News-driven viewership

[jonathan.nyc]

I've noticed that that spots in the news suddenly get an increase in viewership.

For example my two photos, of NY's Upper West Side Apple Store got big increases in viewership after Steve Jobs mentioned it in one of his talks.

This week, some of my Fire Island photos got a big increase due to a crime story unfolding in the region.

So, if you know of an upcoming event that will get some publicity, post some photos of the location in advance.

[AustinMN]

Sounds good. Of course, that may be dependent on how much advanced notice you get. Migration of photos to GE (primary source of views for many) can take from 2 days to several months.

Austin

[JBTHEMILKER]

I did this with the big race weekend here in Loudon NH. I thought I would get more views. I got no more than normal even though most homes were watching the race on TV.

[Galatas ©]

A race meeting in Louden NH , planned and advertised months in advance , is hardly front page headline news , is it ?
If , heaven forbid , there had been a catostrophic newsworthy incident at the meeting , then I'm sure you would have had an increase in views.

[Draken]

Galatas

Do you mean something like the 2011 Argentina-Chile Dakar Rally Race, don't you? Something more international, involving participants from all over the world, I guess.

[Galatas ©]

Well , if they did the rally from Argentina-Chile to Dakar then it really would be newsworthy

I think security issues are probably one of the main reasons the race no longer starts in Paris , or other European city , and finishes in Dakar.
Clinging to the name Dakar will never make the race as synonymous with endurance as Paris - Dakar was.

[Draken]

It is the third year in row the race takes place in Argentina-Chile. Some drivers have said the race is harder than the original Paris-Dakar!!

[Galatas ©]

Quote Draken:

........Some drivers have said the race is harder than the original Paris-Dakar!!

Not having taken part in the Latin American rallies , I couldn't possibly dispute that.
Nevertheless I don't think Dakar Argentina-Chile has the same rolloffthetongue impact and memorability that Paris-Dakar had.
I bet the Ad men and sponsors hate it.

[Petteri Kantokari]

I noticed that my photos from the Autodrome of Monza each gained about a thousand extra views during the Italian GP last September.

[zerega]

"My" event, Panoramio wise, was the Korean shootout about a disputed island in late November. Suddenly my image count went through the roof, reaching 22,000 views (!) on one day. Curiously, images from all around North Korea were affected, not just from the De-Militarized-Zone between North and South Korea.

After the news went on to the next big thing, statistics normalized to "pre-war"- levels.

I wonder whether this views came from google image searches or short news clips on TV raised just so much interest in people to make them roam around the Korea peninsular on Google Earth and Google Maps.

[AustinMN]

Quote zerega:

"My" event, Panoramio wise, was the Korean shootout about a disputed island in late November. Suddenly my image count went through the roof, reaching 22,000 views (!) on one day. Curiously, images from all around North Korea were affected, not just from the De-Militarized-Zone between North and South Korea.

After the news went on to the next big thing, statistics normalized to "pre-war"- levels.

I wonder whether this views came from google image searches or short news clips on TV raised just so much interest in people to make them roam around the Korea peninsular on Google Earth and Google Maps.

If you think about the fact that there are well over 6 billion (6,000,000,000) people in the world, most of which have access to Google Earth, it doesn't take a big response. If we assume that the typical person going to GE based on the event clicked on 5 of your photos, that would represent 4,400 people per day. That represents less than 0.000073% of the world population (less than 1 in 1.3 million).

Having said that, I know I occasionally (not very often) will use GE to learn about a place I first heard about in the news. That will usually include checking out the local Panoramio layer. I used to have a world map on the wall, and would show my children where in the world some event had taken place. Now that they are on their own, I hope they still do it, though it can be quicker with GE than searching a map index and then searching a section of the world map.

Austin

[jonathan.nyc]

After I started this, I thought responses trailed off. Surprised this is still active.

This one needs no explanation.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10466918/stats

[Roberto Lo Savio]

Two days ago mount Etna suddenly erupted after several months of inactivity, with spectacular lava fountains, lava flows and an high ash plume.

Today all my photos taken on mount Etna show a sharp increase of Google Earth views, for example here or here.

[davidcmc58]

The announcement of Steve Jobs' sick leave occurred on January 17th and my Apple HQ building photo gets 58 views for a couple of days instead of the regular daily views of 25~30.

[Marcin Roguski]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/45070988/stats
Talk about "news"! This picture was taken in 2007 during ski jumping championship in Zakopane. And here we go - another championship and the rather unpopular photo gained nearly 130 views in two days

[Hommeles]

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/40249286/stats
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/40249263/stats
These photos were taken while standing on the Merapi vulcano, overlooking the Merbabu (Java Indonesia), that erupted a cupple of month ago. Over 1000 views in a few days.

