In 2017, I tried an experiment to see if I could post photos that got one million views on Google Maps (they referred to the photos as living on Google Local at the time). It quickly got very easy to reach the milestone, with tons of views of some frankly pretty boring photos.
Today, I got a notification that my photos had reached 15 million views, which is ridiculous. I still am suspicious of the accuracy of these metrics. Two photos have each exceeded two million views. There's this one of Tires Plus in Gambrills:
and this gem from the Bowie Walmart:
My most-viewed photo that is not of a chain is at #7 this view of the Center for the Arts at George Mason (265K views):
That's not actually bad.
I am less excited than ever to be provided free labor to Google, but I will sometimes upload a photo when prompted, particularly if I want to influence the perception of a place or if it just makes me laugh. I haven't really had any take off in the past couple of years.
