2022
I've been actively posting photos on Google Maps since January 2017, and I mainly got started as sort of an excuse to get out and do a little more dog walking and get some exercise. Before long, I let this casual hobby turn into a borderline obsession and while I've been a somewhat on-again/off-again contributor, I've really enjoyed taking photos and seeing all the views they get from Google Maps users.
Last year I hit a milestone of 20,000 photos and 1,000,000,000 photo views and I was sort of overwhelmed at the thought of what 20,000 photos actually looked like.
Being from a film and television background, I thought about 20,000 images and if they were put into a movie run at 24 frames per second (fps), how long of a movie would that be...?
So I did the math: 20,000 ÷ 24 fps = 833 seconds, or 13 minutes and 53 seconds give or take - (just a little longer than a "one-reeler")
Many months later, I stumbled across Google Takeout and discovered that I could download a copy of all the Google Maps data that I had accumulated - including every single photo and video I've ever contributed! I gave it a try (just choosing to download the photo data) and after many hours of downloading I had 8 folders totaling over 80GB of photo & videos. Unfortunately, the dates of original upload were not retained, but for the most part all of the original filenames were.
So, just for fun, I decided to actually take all of these photos I had contributed to Google Maps and put them together into a single film running at 24fps. (I left out the video contributions, and limited this to just still photos)
What I wound up with was a crazy hodgepodge of images, not necessarily always in chronological order, and not particularly interesting to watch (there are a lot of plot holes), but I was surprised at how I could pick out individual pictures and places and memories, even though these were all flying by at 24 pictures per second.
Anyway I just thought I'd share this for anyone else who might wonder what their photo contributions might look like if they were ever strung end-to-end:
Happy guiding!
Matt
That's incredible @MattGatlin
Watching your video for only a few seconds I realized that the human brain could process a photo "and" the related memory so easily even at 24fps.
That is mind-blowing.
Very cool and congratulations!
What a great service to Maps. You have shared many important insights and it has been a pleasure to get to know you a little bit.
@AdamGT Thanks for the comments and most importantly thank you for your relentless work on creating maintaining and developing the various leaderboards. Seeing the new stats every month certainly fuels my desire to keep contributing. If I look at Google Maps as an addiction, you’re a great enabler 😉
@Tushar_Suradkar Yes, with the exception of a few generic chain store storefronts, I can constantly see images and remember where they’re located and when I photographed them. It’s really quite remarkable how much your eyes see and how much your mind can process.
Great looking Dogs @MattGatlin You should take them to a park and take their photo... Amazing numbers Congratulations.