The same happend with some photos from Christchurch, after the latest earthquake.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/29076202/stats

I surprised me also, how many are searching Panoramio and Google Earth, after big news events.

Hommeles, Holland

[AustinMN]

Quote Hommeles:

...The same happend with some photos from Christchurch, after the latest earthquake.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/29076202/stats

I surprised me also, how many are searching Panoramio and Google Earth, after big news events.

The numbers seem large, but the percentage is really quite small. About 1,100 people looked at the photo you linked in the 4-5 days after the earthquake. If we assume that represents only 5% of the people looking at Christchurch photos because of the earthquake, that would be about 22,000 people. The current world population is about 6,903,100,000. If we assume just half of them have reasonable, timely access to three critical items - current news, the internet, and are aware of Panoramio photo sources (GE, GM, and Panoramio map) then that represents 3,451,550,000 people who could choose to look at Panoramio photos at news hotspots. 22,000 is only 0.00064% of 3,451,550,000. So while the actual number looks dramatic on the chart, it still represents a very small part of the potential audience.

Austin

[jonathan.nyc]

Quote AustinMN:

I'm not certain if you are being deliberately funny. Either way, that's a hilarious post!

[Oompie]

Quote AustinMN:

The numbers seem large, .... The current world population is about 6,903,100,000. If we assume just half of them have reasonable, timely access to three critical items - current news, the internet, and are aware of Panoramio photo sources (GE, GM, and Panoramio map) then that represents 3,451,550,000 people who could choose to look at Panoramio photos at news hotspots. 22,000 is only 0.00064% of 3,451,550,000. So while the actual number looks dramatic on the chart, it still represents a very small part of the potential audience.

Austin

Austin of the 6.9billion people just over 1billion is in Africa. I would suggest that far less than 5% of those have access to internet, many of them don't even have access to radio news or newspapers!. I would suggest much the same apply to certain other countries such China and India, two of the largest countries in the world (combined population 2.536billion) which would dramatically change your calculations.!!! If what you say is right then even the Panoramio membership of 5.5 million is only .0016% of potential which is very low. Maybe we need to recruit more members!!!

[davidcmc58]

Oompie, please do not under estimate the internet usage of China and India (especially China). The following quote is taken from Wikipedia about the Chinese internet usage -

Quote:

China had 420 million Internet users by June 2010. It is projected that China's Internet population will reach 469 million by the end of 2010, accounting for 35 percent of China's total population, and the number will hit 718 million by 2013, accounting for 52.7 percent of the total. A majority of broadband subscribers are DSL, mostly from China Telecom and China Netcom. The price varies at different provinces, usually around US$10 – $20/month for a 1M DSL with unlimited downloads.

As for the internet usage in India, you can see from this link below that the current number is at 81 million - http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/in.htm In addition, it is a well known fact that majority of the world's computer and smart phone hardwares are manufactured in China and knocked-off Iphones are often available on the streets of Shanghai 2 weeks before the launch of the real thing.

[Oompie]

Quote davidcmc58:

Jeez!!! Thanks David, so we learn more and more!! This is truly fasicinating. Only having been to Bankok where we saw a lot of poor people trying to eek out a living I asumed internet usage would be relatively low!!! The old saying "assume is spelt ass-u-me" makes and ass out of you and me certainly apply to me. Must read up more!!! ops:
Anyway many thanks for taking time out to say something really worthwhile!!!

[davidcmc58]

Oompie, all is fine. This is a great community that we do share knowledge of all kinds. I live in the Silicon Valley where folks chat about these things on daily basis. I also worked in the electronic engineering field for years in my past life and took several trips to the manufacturing facilities in the Far East.

[Galatas ©]

Beware of stats. The world figures put a slightly different slant on things.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

[davidcmc58]

Galatas, if you click the detailed numbers for the Asian countries you will find the latest numbers to be exactly what I quoted (420 million China & 81 million India). http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm#asia
I actually checked out the percentages of internet usages for many countries and I found that UK being the highest at 82.5% followed by South Korea at 81.1% & Germany at 79.1% http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm

[Galatas ©]

I wasn't disputing your figures , David. Just pointing out that care is needed in evaluating all stats. A high percentage doesn't always mean a high number of people , and vice versa.

India has more billionaires than the UK but it also has millions of people living below the poverty line. Looking at some stats in isolation would lead you to believe that India is a country of rich people when in fact millions are starving.

[Oompie]

Quote Galatas:

I wasn't disputing your figures , David. Just pointing out that care is needed in evaluating all stats. A high percentage doesn't always mean a high number of people , and vice versa.

