Official Announcement about VIEWS (goes offline) and the rest of Google's imagery products

[Draken]

Some –not too many– rushed into VIEWS.

Now you can read:

https://plus.google.com/+GoogleMaps/posts/D4ggyFZwJDe?hl=en-GB

"Your Views profile will have a new look and feel, and be transferred over to Google Maps when Views goes offline in mid–August. At that time, we’ll enable photo sphere uploads directly from the Google Maps website. And later in the year, Google Maps will re-introduce the lost support for creating connections between photo spheres (“constellations”) with a new, more automated solution".

[hvbemmel]

SCNR

[Draken]

A good example of the "not too many":

https://ssl.panoramio.com/group/544500

[RoarX]

Interesting news!

I guess the shared infrastructure with Google+ Photos, which now will be replaced with the new and more private Google Photos is to blame for this.

However, I'm not sure if I like these quotes:

From the announcement for Panoramio:
"Instead of aligning the community with Views, we’ve gone back to the drawing board to work on a more integrated solution that supports you and your content directly within Google Maps."

From the announcement for Views:

"Your Views profile will have a new look and feel, and be transferred over to Google Maps when Views goes offline in mid–August. At that time, we’ll enable photo sphere uploads directly from the Google Maps website. ..."


Are they planing to make something like Google Maps Photos??


Now look at this:
"All of your existing, Maps-approved photos, photo spheres and constellations will continue to be visible — and deletable — through the Google Maps website. All images from your Views profile, including those that have not been approved for Google Maps, will continue to be hosted on Google+. And when publishing via Google+, geotagged images with the appropriate permissions will also continue to appear in Google Maps and Google Earth."

Does this mean there is a future for good old GE?

[hvbemmel]

My problem is that every announcement they make makes the sight more foggy. It would be nice if someone would start to speak plain English, not many words just hinting what might be under the grass, no snake I hope, there are enough of them here.

The announcement starts the same as the announcement here.

I have my doubts with

All of your existing, Maps-approved photos, photo spheres and constellations will continue to be visible — and deletable — through the Google Maps website. All images from your Views profile, including those that have not been approved for Google Maps, will continue to be hosted on Google+. And when publishing via Google+, geotagged images with the appropriate permissions will also continue to appear in Google Maps and Google Earth.

and how that does compute with

Instead of aligning the community with Views, we’ve gone back to the drawing board to work on a more integrated solution that supports you and your content directly within Google Maps

 

from James's announcement.

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.” ( Friedrich Nietzsche) 

[®mene]

shit happens .... :-]

the winner is: everything other - so I can get rid of the obsolete favorites i made before ;)

[Pierre M.]

Hello everybody !

and what about this : http://time.com/3909435/yahoo-maps/

Pierre

[Tucky9]

Maps v9.10 Adds New Photo Gallery Viewer, ...
ANDROIDPOLICE
2015/06/08 7:35pm PDT
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/06/08/maps-v9-10-adds-new-photo-gallery-viewer-car-rental-bookings-and-more-apk-download/

[John Skovhus]

Den torsdag den 4. juni 2015 kl. 16.17.08 UTC+2 skrev Draken:

A good example of the "not too many":

https://ssl.panoramio.com/group/544500

Draken, you are my hero.
You found a new way to insult me.
Every time you do so I feel confident that this forum have just the moderator is deserves.  
You are the best moderator of all time.
You make a good role model for all the Panoramio users.
Im so happy for you.

Im sure we meet again. This time in a Google Maps account. 
If you read what ROARX writes its obvious what will happen.
This surely indicate what google might have in mind. They want to merge Panoramio and Google Maps Views into a Google Maps account, with the benefits of the best features from Panoramio and Google Maps Views. Just wait and see. Will the new Google Maps account include a forum where you Draken have a role to play, or are your style too scary for google. I just wonder. From your biggest fan John Skovhus. Member of Google Maps Views. 1.204 pictures, 4.370.186 views, in just 6 months. A-ha-ha-ha. It realy sucks Google Maps Views doesnt it ?

[© Tom Cooper]

You seem to be under the impression that 4.3 million views means that 4.3 million times, someone has looked at one of your photos.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

 

The original Panoramio team put a great deal of effort into learning how to filter false positives (example: When someone hits the "Back" button several times, those should not each count as a view).

