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C2 Know the photo rules
C2 Know the photo rules
The far-reaching secret rules
The far-reaching secret rules
There are a lot of official rules related to what photos can be shared on Google Maps. Unfortunately, they are well hidden in a lot of different hard to read legal documents including:
- Community Policy (often referred to as the Guidelines)
- Local Guides Program Terms and Conditions (often referred to as the Rules or Program Rules)
- Maps User Contributed Content Policy (often referred to as the Policies)
- Format Specific Criteria
- Official Connect Posts by Google Staff like these by MoniV, AnnaDickson, and AriMar.
Reading the legal language in some of these documents is not for everyone. Many Local Guides could fall asleep when reading them. So I did the work for you. Below you will find an easy to digest one-stop overview of the Google Maps Photo Rules. The overview consists of 14 easy-to-remember bullet points.
You can easily get in trouble
You can easily get in trouble
The problem is that if you violate the rules not only can your photos be removed, but so can you. You can be suspended or removed permanently from the Local Guides Program for violating these rules. And please note: Not knowing the rules is no excuse!
I have tried to help suspended local guides to understand what they did wrong and what they need to fix before using the form to appeal their suspension. Most Local Guides believe they are doing a fantastic job because of the overly enthusiastic updates full of praise they regularly receive via email. They can't believe that all the hard work they did to earn points and levels are suddenly gone. They lose access to Connect and feel despair, grief, and disbelieve that Google could do this to them. They thought they were the top guide in their country. One suspended colleague told me: "Being a Local Guide is such an important part of me and my identity."
When looking at suspended local guides' photos there were always good reasons for the suspension. If you know the rules it is obvious what rules were violated in each case. Likewise, if only you know the rules it is quite easy to follow them. It hurts to delete a lot of your photos just because you didn't know the rules. It feels unfair. But now, you can avoid this pain. The list below can help you understand and remember all the photo rules. It is simple. Avoid uploading photos covered under any of these 14 headings. If in doubt, you can click/tap on a heading to learn more and see citations from the relevant legal documents. Study hard - you can be kicked out of the Local Guides Program for not knowing, understanding, and following these rules! Trust me, memorizing this list is a lot easier than studying the legal documents.
1: No kids in pics
1: No kids in pics
Quotes from Local Guides Program Terms and Conditions:
From item 6. Personal and Confidential Information:
"Do not post or distribute images or videos of minors without the necessary consent from their legal representatives."
From item 7. Child Exploitation:
"Do not upload or share content that exploits or abuses children."
Even with parents' and kids' permission, we should avoid uploading photos of children. We don't know, the children don't know and the parents don't know if the children one day might regret having their picture on Google Maps. Also, the following rules support that pics with kids should be avoided:
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos :
"If the primary subject of the content is irrelevant to the location, it may be removed."
Quote from the Community policy:
"Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location"
Having people in focus in your shots will not clearly and accurately represent the place since they are not a part of the place.
2: No selfies
2: No selfies
Quote from What photos should I share on Google Maps? posted on Connect by Google moderator MoniV:
"Avoid sharing selfies and group photos. These photos don’t help to represent the location, so save them for a different platform."
Quote from the Community policy:
"Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location"
Having you in focus in your shots will not clearly and accurately represent the place since you are not a part of the place. Your face might even block users from seeing details of interest.
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos :
"If the primary subject of the content is irrelevant to the location, it may be removed."
3: No group photos
3: No group photos
Quote from What photos should I share on Google Maps? posted on Connect by Google moderator MoniV:
"Avoid sharing selfies and group photos. These photos don’t help to represent the location, so save them for a different platform. "
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos :
"If the primary subject of the content is irrelevant to the location, it may be removed."
Quote from the Community policy:
"Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location"
Having people in focus in your shots will not clearly and accurately represent the place since they are not a part of the place. And your friends are very likely to block viewers from seeing relevant details of the place.
4: No recognizable faces
4: No recognizable faces
Quotes from the Community policy:
"Also please respect the privacy of others and ask for permission or avoid taking identifiable images of people at places like schools and hospitals."
"Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location"
Having people in focus in your shots will not clearly and accurately represent the place since they are not a part of the place.
Quote from Maps User Contributed Content Policy under Privacy:
"While we welcome you to contribute content that illustrates your world, it's critical that you do so in a manner that respects the privacy preferences of others. "
Quote from How to Upload Great Photos to Google Maps by Googler AnnaDickson:
"Things to avoid: Invasion or Privacy: Try to avoid posting photos where the main subject is an individual person."
Learn to blur faces if they are not dominant in your shot here.
5: Never the same pic to more places
5: Never the same pic to more places
Reusing the same photo across 2 or more places on Google Maps is never OK.
Quote from What photos should I share on Google Maps? posted on Connect by Google moderator MoniV:
"Do not upload duplicate photos. Sharing the same photo more than once on one location or across multiple locations is a violation of our rules and policies and may result in your removal from the program."
Quote from the Community policy:
"Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed. Users who duplicate photos across locations, or post images that infringe on copyrights, will also be removed."
6: No duplicates
6: No duplicates
Quote from What photos should I share on Google Maps? posted on Connect by Google moderator MoniV:
"Do not upload duplicate photos. Sharing the same photo more than once on one location or across multiple locations is a violation of our rules and policies and may result in your removal from the program."
Quote from the Community policy:
"It’s helpful to take advantage of natural light, try shots from different angles before uploading the best options."
Quote from How to Upload Great Photos to Google Maps by Googler AnnaDickson:
"Just upload one."
