photos contributed to Maps, this star was taken with my Android based Pixel 3XL smartphone. I do track my stars using the T100 System's star tracking feature and sadly, well at least for the time being, it seems most unlikely that I will have a new star to brag about anytime soon.
Jio Digital Life Store at Dabagardens, Visakhapatnam, India
This is my most viewed Star Photo. I took this photo with my iPhone 4 standing on the road in front of the Jio Digital Life store at Dabagardens, Visakhapatnam, India. The shop was quite popular during the year 2017 as Reliance launched the revolutionary first 4G Jio mobile in India and started sales through Jio stores. Launching Jio 4G was a major milestone in the telecommunication history of India. Initial sales authorization was given to very few shops and Jio phones were sold based on booking. This shop was one of the very few shops that was authorized to sell Jio mobiles.
Surprisingly this previously stolen cover and star photo has been reinstated on Google Maps. I took no action apart from sharing this post.
Link to the place on Maps: Kokkeriet
Cheers
Morten
Caption: @EfiKurniyawati's Star Photo of Lippo Plaza onto Google Maps on 2022-12-28 and showing star views of 284,651 as at 2024-01-28
Lippo Plaza, Gondokusuman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
This is my most viewed Star Photo. I took this photo with Android Oppo, I was standing in the main lobby of Lippo Plaza. This shop was quite popular in 2016-2019. Because there are various food courts on the shop's rooftop in the afternoon until just before the shop closes. However, when the corona virus pandemic occurred in 2020 until now in 2023, this shop became quiet and many tenants closed their businesses in the shop.
Rose Garden BBQ, Melbourne, Australia
When I first uploaded my star photo back in 2023 I had noticed a views trend. Consistently my most frequently viewed photos were pictures of restaurant meals. My previous star photo was of a meal and now my current star photo is of a restaurant, which has blitzed into the lead! It is of a rather unpretentious looking restaurant but do not be fooled by it's appearance! This restaurant serves some of the most delicious Chinese & Malaysian meals I have ever tasted! They have a limited menu and I have revisited several times since my first visit. I am now working my way through the menu 🙂 This photo was taken with my iPhone 13
Big Buddha (Wat Phra Yai), Bangkok!
I took this photo of The Big Buddha at the entrances of the Big Buddha (Wat Phra Yai), Bangkok during my visit to Bangkok way back in the year 2016. I have shared this photo on Google Map just a month ago and considered to be the star photo gaining me 398K of views.
The change in star photo's views in last NINE cycles:
Date Star views Change in Star Views
22-May-2023 3,98,132 ----
30-June-2023 10,01,240 6,03,108
31-July-2023 17,56,708 7,55,468
31-August-2023 19,72,085 2,15,377
30-September-2023 20,32,202 60,117
01-November-2023 20,86,618 54,416
01-December-2023 21,43,285 56,667
01-January-2024 22,07,968 64,683
01-February-2024 26,06,479 3,98,511
01-March-2024 25,77,821 -28,658*
*(Decrease in view count is a result of some bug wrt individual photo view count in Google Map which surfaced in the month of Feb,2024.)
01-April-2024 34,04,075 8,26,254
Luna Park at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York
This was a photo I took with my old Moto X2 on a trip to visit family in Brooklyn, NY. We went to Coney Island and had to swing by Luna Park to ride the Wonder Wheel (big, old Ferris Wheel). I aligned my camera to peek through the metal cage of the Ferris Wheel car and started taking aerial pictures of the park.
I posted this in 2021. Several of the photos uploaded from Luna Park were lost among the thousands of pictures, but this one just took off.
Maris Stella College is the most viewed star photo. I took this photo on the Oppo F1 mobile that, my sister was studying there at that time, it was a women's college most famous college in Vijayawada Andhra Pradesh. so many Different Types of pictures were taken me this photo got the highest number of views.
Great Mosque Of Xi'an, Lianhu District, Xi'an, China.
The Great Mosque of Xi'an is a remarkable architectural masterpiece combining traditional Chinese and Islamic styles. Built during the Tang Dynasty in the 8th century, it has a rich history that spans over a thousand years. The mosque is a place of worship for the local Muslim community and a popular tourist attraction.
The mosque's entrance features an elegant gate with beautiful calligraphy, providing a sense of tranquility as you enter. Once inside, you'll find yourself immersed in a peaceful oasis filled with serene courtyards, well-manicured gardens, and exquisite traditional architecture. The complex covers a vast area and is divided into several sections, each with its own unique charm.
One of the highlights of the Great Mosque is its prayer hall, which is an architectural marvel. The hall showcases a perfect blend of Chinese and Islamic design elements. Intricately carved wooden beams, colorful motifs, and delicate Arabic inscriptions adorn the hall, creating a captivating atmosphere. The peaceful ambiance and spiritual aura make it a serene place for worship and reflection.
