The Google Local Guides Program - What does it mean to me?
I am a local guide for quite some time. I don’t even remember how it all started. I started giving feedback and reviews to various establishments on Google maps and before I knew I was a level 5 guide. It is then when I realised how important this whole concept of Local Guides is.
It provides a window to the experience of an ordinary man to any specific place. The best part is that its not an one way communication. You get response to your feedback from business owners as well as fellow Local Guides. Therefore, to me this Local Guides program is an extremely powerful tool, readily available on the tip of your fingers. Its a win-win situation for businesses and customers. Customers provide feedback and the business can improve on it. This gives the customers confidence in the business resulting in more customers satisfaction for the business.
Local Guides also help you to find out more information about lesser known places. These are usually off-beat places with hardly any information available otherwise. However with local guides you get to know them in detail. People post pictures of those locations and that gives you a way clear idea on how it looks like.
Fig 1. Somewhere in Canadian Arctic, just after noon.
Fig 2. Gibralter Airport from the top of the Rock of Gibralter
You also get to interact with other local guides and share your experiences with them, in the process enriching both. Even if you don’t interact, a review from a local guide carries a lot of weight.
One of my favourite features of local guides is the ability to add places to Google maps. New places that come up and maps are yet to be updated, a local guide can add the place on Google Maps. It gives you a sense of contributing to the most amazing mapping application.
Overall, the Local Guides Program helps us to contribute to the community to make it an improved place. As they say, a thousand eyes is better than one.