India has more billionaires than the UK but it also has millions of people living below the poverty line. Looking at some stats in isolation would lead you to believe that India is a country of rich people when in fact millions are starving.

Galatas you are so right!!! It is like averages, on average if your one foot is in fire and the other in ice your crotch is very comfortble!!! Untill you test it!!!

[AustinMN]

Quote Galatas:

I wasn't disputing your figures , David. Just pointing out that care is needed in evaluating all stats. A high percentage doesn't always mean a high number of people , and vice versa.

India has more billionaires than the UK but it also has millions of people living below the poverty line. Looking at some stats in isolation would lead you to believe that India is a country of rich people when in fact millions are starving.

Indeed. Even determining how many internet users there are can be a problem. In my home, for example, there is one shared internet connection, three computers, and five people. Of those five people, two of us also access the internet at the office and one at shcool. So depending on how you measure it, one could conclude that there is one internet user (one connection), three users (three computers in the home connected to the internet), five users (five people in a home with an internet connection), or six users (six different computers with access to the internet). All of those would be wrong. The correct answer is 4, because my 4-year-old granddaughter does not yet use a computer to access the internet...unless you include sitting on gramppa's lap looking at Panoramio pictures with the slideshow API...

These kinds of issues always exist in social science statistics.

Austin

[davidcmc58]

Several of my photos from the northeast coastal areas of Japan used to get 1 or 2 views everyday. They got 10 or 15 views yesterday for obvious reasons. My heart goes to the Japanese people who are suffering from such a disaster.

[jonathan.nyc]

Quote davidcmc58:

Several of my photos from the northeast coastal areas of Japan used to get 1 or 2 views everyday. They got 10 or 15 views yesterday for obvious reasons. My heart goes to the Japanese people who are suffering from such a disaster.

David, your traffic increase is a lot more than 10 or 15. On this one it's almost 1,000 in a single day.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10116583/stats

[AustinMN]

Quote jonathan.nyc:

His post was within the first view count cycle after the event. I think everyone knew it would go way up from there.

Austin

[Marcin Roguski]

Talking about news-driven spikes!

No, nothing from Japan, but here, in Warsaw, there's big news about an A380 on Saturday - my airport pictures' views going through the roof...

[jonathan.nyc]

I started this topic when the LI serial killer story started to unfold.

That went away for a while, but now it's back with developments almost every day.

As expected, my views have increased. My 30-day total is higher than ever.

And my closest photo is seven miles from the crime scene!

Here are my photos in the area. http://www.panoramio.com/user/2441693/tags/fire%20island

[zerega]

Events in Syria spiked this photo on April 25th 2011 from around 60 to more than 400 views:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1534892/stats

[Galatas ©]

Yes , the point has been made , and illustrated , quite a number of times already.

[jonathan.nyc]

Not surprisingly, view totals have shot up in and around Abbottabad, Pakistan. I've posted the link to the statistics page of the closest Panoramio photo I can find to OBL's compound. (Allow for some imprecision on this.)

Prior to May 1, this picture typically had zero views per day. But in Mid-April there were two days with six views each. That's a big anomaly, unless the people planning the attack were scoping out the photos!

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/43883184/stats

[davidcmc58]

With the sad news that Steve Jobs just passed away, my Apple Computer HQ shot is on fire with view counts - http://www.panoramio.com/photo/22186209/stats

[jonathan.nyc]

David, there's a delay in reporting view counts. Oct. 5 views will be displayed sometime on Oct. 6. The upswing in your views on Oct. 4 was due to the product announcement.

View counts from the Cupertino area for Oct. 5 should be influenced by Steve's passing as well as the tragic shootings and subsequent manhunt.

[davidcmc58]

jonathan, you are absolutely right! Since I contribute heavily in the Cupertino area, I guess my photos will get quite a few views in the next few days.

[jonathan.nyc]

My own California photos probably got a bit of a boost today.

[Daan Prinsloo]

In front of my office window is the [Schubart Park sub-economic apartment complex](http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3148975, and I have a number of photos of the buildinge on GE. The authorities are trying to evict the inhabitants and now and then there is a flare-up. Recently, over a number of days, there was unrest and cars were set alight and more people evicted. During this time I could see the rise in my views. When I did a Google image search on the apartment, I found out that a number of "agencies" have taken over my photos without acknowledgement. But, anyway, they got more views.

[QuentinUK]

Quote jonathan.nyc:

My own California photos probably got a bit of a boost today.

Try California photos.

[jonathan.nyc]

The link I posted tests OK on Safari while I'm signed in.

The link you suggested isn't showing me much.

Can you explain what you meant?

[Galatas ©]

For everyone else your link takes everyone to their own photos on the map , not yours in California.
QuentinUK's link shows yours.

