Everyone has a smartphone with a great camera these days. If you are reading this, it’s highly likely that you are holding one in your hand right now. We as consumers also emphasise a lot on this one feature every time we decide to buy a new smartphone. But do we put this exceptional piece of technology to good use? Or we are just interested in clicking selfies with face beauty filters on? What are we doing?
As a Google Guide, I absolutely love sharing pictures of the places I go to on Google maps to give the audience a better understanding of what the said tagged place on G-maps looks like. Since visuals have a huge impact on the human brain, this one picture that I share of my favourite coffee shop can attract a potential customer for the owner. And hence, with just one picture, I have helped two people. One the coffee shop owner, who now has a new customer. And second the customer, who now shares the same favourite coffee shop as me.
I understand that not all of us are pro-photographers and the beauty of being a Google guide is that one doesn’t have to be either. All I need is a smartphone, a very basic understanding of framing and taking a picture of what I see. I don’t need to capture an over the edge, aesthetic looking image, I just need to provide my fellow stranger with a visual cue to what I look at when I visit a place. A simple image captured from the human eye level would suffice. This gives this complete stranger a better visual representation of the location that they had just searched on the maps and helps bringing the world together, closer, right on our fingertips.
Considering the case of a country like India, where MSMEs(and their outlets) and local shops are the backbones of the urban economy; their everchanging dynamic nature can be beautifully captured by a local guide to provide a point of reference to the same old fashioned roads with a new perspective. Since these local shops and outlets change very often, providing accurate information about them and updating the same with the passage of time along with relevant images help travellers, wanderers(even those who are lost) and seekers a lot.
Remember, the pictures you look at on Google maps were most probably clicked by someone who is a stranger too. But it did help you in deciding where to eat tonight, right?
So, do your small bit, upload a picture today, and help a stranger in need.
After all, all it takes is one picture to help a stranger.