 

GMV does the opposite.  If the icon of your photo was in line on the bottom (even if it was not actually displayed), it gets counted as a "View."

 

How do I know the Viewcount on views is fake?  Because Views counts more views in a day than there are total Views users ever.

 

I would rather have one real person actually look at my photo than have 10,000 false positive views.  My 3.3 million views mean something real.  Your 4.4 million views mean absolutely nothing.

 

Tom

[Draken]

Very clearly explained Tom.

Thanks!!

[Draken]

John

You are attempting –without success– at being sarcastic. And that falls into making it personal.

I only stated an objective fact: not too many Panoramio users rushed into Views and the group you opened is the finest of examples. Why is that an insult? Why do you take it personally? Have a chamomille tea and thicken your skin, I am sure you have learnt not to be so gullible when it comes to Google. Nothing is "obvious" when Google is involved.

Last time you said "wait & see" was in relation with Views. I waited and now I am seeing it was a big flop. Let's face it: people are more interested in taking selfies than photospheres (and, for the record,  I personally like photospheres).

Nobody knows whether there will be a Google Maps forum with moderators. There wasn't even a Views forum. Or there was?

If you feel like keep going at me, please open a separate thread instead of diverting this one. I am sure you will find some –not too many– users that will join you. You already have experience at "not too many".

[Wim Constant]

I think, we'll have to wait very long! 

Google Maps Views doesn't have any good features!

Op dinsdag 9 juni 2015 21:46:28 UTC+2 schreef John Skovhus:

[neil.gilmour]

Tom,

Your 3.3 million view count is amazing.  I started uploading in July 2011 and have fewer than 500,000 views on Panoramio on over 1,100 photos.  My understanding of the system is that photos with more views, likes and favorites are more visible than those with fewer views, etc.  Thus, there is a built in advantage to the early joiners, like yourself.  

[Kingdavidofscotland]

I've been with panoramio for years and my stats are

3016: photos

2981: on Google Maps

176016: views

Where my Google+ page in which I only got into after hearing this place was
closing, about a year ago ravage around 44,000 a day and its now up to 6,393,922 views

Totally mad....

If that was real then Google should by paying us a penny a view for diving so much traffic through their system...

This one photo alone has 72,956 views

[Draken]

The Google Maps Views Community on Google+ is currently made up of... only 57.960 members. Very little, isn't it? I wonder how many members Views managed to gather in its short existence.

[Wim Constant]

I bet that's only a small percentage of these 57.960 members. I became (accidentally) a Google+ member and after a while I discovered that I suddenly had a "Views"-account. Never asked for it.

Op donderdag 6 augustus 2015 21:53:41 UTC+2 schreef Draken:

[hvbemmel]

Views is/was, apart from the spherical panoramas, a dump for photos, mostly made by mobile devices. That attracts a sort of public, methinks, that a. is not interested in a community, b. never looked for the well hidden links to the community in G+ c. never even came close to the even more hidden productforum. So perhaps there were a lot of users, but mainly interested in their own droppings. The kind of people that love facebook, which is called social but mostly is there to exhibit ones ego.

[df3vi]

So how many active users are left on Panoramio? Only a few thousand it seems to me, if at all... If the number would be more than 1 per cent of all registered 8,000,000 users it would surprise me. It is probably less than 1 per mill.

Does G-Views have more than 58 active Users? Probably yes...

[Wim Constant]

Well, that depends on what you call active users.

I call someone who looks at the photos in Panoramio an active user.

The last 30 days there were 166.028.579 looks in Panoramio only (770.740.948 overall views)

That's an average of 5.534.286 views PER DAY (25.691.365 overall)

If you think this is done by less than 8.000 users, I'd say: "Think again!"

Source: Panorank ( http://www.panorank.com/index.php )

Op vrijdag 7 augustus 2015 14:26:13 UTC+2 schreef df3vi:

[franco benf]

Well ... From the source of Panorank (http://www.panorank.com/ index.php)

As you can  Overall views for photo & day, 4 photos 1 on Google Maps, 17,033,154 views

[Wim Constant]

Sorry?????

I don't understand what you mean!

Op vrijdag 7 augustus 2015 15:58:26 UTC+2 schreef franco benf:

[franco benf]

Sorry for the question ??

