The Ask a Googler series aims to give Local Guides like you an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at the Google Maps features you love. If you missed our other posts, you can check out more information onAsk a Googler hereand read our Q&As from previous guests likeMaraandKevin.
We’re excited to continue our Ask a Googler series with our next guest, Terrance Snyder, a Senior Product Manager for Google Maps. He will be on hand to answer questions about Local Guides levels, points, and badges, making contributing fun, and enabling people to share their experiences on Maps.
When he’s not dreaming up ways to make your experience better, you can find Terrance running. He’s been running 10 kilometers per day for the past year, often stopping to take photos and update the map, so he can talk about that, too!
If you could ask him directly about these things listed above, what would you ask? We know great minds think alike, so if a fellow Local Guide has already asked a question you had in mind, please tap the “like” (heart button) so we can see that there is more interest around that topic.
Unfortunately, we can’t accommodate every single question submitted, but please feel free to ask your questions in the comments and we will answer all that we can. It’s also possible that your question could be used in a future post on Connect, so don’t be shy.
Have a question for Terrance? Leave your questions in the comments section below before the end of the day on Friday, June 3!
It is great that we are starting again the Ask a Google Series.
Hi Terrance, please to meet you.
Badge and points is indeed an interesting topic, and I would have a lot of questions. However, to give space also to others, I will limit my questions to two only
Our contributions tab: It is not exactly reflecting the total amount of points that we have, and some contribution is missing or unclear. I think it should be more detailed. A few examples of missing parts: Bonus points for Long Reviews; Naming dishes; Bonus points obtained during a challenge or for editing a review, editing the shape of a road
Adding Road: I love to add road, and I think that the actual system of giving points related to road addition and editing should consider the “size” of the edit. While you may need a minute to add a short Missing Road, sometimes a complex addition may take longer time. It took me about 20 minutes to add a 6km trail, and I think the points should also be an acknowledgment of the effort put into a single edit, which varies a lot based on the length of the road. Some time ago I wrote an idea about it, and this post gives me the opportunity to talk about it: Changing the Point Calculation System for adding Roads
We are excited to have you for our next guest. Hope you are enjoying your role as a senior product manager for Google Maps?
My first question is when drawing roads on the maps I often draw multiple roads at a single edit,have you plans to make the points and counts multiple as well for local guides?
Are there plans for any new badges on the maps e.g for those of us who love drawing new roads on the maps road Mappers badge or any “New badge” you plan to add to the maps
Ermes has a post about a new desktop road éditor,please when will this be available to the rest of us who are lovers of adding new roads on the maps.
Lastly we sometimes have bonus points (Not too often) but what are the determinants of that for local guides?
Thank you for announcing the continuation of this series @DeniGu I have been looking forward to it.
Hi @DeniGu , thanks for bringing back “Ask a Googler” series! My questions for Terrance are:
Do you run the same route or change it to find new places to contribute to Maps?
Are there any plans to add more levels?
Last year we contributed to some challenges, if there are new ones will there be a badge to show the amount of points/contributions for that specific challenge?
l would like to think l would graduate to become a Google guide alumni with the ability to advise other guides but also be invited to speak at or go to local city training. I very much enjoyed attending an evening’s training centred around accessibility issues which we did in Soho after a talk at Google’s London HQ. I think we need to host these at least annually.
Accessibility is still and will always be an important feature of writing a detailed review and posting relevant photos of a venue. It would also be useful if we could add icons for wheelchairs, quiet / loud alerts, types of food, : fast, formal dining etc. l do incredibly detailed reviews. Yes l get extra points but it can be a laborious process, not being able to précis features in this way which also makes the reviews more accessible to second language and neuro divergent readers. I’m Autistic ! so self interested. I’d like to focus too on creating an autistic friendly sticker to attach to museums, cinemas and cafes.
second question :
Why do we no longer receive an acknowledgment for creating a new location ?
I too am very pleased to see the Ask a Googler series continuing @DeniGu and what better way than with a Senior Product Manager for Google Maps! Thank you Terrance for taking a short break from your dreams and 10 kilometers runs (sheeesh 10 kilometers per day) to answer our questions here!
At the moment we can view our photos in Newest and Most viewed order. It would be very useful to be able to view our photos in Oldest order. Similarly, at the moment we can view our reviews in Newest order. It would be very useful to add Oldest order.
What do you think about adding these options Terrance that I believe would improve our Local Guide experience?
