Google Maps and the Local Guides program are now deeply connected and almost inseparable. Every day, millions of people rely on Local Guides’ contributions to discover places, navigate roads, and make informed decisions.
But this ecosystem has a long and fascinating history.
In this archive post, I’m sharing a chronological journey of Google Maps, its supporting tools (both active and discontinued), the evolution of the Local Guides program, and the major summits and milestones that shaped our global community.
This post also highlights the early history of the first unofficial Local Guides community in Bangladesh.
Archive Note
This post is published as part of the Index of Bangladesh Local Guides, under the Archive Series, to preserve important historical references for current and future community members.
Google Maps: Product & Tool Timeline
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Google Maps – February 8, 2005
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Google Earth - June 2005
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Google My Maps – April 2007
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Google Street View – May 25, 2007
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Google Panoramio
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Acquire: May 30, 2007
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Migrate it to Google Maps Views: September 16, 2014,
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Retired: November 4, 2016
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Google Maps Maker
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Opened: June 23, 2008
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Closed: March 31, 2017
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Google My Business (GMB) – June 2014
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Google Business Profile (GBP) (formerly GMB) – 2022
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Street View Trusted Program
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Opened: June 2016
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Closed: December 31, 2024
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Android Auto - November 7, 2016
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Street View Studio – May 2022
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Merge the Waze and Google Maps teams - December 9, 2022
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Immersive View – February 2023
Local Guides Program: Key Milestones
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Google+ Local replaced Google Places – May 30, 2012
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City Experts Program – August 2, 2013
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Bangladesh Local Guides – March 7, 2014
(One of the earliest and fastest-growing unofficial Local Guides communities) -
Local Guides Program (Official Launch) – January 15, 2015
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Local Guides Community Challenge – September 2, 2015
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Local Guides Connect Platform – July 15, 2016
Road Mapper (Google Maps)
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Early Access Launch – September 13, 2019
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Public Release – 2021
Guiding Stars Program
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Guiding Star 2020 – December 8, 2020
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Guiding Star 2021 – December 8, 2020
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Guiding Star 2022 – December 7, 2020
I collected this group picture of the Moderator summit from moderator Jesi’s post.
Moderator Summit 2023
- Local Guides Moderator Summit’ Tokyo – October 18–20, 2023
Global Local Guides Events
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Local Guides Summit 2016 – September 13–14, 2016
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Local Guides Summit 2017 – October 10–12, 2017
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Connect Live 2018 – October 16–18, 2018
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Connect Live 2019 – November 12–15, 2019
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Connect Live 2020 - Canceled Due to COVID-19
Local Guides Connect Live Popup Events -2018
- Tokyo
- Lima
- Delhi
Local Guides Connect Live Popup Events -2019
- Lagos
- Tokyo
- Hydrabad
Local Guides Summit 2025 (Multi-City Edition)
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New York, USA – May 8–9, 2025
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Tokyo, Japan – July 24–25, 2025
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Bengaluru (Bangalore), India – September 18–19, 2025
From Google Maps Maker to Road Mapper, City Experts to Local Guides, and from early official and unofficial communities to global summits, the Local Guides journey is a powerful example of how community-driven knowledge can shape the world’s most widely used mapping platform.
The Bangladesh Local Guides community, founded by Mahabub Hasan, as one of the earliest unofficial communities, has played an important role in this journey—through consistent contributions, community building, and long-term engagement.
This archive post aims to preserve these milestones and timelines so that both new and experienced Local Guides can better understand where we started and how far we’ve come.
Reference Image List :
A screenshot of the official Google Local Guides community on Google+, taken before the Local Guides Connect platform became available.
Google+ had a section called Local, where users mainly wrote reviews. This existed before the option to write reviews directly on Google Maps was introduced, and it remained active until around 2016.
A screenshot of the page on the Google+ platform where reviews could be written and viewed.
A screenshot of the Google Panoramio Platform Dashboard
A screenshot of the Map Maker platform.
A screenshot of the Street View Studio Platform.
Street View Trusted Program Badge
Street View Trusted Photographer Confirmation Email screenshots
A Top 10 chart from the 2015 Local Guides–organized Community Challenge, where Bangladesh Local Guides secured third place
A screenshot of the user interface of Version 1 of the Google Local Guides Connect forum.
In 2015, three community managers of the Local Guides program attended the Top Contributor Summit to gather firsthand information related to the summit.
I collected the images from the social media account of @CorrieD , a former Community Manager, with her permission.
Local Guides Summits and Connect Live Global Event 
Google HQ, USA
A group photo from the Local Guides Summit 2016, which was the first international summit of the Local Guides platform, attended by 75 participants
A group photo from the Local Guides Summit 2017, which was the 2nd international summit of the Local Guides platform, attended by 150 participants all over the world
A group photo from the Connect Live’18, which was the 3rd international summit of the Local Guides platform, attended by 150 participants all over the world
A group photo from the Connect Live’19, which was the 4th International summit of the Local Guides platform and the last Summit in California / Mountainview / Google HQ, attended by 150 participants all over the world
Applications for Connect Live 2020 were opened and other processes were underway, but the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 global lockdown and other related restrictions.
Connect Live’18 Pop Up Events
A photo of all Connect Live’18 - Tokyo attendees posing for the camera
A photo of all Connect Live’18 - Lima attendees posing for the camera
A photo of all Connect Live’18 - Delhi attendees posing for the camera
Connect Live’19 Pop Up Events
A photo of all Connect Live’19 - Lagos attendees posing for the camera
A photo of all Connect Live ’19 - Tokyo attendees posing for the camera
A photo of all Connect Live’19 - Hyderabad attendees posing for the camera
Connect Live ’25 Summit Multiple Cities
A group picture of Connect Live’25 - New York, USA Attendees
A group picture of Connect Live’25 - Tokyo, Japan Attendees
A group picture of Connect Live’25 - Bengaluru, India Attendees
Local Guides - Guiding Star
A group photo of all recipients of the Guiding Star 2020 title, as announced by the Local Guides team.
A group photo of all recipients of the Guiding Star 2021 title, as announced by the Local Guides team.
A group photo of all recipients of the Guiding Star 2022 title, as announced by the Local Guides team.
Reference Connect Post link :
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Celebrating 10 Years of Local Guides mapping the world, together
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Celebrating 11 Years of Bangladesh Local Guides: How Long Have You Been Part of the Journey
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Join Road Mapper and help people navigate better with Google Maps
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Celebrating 10 Years of Local Guides mapping the world, together
Local Guides Program – Archive Series
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Local Guides archive Series 2 : [ Community Official & Unofficial ]
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Local Guides archive Series 3 : [ Community Moderator and Hangout ]
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Local Guides archive Series 4 : Meetup[Apply-Publish-Feedback ]
Community guidelines > Learn more about Connect features #milestone Connections & celebrations #withmahabub #localguidesbd #BDLG
! That’s a great bookmark bro 
. I am so glad to be along with map journey from the early (~2008-09) till now - the one among the big Local Guides Community members. Much appreciated for your chronicle article bro. 
. I may use yours here to write on 
Because to write this article, I had to study a lot for several months, check almost thousands of links, and cross-verify the content.I had to search through my collection of over 200,000 Google Photos images and select the images.