We’re excited to continue our Ask a Googler series with our next guest, Ishwar Dhanuka, a Product Manager on the Google Maps team.
Many of you reached out with some great questions for Ishwar. Before we dive into those, we asked him a few questions we thought you’d be interested in to get to know him a bit more. As we shared in our previous post, Ishwar works on Google Maps features, specifically the Q&A feature on the app. Read on to learn more about him.
Question: Are you a Local Guide? Why or why not?
Answer: I am! I find it heartbreaking to see a place closed only upon reaching, so to avoid others from the disappointment I try to especially keep closure status and operating hours up to date.
Question: What’s your favorite type of information to contribute to Google Maps?
Answer: Aside from asking and answering questions I enjoy updating hours, adding missing points of interest (POIs), and updating closure statuses.
Question: If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Answer: Probably a countryside in Australia and New Zealand with my parents. Being in nature is a great way to reconnect both with ourselves and each other.
Question: What’s the one question your friends and family always ask you about working at Google/on Google Maps?
Answer: Can you please add [feature x]!?
You all also shared so many amazing questions for Ishwar as well. Read on to discover what he had to say about Google Maps, the asking and answering experience, being a product manager, and more.
Local Guides Q&A with Ishwar
Editor’s Note: Some questions submitted by Local Guides below have been edited for length and/or clarity.
@iorikun301 from Indonesia asked: Why did the Google team decide to add the Q&A feature to Google Maps and when was it released?
Answer: Like many features we launch at Google, we did a lot of research learning that Google Maps users had a lot of questions about places they wanted to visit. We launched Q&A in 2017 to connect people with the business owners and other people who have been to the place.
@LaloPadilla from Mexico, Guiding Star, asked: Have you considered removing answers like “I don’t know” as they are not helpful?
Answer: We are exploring ways to improve this experience. If you have something specific in mind, we would love to hear more. (Editor’s note: You can share feedback in the Google Maps app or here in the Idea Exchange.)
@FalguniP from India, Guiding Star, asked: Can there be a feature to upvote an answer to avoid multiple answers instead?
Answer: We currently have a like feature for both questions and answers which you can use to indicate if something is helpful. Thanks for sharing this idea!
@FalguniP from India, Guiding Star, asked: If you search via Google Search for a question that was already asked about a place, will that question and its answer appear?
**Answer:**Our goal is to bring all of these great answers to Google Search and be helpful to even more people. Keep an eye out for updates as this is a top priority for our team. 
@JanVanHaver from Belgium, Connect Moderator and Guiding Star, asked: What is the best practice for answering questions for unclaimed businesses when the question is clearly addressed to the business owner (who is very unlikely to ever see the question since their page isn’t claimed)?
Answer: If it’s a question which you’re able to answer with a certain degree of confidence, it’s definitely helpful to answer it.
@Davidhyno from Italy asked: Will the Q&A feature soon be available on iOS?
Answer: Absolutely! We’re hoping it will be available in the coming months.
@Davidhyno from Italy asked: Do you use or follow lists on Google Maps? If so, do you have a favorite?
Answer: Oh yeah, I’m a huge fan of lists. One of my favorite lists is this one from a colleague which has all the restaurants in Tokyo that have vegetarian options. We often plan our weekends around that list!
@LuigiZ from Italy, Connect Moderator asked: I’m curious to know how the notifications that I and others receive are generated, because sometimes I receive them on a daily basis and other times not at all, even though questions are being asked.
Answer: When someone submits a question about a place, we send notifications to a small set of people who might be familiar with that place. Q&A notifications don’t consistently go to the same people because they are triggered only when someone asks a question at one of the places you’re likely to be familiar with.
@NunungAfuah from Indonesia, Connect Moderator, asked: What do you plan to do with duplicate questions that have been asked on the same listing?
Answer: Sometimes, duplicate questions make sense in certain situations, for example, when talking about holiday specials. We currently discourage duplicate questions by surfacing existing answers as folks type their question into the “Ask a question” flow.
Stay tuned to hear more about the next Googler in our series soon! Want to see other posts in our Ask a Googler series? Read previous posts below:
post all LGS. It will help us delelop our ideas and knowledge more in this sector