Perhaps off topic however I do have to add, something that is really annoying is when we edit the name of a place that is definitely wrong (e.g. breaks the policy rules, such as keyword stuffing) but our edits are Not Applied! Here is but one example: 7-Eleven Lower Bourke. As clearly shown in the storefront signage shown in the submitted photo, the name of this well known Convenience store is 7 Eleven and not 7-Eleven Lower Bourke! With over 25,000 approved edits under my belt, I have to say that it really surprises me what business names I’ve seen on Google Maps and what businesses get away with.
Regarding the reason given, Google couldn’t verify your edit, can the storefront signage shown on the submitted and approved photo or the business website with the name of the business plastered all over be used to verify the edit? Res ipsa loquitur!
A @DeniGu gracias por brindarnos de nuevo la oportunidad de poder hacer preguntas para mejorar cada día, y poder hacer más atractivos he interesantes nuestras publicaciones.
Tengo dos preguntas para Terrance y las haré con la mayor brevedad.
Como motivarias a compartir lugares a otro compañero de la comunidad que al igual que usted corre pero se enfoca plenamente en su entrenamiento?
Que consejo le darías a alguien para hacer una publicación con su tiempo medido?
Muchas gracias por la oportunidad de poder trabajar juntos en la elaboración de mejorar el servicio.
Hello Terrence, great that you’re taking the time to answer our questions.
When I read “making contributing fun”, I am also reminded of something which currently makes a specific type of contribution not so much fun: flagging pics as inappropriate for POIs. Right now this is taking LOADS of clicks in quite a few cases, as you can come across places that have a lot of inappropriate pics (most of them “not a picture of this place”) which you then have to report 1 by 1 - each submission taking some clicks. I had such a case a couple of days ago: a business where 20 or so pictures of dogs had been uploaded (and this was in no way related to the activities of the business) and 3 or 4 were low quality (quite blurry).
And on top of that: this type of contribution is rewarded with 0 points… not the kind of incentive most local guides will get thrilled about.
But any problem can be solved, of course, and here’s even a suggested approach to do so:
allow local guides to multi-select pics which have the same kind of issue in the process of flagging them as inappropriate (in my example above: 1 x multi-select & submit the 20 dogs pics and 1 x multi-select the poor quality pics)
reward each picture which is actually removed after the submission with 1 point
thank you very much for introducing us our next superstar guest, we were indeed missing the series .
Yeah questions for Terrance:
Have you ever thought to make special edition badges for special kind of contributions? E.g. they might be related to a specific event such as the last (pilot) foodie challenge or they might be unlocked for specific “streak” of contributions such as (as a pure example) 10 reviews on pizzas gives you the novice “pizzaiolo” badge and so on
Following a bit the previous question what about streak of contributions for specific set of actions: 1 review on pizza, 1 review on pasta, 1 review on espresso → special bonus point of a novice Italian foodie expert
It would be nice to have a more detailed statistics view of the contributions, they are often generic and grouped and sometimes it makes fun knowing how the contributions have been coming in a kind of history book. For example this might be useful if some contributions are not valid to see that the points have been removed.
I would love to “investigate” your contributions while you are running, do you change every day your running route or you are able to discover always new things, daily, even on the same route? Have you ever joined the New York marathon and if yes what’s your best score.
Thank you very much for the time you will take to answer our questions .
I would like to ask Terrance how the team authentic names of roads especially in developing countries. How long does it take to correct a wrong name? Do they verify from government officials before approving a name?
What is the team doing to reduce duplication of POIs? Could it be possible to reject a name of place when someone is trying to register similar name?
What is your favourite thing to contribute on the map and what level are you, if you are a Local Guide.
Thank you @DeniGu for this oportunity to know more about Terrance.First:Don’t worry if people like to ask some questions about your daily 10 kilometers running because I am also feeling the others curiosyty about my rutine exercises and I also can take photographs during that time.
Anyway my first question is also common .Please tell us about anything funny about you.
Now I want you to read that in my opinion Google Maps were born and will be to show reality as it is in the real world,to be useful for Google Maps users and this planet users.That reality is written by you all the Local Guides and me and you,people like you Terrance.So my second question:Would be useful for the users to know about wild life,the main animal o vegetal species that LIVE in urban,rural,mountain,sea,wild areas anywhere?
I think your answere will be “yes”.Sometimes I am writting about one place and I mention “many palms around” or “the seabirds living in that small island”.So tell us about that please.
I wanted to ask to Terrance and his team if it was possible to have a dashboard like the one below so as to have our entire account of our contributions on Google Maps in one place: number of contributions and relative score alongside
to become a Google guide alumni with the ability to advise other guides but also be invited to speak at or go to local city training. I very much enjoyed attending an evening’s training centred around accessibility issues which we did in Soho after a talk at Google’s London HQ. I think we need to host these at least annually.
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