[jonathan.nyc]

I see. My link didn't work for other people. Quentin's didn't work for me.

Couldn't find an elegant way to do this, so I'm resorting to a tag.

http://www.panoramio.com/user/2441693/tags/california

For record, it looked like the shooting episode gave my Sunnyvale pictures a small boost.

[Cluke]

I had pictures on GE of a rather unusual property that I saw was going to be on a national television programme about home improvements in a few weeks time so I waited with anticipation for the expected upsurge in views.. result?... Nowt, not a sausage, didn't budge at all.

But, I have noticed that pictures that I have taken in coastal resorts take a bit of an upswing in the booking season early in the year so there are definitely seasonal trends to be found.

[Bryan Bredberg]

I have a number of pictures of the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area. They all went up a lot just before and during the 2010 Winter Olympics ... except for the pictures I posted from the closing festivities in the village, but those weren't Google Earth acceptable ... all the increased traffic was GE.

[QuentinUK]

Dunhuang in China has been in the news today,

40.453544,93.743463

Someone from Turkey has uploaded a photo to that location to get extra views.

Will the photo keep its high number of views when it's moved to its proper location?

[AustinMN]

Quote QuentinUK:

Two other nearby photos in the area (both in place for over a year) have received about half their views in the last two days.

When this topic first broke, I expressed some dismay that there would be people who would map photos to news spots just to get high views.

Austin

[♠ c0l0gne1 ♣]

I just saw that the Help file seems to have been updated:

"Photos intentionally geopositioned to the wrong place (e.g., Photos wrongly positioned in low populated areas to increase their visits and popularity)" are now classed as unacceptable for Panoramio!

[jonathan.nyc]

I've posted the link to the statistics for a building which was destroyed in a fire that started Monday night and continued into Tuesday morning.

There were 30 views on Monday and 116 on Tuesday. The people who looked up the picture on Monday must have done so a short time after the fire started.

I'm wondering since Panoramio is a global service, which time zone do they use to separate one day from another ?

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/15349777/stats

tv news: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/massive-fire-on-fire-island-20111115-KC

My own closest photo to the fire also got a boost in viewership. This picture gets a healthy amount of traffic consistently even though I believe it is one of the worst I have posted. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/24232845/stats

[AustinMN]

Quote jonathan.nyc:

There were 30 views on Monday and 116 on Tuesday. The people who looked up the picture on Monday must have done so a short time after the fire started.

Was it an arson? I would not rule out that they looked shortly before the fire in an attempt to plan the fire.

Austin

[jonathan.nyc]

Quote AustinMN:

As of now, it's not classified as suspicious. On Fire Island, off-season anyone who isn't living there is going to very conspicuous and will have a tough escape route.

[CMilton111]

Wow... I love this suggestion.  I have been lucky with some of my viewed photos.  One wonders why some get high viewer count while others may get low views.  I noticed that by posting on Twitter about the picture I get some hits...  Then by copying the address for the photo and pasting it in Facebook with a statement or question works.  I wasn't taking this seriously until I saw that Google Earth was accepting 9 out 10 of my postings and then I saw that I had crossed over 65,000 views with only 100 pictures and not that much focus on it.  Just casual.  Last few weeks I think it has gone up about 14 percent by adding 85 more pictures.  That is good for a few weeks. 75,000 doesn't seem like a whole lot to me but I do see that my work is being noticed and that my time is well spent.  Also, Panaramio users are very good at what they are doing (some really great shots).  This years contest has produced some of the best I have seen yet in any show.  Keep it up....  Here's to you all and Panaramio and Google Earth..... 

[Tomas K☼h☼ut]

There is some unusal volcanic activity in New Zealand - Tongariro area.

Photos in the area are getting significant views peak (GE views).

 

 

[jonathan.nyc]

I started this topic because I thought it was fun to see how a news item could boost photo viewership even though the distance could be several miles away. 

One of my old photos is bound to get plenty of views and I'm not happy about the reason. 

The shooter at today's incident in midtown Manhattan lived in a building I posted to Panoramio last year. 

[CliveM]

Things other than news items can sometimes give views a boost. I was surprised to see a sudden leap in the number of views of my pictures of Berkeley Castle on September 2nd. Newsworthy events have happened there, notably the murder of King Edward II, but as that was in 1327 it's scarcely hot news. I searched various news sites to see what might have happened, until I tried searching the BBC and found that they did a programme about Berkeley Castle on September 2nd. TV programmes therefore seem to be able to generate sudden interest in a picture.

[davidcmc58]

Due to the unfortunate devastation of lower Manhattan by Sandy (the perfect storm), my NYC shots are getting view count spikes -

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/35522228/stats

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/35553525/stats

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7564755/stats