Ideas. Imagination. Creativity. I love these words and you do not have to be an artist to make them yours. Being a Google Local Guide can also unleash your artistic potential. From reviewing places to publishing lists on Google Maps I can share part of my personality with people I have not met yet.
Through reviewing places, I have found an opportunity to encourage people to try places I really enjoy. I am a big fan of fast food (although I am currently trying to limit my consumption of delicious burgers) and of course I always want my meals to be fresh, big and tasty. Every costumer deserves it, so giving a detailed review allows business owners to continue to improve their services and costumers to make informed decisions before spending their money and their recreational calories.
Caption. I take photos of everything I do. Left side: a burger from one of the best burger joints in Monterrey. Right side: Carne asada, a typical dish in Northern Mexico.
As it is often said “a picture is worth a thousand words”, thus this is your opportunity to shine and let the world know what you are made of. I love colorful vibrant places so you can get vivid photos. Scattered all my neighborhood in Monterrey, Mexico, there are beautiful murals which are not yet included in Google Maps. I found these opportunity areas and lately I have been working on adding them to the platform. I can’t wait to upload the photos and videos I have taken. I am also planning to create a list with the locations, so visitor in the area can easily find them. On a recent road trip to Austin, TX, my friends and I loved every mural we visited. Of course, we had at hand our cellphone to quickly find them. I hope that one day the murals in Monterrey will be as famous as those in Austin.
Caption. Vibrant places, vivid photos. Left: “Evolución” Mural by mexican artist Saner in Monterrey, Mexico. Right side: One of the incredible murals in Austin, TX, USA.
Editing lists is another way to share your thoughts with the community. The idea of creating lists on Google Maps came after meeting a foreign guy at school. I was having lunch and he wanted to know where I had gotten my eye-catching healthy plate. I referred him to the small business called “Comidas Pronto”, a small family business located a couple of blocks from campus. I realized that it would be helpful to create a student friendly Google Maps list with great places to have lunch near campus. This time I had the opportunity to personally share a place with a new friend. Now imagine the great impact you can make publishing a list online! I would add a catchy title to the list and a couple of tips to highlight the best times to visit a place or how you can get special discounts.
Caption. I live in Monterrey, Mexico. The neighborhood where I took these photos is known as DistritoTec and there are many places waiting to be added to Google Maps.
I like to think of Local Guides program as a way to record the history of the places where we use to spend our life. We do not know how long Google Maps will be online, but it will definitely function as a time machine. We may think that it is not necessary to have that large amount of information, photos and videos online of the contributions of many people. In a few years we will find ourselves admiring how much our street has changed and we did not even notice.
In conclusion, every day we have the opportunity to share our creative side with the world no matter what our field of action is.