On this day — July 15 — in 2016, we launched Connect as a way to bring you, Local Guides, together no matter where you are, what language you speak, or how you choose to help others.
To celebrate four years of Connect, here are accomplishments we’ve made together
Over 1 million Local Guides have registered on Connect and hundreds of thousands visit every month
Over 350,000 topics have been created
Over 1.1 million comments have been posted
Over 5.6 million likes have been given
Nearly 22,000 responses to posts have been marked a solution demonstrating how willing you are to help each other
Over 5,600 ideas have been shared in the Idea Exchange with quite a few being implemented for Connect!
30 Local Guides have become Connect Moderators (and we hope to add more soon!)
Note: The above numbers include activity from across our community including private boards, so they may differ from what you see publicly on Connect.
Celebrations have already started with a community-led celebration(kudos to @KashifMisidia for kicking off the party), so thank you for helping us celebrate all month long on Connect!
Connect Moderators wanted to share a few words about why they love Connect:
“To me, Connect has been at first a revelation as I discovered there were actually people that were as passionate about using and improving Maps as [much as] myself, and then later a source of inspiration due to the colorful and vibrant community of friendly, helpful Local Guides from all over the globe populating it every day.” — @JanVanHaver
“It’s a really good platform to connect (heh) with Local Guides from around the world, learning about their food, culture, and places without having to directly visit the locations, and also learning from each other. It’s even better during this quarantine period where it’s almost impossible to easily travel to other places.” — @iyudhi
“I think that what I like the most about Connect is its diversity, I’ve felt that way since I started using it, regardless of language, sex, religion, race or skin color. Its strengths include tolerance of the different. Secondly, discovering that in the antipodes of the world, there are people who think very similar to others who like to share travel stories, photos, and want to shake hands as a symbol of friendship. These friendships are forged little by little and that last over time, with only text and photos that we read on a Connect board. For all of this, I keep coming back to Connect for [the past] four years. Parking my car on its comfortable dashboards, to read the beautiful Local Guides posts from Japan, Europe, or Asia, their stories open windows to worlds that I don’t know if I will ever be able to visit, but it surely stimulates my traveler spirit to discover new places. [To] all of them, thank you for showing them in this great modern Babel that is Connect.” — @FaridTDF
“For me, Connect is like a melting pot. It’s not just improving Google Maps or contributing to the community, it’s like making family away from your family. Connect helped me learn and improve myself in many ways and I made a wonderful family out here who are more than just friends to me.” — @SoniaK
What’s one of your favorite Connect moments since you joined? Share with us in the comments below!
I’ve joined the family of Connect in 2018. Since then, I’ve spent lots of time discovering the vast diversity of the platform. What I love the most about here are the people. It is unique seeing how Local Guides come from every corner of the world to join Connect and unite by sharing their passion about photography, travelling and curiosity to each other. Connect is a platform made by the people for the people.
Happy 4th Birthday Connect! Can’t imagine that it has been 4 years in a blink of an eye. The last 4 years it was amazing meeting so many great contributors from all over the world. Thanks to the team for all the great effort and help always.
It has been great journey and experience for me to be part of Local Guides community. I have learned, I have shared and met with amazing people along the way. Really memorable journey and still keep going.
Wow, lot of numbers, lot of accomplished together in those 4 years, thank you . @TraciC for such possibility and presence .
I’ve discovered Connect when applying for Connect Live 2019 also if joined several years back, and I discovered the huge community, the family behing the Local Guides program… how I missed that !
For me I see Connect as an Italian cafe : have a sit, take a coffee and talk with your friends about your experiences, your favorite holiday location, the delicious dessert you tried yesterday evening or the beautiful sunset you captured last summer.
For me-it is great opportunity to communicate with local guides from all over the world, exchange ideas, learn something interesting, useful, explore different places in the world, know about culture and traditions .
Best of all I like to attend on Meet Up.
It is unforgettable time.
I love to write about my country-Russia.
It is great, that we have such platform as Local Guides Connect!
Happy 4th birthday Local Guides Connect, and @TraciC of course.
You are the living representation of this community, I can’t think of Connect (a place I call HOME) without thinking of you, the first person who welcomed me and guided my first steps in the community.
We were a few, now we are 30 times more.
Through Connect I had the opportunity to find friend (real friends) all over the world, and to meet many of them.
Through Connect I had the opportunity to develop projects that are running around the world, not because of me but only thanks to the power that a community have.
4 years, and it seems yesterday.
But at the same time, I feel like I’ve been here forever. I struggle to imagine myself “before Connect”
Yay! Happy 4th birthday Connect! Thanks a lot @TraciC for this amazing post! I loved the details n stats as they show the tremendous growth that has happened during a short span of time!
For me personally, Connect is an amazing platform where I get to learn, share and enjoy things I am passionate about like food, phtography, travelling, etc. The best part is I get to contribute towards accessibility, a noble cause so close to my heart ! Thanks to connect, I have a platform to meet people across the globe with similar interests and be a part of such an enthusiastic bunch of people and learn about their culture , food and way of life ! The diversity this program offers is amazing and we all are glad we have ‘CONNECT to stay Connected’
Hello @TraciC Happy 4th Birthday Google Connect.This is a very great platform which connect the whole world in a single rope.I am very much pleased on this great day become a family member of the connect.The platform act as an guide to the whole world.Really this is a wonderful platform to know the world…
For me Connect is a beautiful platform to learn about the interesting local cultures from different regions posted by the dedicated Google local guides and enjoy the cooking delicacies.
Happy birthday Connect! Its an honour to be a part of this wonderful diversified family. Thank you Local Guides team and thank you @TraciC and everyone else who’s working constantly to keep this platform a healthy and a fun place to learn new things while learning to improve our knowledge in a lot of ways.
Thank you for reaching out. The total number of Connect Moderators is 30, including the two newly joined ones! You can refer to this thread for more information.
Hello @TraciC , first of all, VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNECT … It is incredible how this great community grew, although I am not from the beginning, but I joined a few months later.
I love to share my trips here, and to be able to make friends from all over the world.