But how can they be trusted these data (I have seen pictures with more than 20 million views), maybe some problems at the computer, ultimately happens in Panoramio

[Draken]

If you are talking about the views in Views the answer is very simple and it has already been given in this forum: Unfortunately, every time a viewer scrolls down the photos (there is no pagination on Views) each photo is given and counts as a view. As if by just clicking a certain Panoramio page those 24 photos included there were given a view. Preposterous!

[hvbemmel]

There are few users who think it's very important to be highranking in the views. They let the slideshow run multiple times in multip[le browsers and ask their friend to do the same. Those few on top with more then 20 million views you can forget or you can pity them for lying to themselves, the only ones they fool.

[df3vi]

I'd bet that under the top three of 30-day-views there are at least two statistics severely manipulated. Their PA view counts are so exaggerated, and for those days when the PA views were restored they suddenly have almost no views.
You might still call them "active users", and in a certain sense they are...

[Wim Constant]

Of course, if you don't like the outcome of statistics, "they are manipulated".

That goes for every research, survey or whatever.

Every political party shouts the same, if an opponent has better results!

As far as it concerns "Views" look at the enormous amount of members this group has:  https://ssl.panoramio.com/group/544500

Op zondag 9 augustus 2015 04:19:35 UTC+2 schreef df3vi:

[franco benf]

You're right . Wim ... but there are also many users with few photo in panoramio ...https://ssl.panoramio.com/user/5591245

[Wim Constant]

True! 

According to Panorank:

Almost 50% of the Panoramio users has no photos at all on their page.

Most of them did have one or more photos, but removed them for who knows what reason but they never closed their account, so that still exists.

Most other users have less than 100 photos.

There are only 113.326 users with 100 and only 10.616 with 1.000 or more photos.

Op zondag 9 augustus 2015 16:37:05 UTC+2 schreef franco benf:

[RoarX]

It's done now: https://plus.google.com/+GoogleMaps/posts/HJbE9zbEeh2

...and I'm not impressed. I can find my photos by being logged in when using GM. In the search field, and to the left there is a menu icon. Go to "Contributions" and select "Photos". It's just a infinity scroll menu with photos and it currently have no features. I hope this is not where our good old Panoramio site is heading.

[hvbemmel]

Well I am impressed (heavy sarcasm) look at this example of mine
BTW, my photos are on this easy to remember address: https://www.google.at/maps/contrib/108141166373316898955/photos/

original photo:

in GM

Well ain´t that beautiful, I wouldn´t have come up with that idea, really.

left following message in the announcement:

Any idea what you did with panorama photos? I´m sure you haven´t the foggiest. example here:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/panoramio-questions-support/QjPHVUEol5w/HJLuxiQQCwAJ

shrinking 10:1 to 3:2 is beyond rediculous and practically an insult.

[Roger Powell]

My mapped Google Views images are now fully merged into Google Maps - along with my Panoramio photos as well!

Panoramio, which once was to be merged into Views has survived (so far), whilst Views is now off-line, dead and buried. 

As a maps site, Google Maps is just fine but as a photo sharing site it's a cumbersome non-starter. 

After reviewing my new photostream in Maps (it took a while to locate it via the top left menu icon) I am totally underwhelmed; and exactly how Panoramio will ever be incorporated into Maps now scares me witless.

[Sababoy]

My recent 3 photos are not being updated for the number of views, must be at least 200 now after one month. I like to upload new photos but I'm waiting for the problem be solved. I'm confused what to do! You know what's gonna happen? http://www.panoramio.com/user/3074930

On Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 8:51:16 AM UTC+4:30, hvbemmel wrote:

Well I am impressed (heavy sarcasm) look at this exemple of mine

[millotaurus1]

Wow...the way of presentation my photos in GM...loks like any stupid joke :-)))

W dniu czwartek, 20 sierpnia 2015 06:21:16 UTC+2 użytkownik hvbemmel napisał:

Well I am impressed (heavy sarcasm) look at this exemple of mine

[Roger Powell]

Views was very good - compared to this!

Herman, have you tried scrolling down to find your earliest images? It's almost impossible!

