âonly runs sometimesâ is very likely, though.
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@WilfriedB @MortenCopenhagen @TerryPG
Hey all. I realize the term featured might be used differently even among us local guides, however i think of it as the number 1 photo of that place. The main/first photo.
I have accumulated so many views based on having lots of these. Like i said before, i probably averaged one per 20 photos. Now, in the past 5 months, zero. Something is wrong or different to account for this.
My main focus is to go to a mall and take 2 photos of every store. We have some amazing malls in LA and OC counties. I still have photos with zero views after 5 to 6 months, and they are public. The system is messed up imo. It is a shame.
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I use the term featured to describe the first 10 (or the first batch downloaded into the local storage) and I use the term Cover photo for the main/first picture.
After a photo walk making 50 to 150 images, I usually follow up checking each and every photo the day after: did it go public? Did it become the cover photo? Or is it among the first download batch = featured.
After the February 7th crash I noticed that more photos never take off views wise. It takes longer to start climbing. None climb as rapidly and far as before. And when checking the cover + featured fraction I donât see much of a change from before the crash. About 50 percent of my photos are featured (I count the cover position as a featured pic). Before and now.
For my latest 3 photo walks this is still the case.
One significant difference is that I only make and upload one not two images of each store in a shopping mall. That in itself can double your featured percent.
How can we analyse your issue further?
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I looked at your latest photos and created this feedback for you to consider.
- You are not using the wider aspect ratio. Donât share tall photos if you want lots of views.
- You miss having the store name perfectly centered.
- Be more careful to get the straight shot. Not up or from the side.
- Donât take photos of the store name but the whole storefront also showing the entrance.
- Avoid storefronts in shade (or fix this in post)
- Try shooting in the golden hour with better balance between inside and outside light.
- In my experience food pics do not get featured
Cheers
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I wouldnât call it messed up, but simply changed, which is just a normal fact.
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I cannot confirm that, Morten:
- Position 3 out of 465
- Position 10 out of 2,549. Position 1 through 9 all provided by the owner!
- Position 4 out of 666.
- Position 2 out of 310. In this case, the non-food cover is also mine, but with fewer views (73,179) than the second (523,886).
- Cover out of 138
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It is still my experience, but I have the to admit that I gave up taken food pics a long time ago 
The competition is a lot tougher with so many users uploading their food pics. The competition is much less when it comes to Storefront pics that are really helpful for people who need help finding places.
I donât doubt your findings.
Cheers
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But you are right, looking at it in different way, i.e. not considering featured or not:
Of the 32 most viewed photos, there only four with food 
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This is a fun discussion. Iâm looking forward to hearing from @StevenBerlin
Cheers
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@MortenCopenhagen @WilfriedB @TerryPG
My recent photos were just random and non-caring photos lol. I just posted them mostly to make sure they went public. I agree with Mort that food pics donât really get more attention than others. If you view my last mall photoshoot which was about 1 month ago, most of those photos were well composed and great shots of the stores. None were featured.
I think i take pretty good photos which represent the stores. Bottom line for me is i now receive about 14 million views each month, wheras before i got 50 million per month.
I guess its the new reality.
As for my reasoning for taking two of each store. 1. First is centered and basic showing only the store and name. 2. Second photo is my own creative take on that store. Usually a wide angle view from the side, with flowers or other things in the photo to add to the composition. Since i enjoy photography, i like to add in one shot that is unique.
It makes uploading a bit more fun and keeps me interested in continuing with my maps contributions:)
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Replying to some of your points and I am enjoying the intelligent discussion.
- Wilfried, I use to receive a notification from Google on the android phone stating that my Photo is the featured photo of the POI. It was always the #1 photo. I donât receive any more, pity.
- I agree with Steven that the #1 photo is regarded as the featured photo and I use the term to describe the #1 Photo.
- Food pics will normally never compete with storefront photo views, although my first âStarâ photo just before Adam created the leaderboards was a foodie that achieved 1 million views before the Pub closed down.
- My numbers arenât quite as high as Stevenâs but I used to receive approx. 40 million views a month, now itâs down to approx. 8-10 million monthly.
- Agreeing itâs nice to participate in healthy intelligent conversations on Connect again.
- tagging @Rednewt74 and @tony_b who I know would enjoy these discussions.
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This Nordstrom image is at a high risk of losing some of the name when auto cropped to a wide shot. There is not enough cropping space to the left and right.
Please see How to adjust the framing perfectly for Google Maps
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Several days ago, I still received such a notification. Since the text is German it uses a phrase you might translate to âa prominent positionâ. In many cases, I did see those messages when the photo was not the first, but second or fifth position. Not sure, I saw one for the nine-nth or tenth position, though.
FYI @MortenCopenhagen , @StevenBerlin , @Rednewt74 and @tony_b
Thanks for joining this continued discussion. Terry.
Before the crash, I received about 30 million views per month. Now itâs almost 20 million as reported in my October paise email:
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Yes Steven, I still regularly get âfeatured photoâ notifications, the last one being yesterday.
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You raise a valid point Wilfried, and perhaps I have an unfair disadvantage. Local Guides in my country donât seem to be very active, and there may also be some cultural differences between my part of the world and other places. You and @StevenBerlin may have a completely different experience to mine.
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I donât post as many photos to as many places as some of you guys, so its hard to say. (Iâm still fascinated by your past references to âphoto walksâ). When I see an opportunity to take a photo, I almost know already that it is a new place, a place with very few photos, or a place with irrelevant photos that need replacing. What I get in a whole month is probably less than what you do in one morning or evening.
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@StevenBerlin I understand it the way @MortenCopenhagen said. Any of the first 10 spots will get you that âfeatured photoâ notification, but the first of those 10 is known as the âCover photoâ. That is the photo that represents the place if you search for it on Google Maps. In our own contributions list via a computer web browser, youâll find that along with the POI name and our photos, thereâs a small photo to the top left which may or may not be one of your own. Again, that is the cover photo, and the one that everyone sees when they visit that place on the map.
My most recent notification was for a place that only had 7 photos, therefore now making it 8, but mine went straight to #1.
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I donât think, the selection process looks for good photos in an aesthetic or artistic sense. There must be a minimum of technical perfection (although one of my âfeaturedâ was slightly out of focus), but besides that, from our perspective it is just coincidence and luck.
I donât know whether this algorithm/procedure did change recently, but the more I watch the positions, the more cases I find, where the sequence changes jumping many positions down or up after a couple of weeks.
Personally, I donât âexpectâ to see a certain number of my photos as featured or cover. Just luck only.
CC @StevenBerlin , @tony_b , @TerryPG , @Rednewt74
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