Popularity and visibility of photos

• Popularity: Each photo in Panoramio.com has a popularity level determined by the combination of more than 20 variables: times viewed, times added to favorites by other users, number of comments received, resolution in pixels, etc. We prefer not to disclose all factors involved in popularity to avoid the people to focus to much on it. The best way to get high popularity is to upload great shots.
• Visibility: Very popular photos are displayed in higher zoom levels in both Panoramio's map and Google Earth. Since popularity correlates good with quality, we believe it is useful to see the most popular photos first when exploring the world.
• Issues: Because the most popular photos are the most visible ones, they get even more popular. In order to fix that bias we are planning to take into account the freshness of the photo in the popularity.
• Popular tab: located in Panoramio's map includes all the photos that have been reviewed and selected for Google Earth ordered by popularity.