New Photo Layer in Google Maps

[Gerard Sanz]

We just revamped the Photo layer in Google Maps. what do you think?

[Gerard Sanz]

For more details:
http://www.panoramio.com/blog/revamping-the-photo-layer-in-google-maps/

[DL1LAM]

Hey Gerard,
it is very clear arranged. Not so confusing as it was before
Thanks for your work, Fred.

[LuciaM]

Quote Gerard Sanz:

We just revamped the Photo layer in Google Maps. what do you think?

I think your methodology may have been a bit too stringent (or perhaps too general) with what constitutes density.

At this location in NYC: 40.724682,-73.982545 there is a community garden for which I have uploaded several photos. At an altitude of 600 feet in GE, you see a row of 10 icons. They don't overlap. They don't constitute clutter as I define it. Now there are now only 2 photos showing there in Maps, one in the garden and one outside of it. This is the case with every garden that I've photographed. (More examples:

40.724637,-73.988977
40.723797,-73.980668
40.725454,-73.977513

Personally, this is very disappointing. People are not going to see most of my photos in Maps this way. I, of course, realize that if someone clicks on the photo in a balloon, they will go to the photo viewer page and see the others. The problem is that there is absolutely nothing in the Maps photo balloon that alerts people that there are more photos to be viewed that way, not just a larger image. There is the more explicit 'view in Panoramio' link which they may click, but even that won't easily show all of the photos, assuming that they even decide to look at more of the gallery, if they were not added by me at the same time. And of course, seeing the 'view in Panoramio' link may lead them to think that is the only link connected with the photo.

If someone stops and asks me about the photos I'm taking, I generally tell them to look for the photo in Maps, since that is usually something most are familiar with, and since the way they find the photos is easy to explain (and for them to remember). With this change, there's little point in my doing that.

Perhaps you might consider adding a caption above the image in the balloon saying something like 'click photo to see more'.

[SteveT]

Thank you Gerard, it is an improvement and clearer. One nice thing muti word tags now work, even if they are now case sensitive ( I can live with that).

Cheers

Stephen

[SteveT]

Gerard some of the miniature thumbnails are showing as grey blurred thumbnails. There are quite a few from various members but the photos themselves are fine. If you need a couple of examples I will dig them out for you.

Stephen

[QuentinUK]

This is very good. It emphasises the titles so I'm going to check that mine are sensible. I see the thumbnails that pop up are also square. I'd also allow rectangular ones.

[I've noticed that one has the icon out of focus, photo 15663601]

But most importantly do these pop ups increase the view count?

[MAD maj]

Very interesting changes, especially the one that photos look transparent.

I think that this feature would be interesting to be available on Panoramio, too.

[Barry]

Personally think its a great improvement.

Hopefully can make the big images partly transparent too.

But I would really like to see a version without the big 'popular' images at all, and just leave the tiny partly transparent images.

[tom.h]

Very nice It's easier to pick out the pictures *and* easier to see the map underneath. Bravo!

[Kevin Childress]

Just took a look ... way too many photos from other people ... not nearly enough of mine!!

It looks fine

[Buelipix]

I use Google Maps very often. My opinion: Good idea Good job

Many thanks

[ethanvandenberg]

Does this feature exist in version 3 of the maps api like KmlLayer or BicyclingLayer? It looks fantastic though.

Thanks.

[mongwin]

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ขอบคุณมากครับ
Mongwin

[davidcmc58]

I like this new layout of Google Maps very much. At this point I feel that Google Maps (with Satellite view and photos layer turned on) is the most useful tool for planning trips. Many of the "representative photos" in the area are right there for the viewing and it is simply a joy to navigate around. On the other hand, clicking those GE squares of unknown quality and usefulness is truly pain-in-the-neck.

[Matthew Winn]

I don't like the big squares, and never have. They hide too much of the underlying information: not just the map itself, but also other - often better - pictures. The large squares don't even serve to give a useful preview, partly because they're squares so much of the picture isn't used but also because a tiny thumbnail is almost never a good indication of the quality of the picture itself.

[robtes]

It looks better though I have 2 suggestions:

1) Make the bigger thumbnails the same size as the smaller ones. They now only hide important info (street names, other photos) underneath them on the map.

2) When you hover over a photo I would like to see a bigger preview of the photo. Now it is so small that you still can't get a good impression of the photo so you still have to click on it. Make it bigger and you have to click less.

Thanks!

[Draken]

Quote robtes:

2) When you hover over a photo I would like to see a bigger preview of the photo. Now it is so small that you still can't get a good impression of the photo so you still have to click on it. Make it bigger and you have to click less.

Thanks!

