The Google Local Guides program hold a really important place in my digital life as it’s something that helps me decide things very quickly.
I come from a place (Bhuj, Gujarat) in India where reviews didn’t matter that much. People would choose something by word of mouth and that’s how places got their business. However, with the introduction of the Local Guides program, people are now more encouraged to leave reviews for the places and businesses they visit.
This means, and is clearly seen, there are now 1000+ reviews of a place that didn’t have a single review at all before. These help people decide if the place they’re looking to visit would be worth visiting for them.
Also, the occasional useful emails regarding Local Guides program from Google help us find out what’s going on in the program and how we can be better at what we’re doing. For example, Google sometime ago sent an email with upgraded Google Drive storage, which for most people would mean storing more of their files including local places videos, photos, and so on.