Does anyone know how featured photos are chosen on Google Maps? To me it all seems random. I’ve had some blurry pictures of a table become a featured photo of a business, while some of my best shots go completely unnoticed. Is there something with the Google algorithm that assesses pixel clarity and color depth to pick a photo, or is it just random?
Also, does anyone know how to get more pictures featured of larger places, or is it all just an algorithmic game?
Attached are some examples of what I’m referring to, I had one fairly good picture become the header image for about a week, and then some other featured pictures which just seem random.
@tony_v It seems to me when more people view your photo then google marks it as a feature photo. In that case photo quality, photo object or theme play a very important role. For my photos, I have seen wide focused photos become more featured than others. Surrounding areas also paly a role in this case. I am not an expert but it is my assumption. You can ask this question at how-tos section to get a proper answer. Thanks.
I’ve never seen or gotten a notification about a photo that was featured after-the-fact. It always seems that when I upload the photo I get a notification as soon as it’s added to the location about it being featured.
I posted this more in detail in my other thread, but how does Google assess featurable photos on maps? I’ve had some pretty bad pictures get featured and get 100,000s of views, while some of my better shots in composure and clarity, etc., get nothing at all. Is it all just an algorithm or how can I increase my number of featured photos?
Thanks, I’ve noticed much of what you said as well. It just seems odd that sometimes very well presented pictures of high quality don’t make the cut, but random pictures will. Hopefully someone closer to Google can sort this out for us.
From what I can pick up on from earlier discussions like this one here, the photo chosen to be featured is largely based on the number of views. Naturally if you add a photo to a place that only has a few other photos, yours will have a better chance og being featured no matter its quality, since the competition is scarce.
On the other hand, if you add a really good photo to a location that already has tens of thousands of photos like that Hungarian Parliament building, your photo will have less of a chance to be seen even though it’s high quality.
As a side note I’m letting you know that I have relabelled your post to How-tos, as it is a question you’re seeking an answer to.
