Google announced in November last year that the new Street View App will no longer support
Manual placements and connectivity on your 360 photos.
This means, if your camera has bad GPS or if you are planning to do an indoor Virtual
Tour for a business on Google Maps - you will no longer be able to do so with the Google
Street View app.
What?
That is NOT cool, Google!
So any Google Street View tutorial you watch before this video, check your timestamp, will
not be accurate.
On the other hand, the REAL Google Street View is Path - the blue line you see on the
Google Maps.
That is what you want to create, and we will show you how in our next tutorial where Keeley
hike up Topanga Canyon and map the entire mountain on foot.
Today, we will fix the upcoming Google Street View feature remove problem to provide your
TWO ways - one FREE and one PAID - to continue creating and managing your Google My Business
Listing.
So you can upload high-quality 360 photos Virtual Tour on Google and connect them like
what you see here with the new Pancake navigation on Web Browser, on Mobile App and eventually,
on VR headset with Google Earth VR.
Let's dive right in!
Hey, what's up, everyone.
It is your boy Hugh here from CreatorUp.
This is part of the ongoing series on Google Street View 360 Virtual Tour where I ride
Onewheel with Insta360 Titan or hike 10 miles in remote, dangerous location.
Sometimes I even wipe out for you!
Well, saddly, Google is removing lots of its mapping features in Street View app and moving
it to APIs.
The Manual placements and connectivity features will be completely removed in June 2021, even
on Android devices.
It is May now, so this tutorial is badly needed for anyone rely on Google Street View for
their Virtual Tour businesses.
As you know already, your boy never tries to charge you any money to help you.
So don't forget to give this video a thumb up and drop me a thank you comment down below.
If you are very angry with Google, please also write your concerns down in the comment
session.
I will try to collect feedbacks to show Google that Street View editing features are NOT
"low usage" features, as Google States.
So I researched a ton of Virtual Tour software in mid-2021 and concluded that GoThru is by
far the best Google Street View publishing and managing software.
Panoskin is also great too.
I personally like GoThru - it is the fastest and feature-rich.
But most importantly, it is FREE with all the professional features for up to 4 pano.
As you quickly see how important it is.
You don't want to create more than four connected 360 photos in 1 business location.
Not until they pay you to do so.
When they pay you, you need a reliable way to manage the tour on Google Maps - and that
is when you budget in the cost for gothru paid account to do the job in a professional
manner.
How to use GoThru to create a professional Virtual Tour on Google Maps
Login to your gothru account and connect your Google account with gothru
Click Publish Panoramas to a Street View GMB Page.
GMB shorts for Google My Business Page.
BTW, you don't need to own the business to publish on GMB.
The beauty of it, you can be aggressive and create GMB for the businesses you want to
target and show them what you can create to get them to pay you to do the rest.
That usually the best strategy to get local businesses to pay for your services.
Never wait for the opportunities to come to you; go earn it!
Remember, if you have less than 4 360 photos, gothru is free to use.
So use this to create four stunning 360 photos with multiple businesses in your area and
show them on Google Maps of their own listing created by you.
When you sold them, get the budget to pay for gothru to do the rest.
Click the button to go to the map page.
Here type in the business listing address.
Now go ahead and upload all the 360 photos you captured.
If you need tutorials on how to create high quality 360 photos with Theta Z1 or Qoocam
8K or DSLR, Mirrorless cameras like the SONY Alpha 1, check out this playlist here.
After upload is finished, go ahead and click done!
Now go ahead and click Create Navigation.
So gothru has mobile app that will work great on, iPhone, iPad or Android devices.
Remember we mentioned that Google will retire their tour creating feature to connect the
360 photos?
So for all the old-school virtual tour creators who used to the Google Street View mobile
workflow, you can use the gothru Mobile Street View Editor instead.
It is FREE, very powerful, and they have a good tutorial on their website, so I won't
repeat myself here.
I will quickly create a connected path here.
Remember, when creating the path, do not do what Matterport did - connected everything
to everything.
This will confuse the users where to go next, especially viewing your Street View virtual
tour in a VR headset like Oculus Quest 2 using Google Earth VR.