Robtes

You seem to be missing the idea... Google want people to click!!

[mikstan43]

I must have an old version of Panoramio and /or Google !!!

Can someone tell me how to see the new Map area please ?

MikeS

[Draken]

Mike

We are talking about Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/

Once there you have to select "photos" in the "more" menu.

[mikstan43]

Thanks Draken
But all I get is a "404 Not Found" message.
Am I missing something in downloads ?
MikeS

[mikstan43]

Forget last post !!
Found it now

Thanks again

MikeS

[robtes]

Quote Draken:

You seem to be missing the idea... Google want people to click!!

If Google wants you to click why did they ad the small preview at all. They could just skip it. Now you have 4 stages of a photo:
1) icon
2) small thumbnail (when you hover over the icon)
3) pop up window with a little bit bigger photo( when you click on the icon)
4) photo on Panoramio site (when you click on the photo in the pop up).

This is too much! The "hover pop up" and the "click pop up" have pretty much the same function. So one can go in my opinion.

[Draken]

They want you to click but they don't force you to do it. With the preview you can decide whether you want to see a photo full size or not.

[magic surf bus]

1. Pop up thumbnails for some Panoramic images appear blurred.

Example at 45.692107,-1.189088, (zoom in) where a larger picture overlays the smaller panoramic image until the lowest altitude.

2. Large fixed images obscure smaller images in same location at all but the lowest altitudes?

3. What factors decide whether a photo is in a big square or a smaller transparent square? It can't be based on total hits.

Otherwise, good work.

[SteveT]

I have just noticed that there are now some photos on Google Maps that were not accepted for Google Earth, interesting! I had thought only photos that had been selected for Google Earth stood a chance of being picked for Google Maps.

Stephen

[Tomas K☼h☼ut]

Quote SteveT:

I have just noticed that there are now some photos on Google Maps that were not accepted for Google Earth, interesting! I had thought only photos that had been selected for Google Earth stood a chance of being picked for Google Maps.

Stephen

Hi Steve,
maybe you will find this topic interesting...:
http://www.panoramio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30055

Summary:
All photos from Panoramio (not only GE selected) goes to GM - and quite quickly! But most of them are displayed only if you use matching tag search.
This applied before GM layer was changed.

[hvbemmel]

It's already somewhere in an other thread: All mapped photos should be visible in GM about a day after upload. Many of them you only can find by searching for tags, but they all are there. When you make a tag only for your own photos (username) they are easy to find!

PS yes! we have a double again!

[Tomas K☼h☼ut]

Yep, but I was quicker!
And won the race in finding interesting topic with your answer, Herman!

[SteveT]

Herman / Tomas

Thank you for that, as I mentioned earlier that the Tags were now case specific but that only seems to hold true for a multi word Tag. As for all mapped Panoramio photos being visible using a tagged search I think there are a lot that do not show. Also a Tag search removes photos naturally shown in GM with that Tag ( possibly to avoid clutter and giving others a chance), but does reduce the Tagged view of a full range of photos.

Stephen

[RobRevet]

I think the new layout is a bit unfair to newly uploaded fotos, as they have even less a chance of being discoved by the viewer in the first place.
There's a substantial number of not-so-high-quality and not-so-nice fotos that have a large icon, apparently just because they have been there for quite some time.
Many of them untitled and untagged (I do not consider something like "DSC56789" being a title). But they have a large icon and keep attracting viewers just for that reason. And the big icon hides less viewed fotos. which may be much more attractive...
Maybe the large icon should be omitted, as hovering over the smaller one will produce the large icon and the title, which I think is a great improvement.

Regards, Robbie

[© Wim]

With the new Map I lost a lot of visitors in Google Maps since Sept. 16th.
For example with the following photo I dropped from about 300 klicks a Day to zero... is that an improvement?

Just have a look:

[RobRevet]

I didn't find the picture in your profile (the statistics one yes, but nit the church), but you seem to have a lot of followers who check your pictures even they aren't mapped at all!
So I don't quite understand how this happens. On the other hand, my most popular picture has less then 600 clicks. Not per day, in total... ops:

[QuentinUK]

One solution to this problem is to randomly promote the visibility of photos so that the second best photos in an area will sometimes be show in the large icon.

[hvbemmel]

We should not forget that it isn't the purpose of GM nor of GE to show our photos. The purpose of Panoramio is to show our photos and we are merely guests on GM and GE. So for me it's perfectly clear that GM changed the way they show photos to keep the purpose of GM intact.

There always will be wishes and suggestions from our side and we should keep telling them, but we will have to live with the fact not all photos are on the top layer and some photos even will not be seen if you don't know where and how to look for them.