Read more in TIP 4 on the next page.
7: No near-duplicates
7: No near-duplicates
As mentioned in Shooting Tip #4 try deleting near similar images during your photo walk.
Quote from the Community policy:
"Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed."
See examples of near-duplicates in TIP 5 on the next page.
8: Never wrong place
8: Never wrong place
When flagging a photo on IOS the first option on the menu is "Wrong place". On Android devices, the wording is "Not a photo or video of the place". So Google is clearly concerned about photos should not be posted to the wrong places.
Read more in TIP 6 on the next page.
9: No stolen or downloaded pics
9: No stolen or downloaded pics
Quotes from the Community policy:
"Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed. Users who duplicate photos across locations, or post images that infringe on copyrights, will also be removed."
"Deliberately fake edits, copied or stolen photos, off-topic answers, defamatory language, personal attacks, and unnecessary or incorrect edits are all in violation of our policy. If you see this behavior, please report it."
Users who abuse this trust will be removed from the Local Guides program."
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos:
"Screenshots, stock photos, GIFs, other manually created imagery or imagery taken by other parties should not be uploaded."
Quote from How to Upload Great Photos to Google Maps by Googler AnnaDickson:
"This means, if it’s not your photo, don’t upload it!"
10: No pics of pics
10: No pics of pics
A sophisticated way of stealing an image is taking a photo of somebody else's photo on a poster or at a store, exhibition, or in a museum. This is also not Okay as also mentioned in Shooting tip #10.
Quote from the Community policy:
"Users who duplicate photos across locations, or post images that infringe on copyrights, will also be removed."
11: No screenshots
11: No screenshots
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos:
"Screenshots, stock photos, GIFs, other manually created imagery or imagery taken by other parties should not be uploaded."
12: No shadowy lighting
12: No shadowy lighting
Many images uploaded to Google Maps are too dark to be of value to map users. Please wait for daylight, only take photos with the light coming from behind you, or adjust the brightness and contrast as explained here.
Quote from What photos should I share on Google Maps? posted on Connect by Google moderator MoniV:
"Avoid sharing low-quality photos. Dark and blurry photos or photos with low resolution don’t give helpful information about the location and may be removed."
Quotes from the Community policy:
"Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed. Users who duplicate photos across locations, or post images that infringe on copyrights, will also be removed."
"It’s helpful to take advantage of natural light, try shots from different angles before uploading the best options."
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos then Stylistic adjustments:
"Content that makes it difficult for others to understand the environment you’re sharing may be rejected. Examples are excessively dark or blurry images, significantly rotated compositions, and use of filters that dramatically alter the representation of the place."
13: Always super-sharp
13: Always super-sharp
If your image is not 100% sharp please don't upload them to Google Maps. Stand and hold your camera perfectly still before shooting. Hold your breath. and allow time for your camera to focus. And don't take photos from a moving vehicle. If in doubt, zoom in to check if the sharpness it okay.
Quote from What photos should I share on Google Maps? posted on Connect by Google moderator MoniV:
"Avoid sharing low-quality photos. Dark and blurry photos or photos with low resolution don’t give helpful information about the location and may be removed."
Quotes from the Community policy:
"Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed. Users who duplicate photos across locations, or post images that infringe on copyrights, will also be removed."
"...it’s important that images be relevant and in focus."
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos then Stylistic adjustments:
"Content that makes it difficult for others to understand the environment you’re sharing may be rejected. Examples are excessively dark or blurry images, significantly rotated compositions, and use of filters that dramatically alter the representation of the place."
14: Always right rotation
14: Always right rotation
This is a technical mistake. Do not upload images that are upside-down or rotated 90-degrees to the left or right. Most smartphones can rotate your images before uploading them.
Quote from Format Specific Criteria under Photos and Videos then Stylistic adjustments:
"Content that makes it difficult for others to understand the environment you’re sharing may be rejected. Examples are excessively dark or blurry images, significantly rotated compositions, and use of filters that dramatically alter the representation of the place."
Use and remember the photo rules
Use and remember the photo rules
When you now know all the photo rules you should review your photo contributions regularly to check if you are following all the rules. How to do this is explained in detail here.
To reiterate and recap these rules you can randomly select other local guides and inspect their photo contributions as an exercise to spot violations. You will be surprised by how many violations you can find. To select a random local guide with a lot of photos you can open Google Maps. Zoom out all the way. Then zoom in on a random country. Zoom all the way in on a city. Click on a random pin and select a random photo posted to that place. Then click on the name of the person who posted this photo to inspect his/her photo contributions. Use the default sorting by date/newest. An extended exercise is to keep inspecting photo contributions until you have found examples illustrating all of the 14 rules listed above.
There are also rules intended to prevent marketing to sneak into the images (watermarks, URLs, and special offers), and your photos should not be overly processed as described here.
Digging deeper
Digging deeper
If you want an even deeper understanding of how to contribute with the best possible pics on Google Maps you also need to avoid:
By resisting distractions in your photos they will be more helpful for Maps users. And knowing what places are unmappable and those not accepting photos you can save you a bit of time and resentment.
Avoiding distractions and memorizing unmappable and photo-unfriendly categories takes a bit more effort than learning the 14 photo rules. But lots of illustrations will hopefully make it easier for you.
It is absolutely OK to skip ahead to Uploading tips if the 14 photo rules seems too many or complicated. You can always revisit these pages later.
Hitting "Suggested next page" will take you to Uploading tips.
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