How do I add a Photo Sphere to Google maps?

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777pano

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Dec 12, 2015, 8:07:32 AM12/12/15
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Hey,
even after a long research I couldn't find a way to make pre-stitched Photo-Spheres made with a DSLR visible in maps.
Unfortunately Google Views is offline now (I think it was possible there). 
I tried panoramio, but I am not sure if the actual sphere will be visible in maps.
Do you just add a Photo Sphere to google maps by clicking on the place and "add photo" and it is recognized automatically as Photo Sphere or is panoramio the right way?

greetings

© Tom Cooper

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Dec 12, 2015, 8:28:09 AM12/12/15
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You might try asking on a Google Maps forum.  Google appears to have abandoned Panoramio.

hvbemmel

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Dec 12, 2015, 9:16:42 AM12/12/15
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Photospheres became a part of Streetview, you can publish them there. See: https://www.google.com/maps/streetview/publish/

If you are able to add the metadata yourself, the Google tool is offline, you only have to upload them publicly in Google Photos. Mind you , Google is totally on the mobile market now. The have abandoned many normal camera features.

Kevin Childress

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Dec 12, 2015, 11:14:32 AM12/12/15
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hvbemmel wrote:
... Google is totally on the mobile market now. The have abandoned many normal camera features.


Herman,  Can you expand on this? Not sure what this means ...


 

hvbemmel

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Dec 12, 2015, 12:13:23 PM12/12/15
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Yeah, I should try to rephrase that.

Google is aiming at mobile, that means not only output, but also input. The whole Views idea and Panoramio merging with Views was to make photos available on mobile, finding Points of Interest on your smartphone and then get the photos showing that POI. With the POI preferably being a business. The Pizzeria nearby was a much used example. The majority of the photos made would come from mobile devices, that´s the medium which makes the photo and puts it on the web immediately if wanted. Views has been abandoned because of the link with Google+, IMO that doesn´t mean that the marketing strategy prioritizing mobile has changed

Problem with that is that, even when you have a 41 MP Nokia, there will not be much post processing on the phone, the quality can never be visible as on a desktop monitor. So prioritizing the mobile market will mean less interest in point and shoot camera´s or in DLRS´s. They told us they want more, 10X more. 

We can not see our Panoramio photos uploaded after August on desktop, but we can see them in GE for Android another sign for Googles priorities.

As for Streetview, the question at hand, Google wants spherical Panoramas. They wanted them from mobile devices, but also from "normal" cameras. They aimed at DLRS for that, but I uploaded sphericals from my Nokia too.  When you use a mobile app for sphericals (after Android 4.2) the metadata and coordinates are automatically added. point-shoot-upload. For a "normal" camera you will have to add those metadata. This asks some skills with scripts or the use of a Google app, which one could find on http://photo-sphere.appspot.com/ . This link is dead now. Google photos AND Streetview ask for ready photos, preferably made with a full automatic sphere camera.

For a DLRS they have a help page, but no way to add metadata, the helpfile seems to be outdated, nothing new there. I must admit I didn´t go to the bottom of this. It´s outside Panoramio and I found the making of good sphericals not only very time consuming, but not very satisfying (light problems, stitching problems, missing 1 photo or one photo corrupted means game over etc.)

So, the short version: Google obviously is aiming at mobile phones and built in cameras, conveyor belt photos, which means less attention for quality photos which mostly are made with conventional cameras.
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