So give two and no more than 4 directions at a time.
As you see here, since some of the 360 photos are under trees or it is indoor.
My Theta Z1 does not have GPS data on those photos and Google Maps won't know where to
place those photos unless you tell it so.
So what I usually do is turn on Satellite view to help me align images.
If it is indoor, use the floor plan and your memory to place the photos.
After you connect all the 360 photos in 1 path like so, make sure the save.
And then, we can expand the Map Satellite view to create more connection paths.
Now you can go back and publish your Virtual Tour on Google Street View.
Before you publish, if you have not path your Nadir or want to add a Nadir logo to copyright
protect your virtual tour, you can do so here.
Another advantage using a dedicated tool instead of GSV.
Go ahead and hit Google and pick your Google account to upload the GMB.
So upload usually takes coupled hours, and something takes 1 to 2 days depending on how
the busy Google server is.
So manage your client's expectations.
Manage Existing GMB Listing Google Street View app is impossible to manage
published tour.
But it is very easy using GoThurs.
You can delete or replace photo, connect to more photos and change direction.
As long as you hit the google button, it will upload and sync with Google Maps.
So your client virtual tour will be always up to date.
Let's say in 1 year they have a major relivation, they will need to find you again to update
the tour.
You can easily do that here.
Okay, now let's talk about update what is already on Google Map.
Many times, you already have 1 to 2 360 photos on a business uploaded using the native Google
Street View app or Google Maps.
Now you want to go back and capture more, or you want to connect them after you saw
this amazing tutorial.
But you do not want to lose all the views on these existing 360 photos.
As you see here, my Little Tokyo photo has 3,000 views - this is good for my business
as a 360 photographer.
So how can I connect them to my new photo?
Let me show you next.
Go back to Constellations and click on Import From Google.
Type in the business listing you want to import, edit or manage.
Here it is little Tokyo.
Then go ahead and hit Tools.
Go ahead and hit import to import your 360 photos and keeping all the view counts into
gothru.
Now upload a new photo to connect and create a mini virtual tour.
You can upload up to 4 completely free.
Again take advantage of that.
Now go ahead and join the two places using the Satellite map, so you have a precise placement.
Don't ever trust your Rioch Theta Z1 or Insta360 ONE X2 GPS.
They all have a 10s buffer, so if you take consecutive 360 photos like timelapse to capture
a path - it won't work to create a path on Google Map.
Some of the popular Google Street View tutorials you watch on YouTube using Theta Z1 are completely
wrong.
You won't see them demoing the final result in their videos is because of that.
They can not get the result on Google Map and don't know what is wrong.
All the tours created in this tutorial are available on Google Maps for you to exam.
Links in the description below.
If you want to create Google Street View Path - aka the BLUE LINE on Google Maps - My following
tutorial will go into detail.
As you see here, Keeley is wearing the monopole backpack with Labpano Pilot One EE and mapping
the Topanga Canyon State Park - which is not currently mapped by Google yet.
We will talk about which 360 camera is the best for Google Street View in 2021, what
is the correct workflow and all that.
So don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell.
Back to the Little Tokyo listing.
We are done here, and the preview look great.
Now go back to Constellations and click Tools and click publish onto Google Map.
You are done!
I hope now you have a reliable solution for handling your Google Street View Virtual Tour
business.
It is never about the Google Trusted badge on your profile or business listing on Google
anymore.
Relying on Google will make you lose your business to your competitors who watch this
tutorial, actively go out there and capture the world with 360 cameras like Theta Z1 or
Qoocam 8K.
And then get paid to use DSLR mirrorless camera setup.
So if you want to survive, want to stay on top of your game, adapt the change and learn
new skillsets.
Remember, action is always better than reaction.
If you are new to this channel, please consider subscribing and hit the notification bells
here.
It really helps us continue creating more amazing contents and tutorials for you.
The next tutorial will be about this giant camera - the Kandao Obsidian Pro - a 24,000
dollars camera.
We will show you what comes with the box, how to set up the camera, and show you some
sample footage capture by me in professional control settings - to test stereoscopic stitching
distance with Mistika VR and all the fun stuff.
You don't want to miss that!