[hvbemmel]

No Roger, my connection is too slow for that, "only" 30MB download on fiberglass

 
a few observations:

- as said before photos are pressed / stretched to fit the 3 (wide) :2 (high) standard that means 2:3 will be as ridiculous as any other format that#s not 3:2 . GM | photos will be Prokrustes | Maps soon after the Greek giant that forced the guests he invited to fit in the bed bed by either stretching them  or by cutting limbs off

- hovering above a photo in the left pane will show the title.

- photos from PA and exViews are shown together chronologically, which will mean there will be doubles.

- In normal photo mode: when  you click ithe name of a photographer you will be sent to his "contributions list" in the left pane  when the photo was in exViews , otherwise you will be sent to Panoramio

- For now I was not able to find my spherical Panoramas other then a little hazy green point on the map when using the pegman,  they are gone now too.

In all, an other unfinished product that was thrown at the people because it was on the agenda. The self driving cars will probably be launched without brakes.

[Domenico S. Antonacci]

how to upload new photos?! I'm confused...

[Draken]

Confused? Why? Upload your photos in the same way you used to do it on Panoramio.

Views no longer exists, but this fact doesn't affect Panoramio and the way to upload photos.

I've read your message on your page (in Italian)... perhaps you hurried to use Views. Come back to Panoramio!

[Domenico S. Antonacci]

ok, thanks; so I will come back to Panoramio..but how to manage ex views photos?  I would like see them in my panoramio profile

[hvbemmel]

exViews photos are in Google Photos ( photos.google.com ) and in your Google Drive ( drive.Google.com ) . there you can publicly add mapped photos, edit and delete photos you already uploaded.

Photos an Panoramio are separate applications so merging them is not possible. 

[hvbemmel]

Some changes have been made in the display now. portrait is still shown as landscape and really broad panoramas still are shrunk in to ridiculousness but there also is an other less high format now. 

some examples  I found:

became

 NOW   

 =  

but also

-    Photos now are visible in Gm, no more black screen

-    A big nono photos can be copied midsize just by rightclicking an then clicking copy image in the left pane in GM 

[RoarX]

If you want to add photos to GM, I'm afraid you must do as you did in Views, post them on Google+. The photo I posted today is already visible in my photo pane in GM. For sharing photos to GE Panoramio is the place to use. However, I'm not sure if our photos are still being transferred. :/

I think the new solution is horrible. Accessing the photos like that is OK, but how difficult is it to make a proper gallery page with nice features instead of a single infinity scroll column of photos??

[Lady GooGoo La La]

Amazing Herman, obviously Google knew this would happen, and did it anyway......what does this say.

Obvious answer is they think they are above the users, and users dont matter. I wonder if their intention is to keep developers happy playing with products and if they fail take a large tax write off on the loss to offset their profits.

Google can only burn people so many times..... people have memory and resent their efforts being wasted. ;-P

The only other thot that comes to mind is there images look OK on a smart phone and PC's be damned! ....blah blah blah

[hvbemmel]

There still is some movement. Many, but still not all, portrait size photos are being shown next to each other. the amount of photos now shows the real number (Panoramio and Views) together. Of course there still is no way to reach, in my case, photo 6438. I still  see no way you can find a user´s gallery without "help" from that user. 

For the rest I found a bug in the display of photos. I found a photo of mine in the "normal" list under the map. clicking on this the photo showed, nothing new. With most photos (also from others) this was the same until I clicked a very recent photo of mine. from there on only my photos were shown. Normally we would report bugs like this to the team, but hey, where should I report? Under feedback without ever knowing anyone has seen this? don´t think so. 

[hvbemmel]

This I found in my email today:

