What makes man part of a community? Communication and collaboration. Collaboration means give and receive. The web world is based on this. If we have doubts about something we ask Google but besides receiving information you also have to give information. That’s why I decided to collaborate with Google as a Local Guide.
When I got an invitation through email to participate in the program I immediately thought it might be interesting for me. I love traveling and I love taking pictures so why not make my interests available to create material useful to others?
I started sharing my photos and posting reviews of places I visited. What I noticed day by day was the number of views of my content increasing, this meant that people were interested in my posts. Every view was a user and every user was a person, 90 thousands views meant that I helped 90 thousands people!
I realized that this program was really something special and I’ve been more and more involved. Every time I travel is an opportunity to gain new experience which improves my self-confidence and it could be shared with others.
This program is really helpful, as my personal experience I got a lot of information about new places before visiting. During my last trip to Canada, I was fully prepared about Canadian food lifestyle. As a true food lover I got a lot of ideas about what I was going to eat during my visit.
For example when I was in Victoria I went to Milestones where I ate the best salad ever while in Burnaby I went to White Spot Kensington, an historic restaurant founded in Vancouver more than 90 years ago.
Local Guides Program is a great idea invented by Google, it’s stimulant for local guides and at the same time helpful for the users seeking information. I hope in future Google will create new opportunities for Local Guides to develop their professional skills.