As you now probably know, Views has merged into Google Maps. This change has coincided with some other product announcements to give you the most flexibility in the absence of Views. Here's a summary of what's new: Street View app Beginning today, your profile and published photo spheres are now accessible alongside those from Google and other contributors in the new Street View app (Android, iOS) which has been designed to bring more visibility to you and your work. On iOS, this app has replaced Photo Sphere Camera with both iOS and Android versions supporting our existing photo sphere camera mode. Most notably though, the apps are capable of linking tospherical cameras. Street View | Trusted  You might consider joining the new Street View | Trusted programme, Google Maps' business-facing, certified photographer programme. Photographers and agencies who were previously part of Business View may be familiar with the fundamentals of this programme, though enrolment is now much easier, acceptance criteria are simpler and we're improving publishing and editing reliability. High quality imagery and consistent professionalism remain key requirements. We'd welcome your participation, so if you're interested, see our Help Centre forprogramme details. Google Maps profile  Your Google Maps profile has also taken on a new look and feel as some key Views profile features have been introduced into Google Maps. See “Contributions” from the side menu at maps.google.com if you'd like to check out your new profile. While a number of new features are yet to come, we're excited to bring your public Google Maps identity more closely in line with the Maps brand. Keep an eye out for the new Google Maps upload tool which is coming soon too. And as a reminder, Google Maps will be reintroducing support for creating connections between photo spheres (“constellations”) with a new, more automated solution later this year. All images, including those that have not been approved for Google Maps, will continue to be accessible via Google+ where you can adjust their visibility permissions. Local Guides on Google Maps  You can also earn benefits for your contributions by joining Local Guides. This is a global community of explorers sharing their discoveries with local reviews, and soon photos, on Google Maps. From early access to new Google products, to exclusive contests and events, every place you contribute gets you closer to unlocking something new.Sign-up to join in the fun.  We hope that this unified product landscape will provide even more benefits for the photography community, and we appreciate your patience and understanding during this transition. – The Google Maps Team

On Thursday, 4 June 2015 15:56:29 UTC+2, Draken wrote:

Some –not too many– rushed into VIEWS.

Now you can read:

https://plus.google.com/+GoogleMaps/posts/D4ggyFZwJDe?hl=en-GB

"Your Views profile will have a new look and feel, and be transferred over to Google Maps when Views goes offline in mid–August. At that time, we’ll enable photo sphere uploads directly from the Google Maps website. And later in the year, Google Maps will re-introduce the lost support for creating connections between photo spheres (“constellations”) with a new, more automated solution".

[Daniela Brocca]

I  received it too, in Italian, but I don't understand very much .I did not even know I have a Google Maps profile.I don't like GM very much as it is now. They don't tell anything about Panoramio, GE, Picasa. What this is about I would really know.

[Stephen SteveT]

Hi Herman,

Yes I got this email too and having checking some of the photos in Explore I noticed that the link in the top left corner of the opened photo that should return to the Panoramio user page or to the photo page in Panoramio returns you to the map of the USA. I presume that is still a condition of the use of our photos. I have left feedback on Google maps, hopefully that will be rectified at some stage. 

I also wonder if as these photos were also on Views if they may have been stranded with Google Views demise.

Cheers

Stephen  

[hvbemmel]

As far I could find out clicking on the user of a Panoramio photo brings you to his Panoramio page, (under the photo you can see if it´s from Panoramio). Clicking on an exViews user brings you to your homemap (USA in maps.com, Austria in .AT, Germany in .DE, Netherlands in .NL, etc), with that users "contributions" panel open.

All photos are shown chronologically, so exViews are to be found between the Panoramio ones. I don´t know what happens with doubles, if both are shown or only one and if so which one prevails. Scrolling through 6500 photos to find those doubles is just too much for fun, and it still should be fun.

[hvbemmel]

When you have a Google account you also have an account on Maps, GE, Photos, Drive etc.
This mail is about Maps and more specific about what happen with exViews Photos that are in your photos.Google.com account (G+ (= also Picasaweb, exViews)), are marked public and have been put on the map. They will show up in the contributions pane. Tools to manage them (and communicate with others?) are still being developed (well so they say; the selfdriving cars will be launched without brakes). I´m under the impression Panoramio will be part of this. It would be nice if anyone from Google would have the decensy to  communicate at least about the Panoramio part.  From a PR point of view that would be wise, but it seems Google doesn´t need buyers for their future products. 

[hvbemmel]

update:

The distortion in the display of photos has gone. Many photos now are shown in squares which means that much has been cut off. I must say I prefer this, I hope this will get people curious to look at the real picture.
previous

now:

Nevertheless I think that sometimes the essence of the photo is gone after this automatic cropping
previous:

Now:

Possibility to save the photo has gone now.  Great.

somebody seems to listen.

[unnippillai]

Now, in reent weeks and months, I am not finding any GM views for my photos...... I don't know why?.....Any particular reason?.........