I am Jayasimha(Jay) Nuggehalli, I live in Cupertino, California, almost in the backyard of Google Mountain View, CA Campuses. I am a Level 10 local guide. This post is part of my Connect Live 2020 Application!
My Local Guide journey started relatively recently, in fact my first contribution to Google Maps was on July 23rd 2017. I am a passionate photographer, which is my primary hobby. I was contributing my pictures on Google product Panoramio, which used to allow Geo-located tagging. Once this product was discontinued, I was looking for an alternate product to contribute my pictures to maps. This is how I stumbled upon Local Guide program and started making contribution to google maps.
Here are some of my most viewed Photos on Google Maps.
Gamification of Local Guide program and the statistics Google was collecting from my contribution really motivated me to spend more time contributing content on to Google maps. Even though most my initial contributions were photos of places I have traveled to, slowly I developed interest in food photography, this is definitely due to Local Guides program. Capturing food pictures became an obsession. In fact even when we go on family dinners, I have to capture everyone’s order before they start eating. At first my family found this annoying, but now my family is supportive of this obsession. I started getting better at food photography, this enabled to me to get photography gigs on famous app based food delivery service.
Here are few samples of food pictures I have captured
Next thing were reviews, even though writing is not my forte, which you can tell by this post, I slowly got accustomed to writing reviews on Google Maps. When I received replies from business owners on my reviews, I knew reviews were making a difference. Now I pretty much make it a point to write reviews whenever I visit a new place. I learned quite a bit of tips on writing reviews from Google Moderators and fellow local guides.
Last year I got selected to Connect live 2019, I was able to meet 199 other passionate local guides from all over the world. This was really an eye opener for me, understand how passionate fellow local guides are and various ways they contribute to local guides program. Also I was recognized as the person who earned most points in 2019 among connect live 2019 attendees.
Recently my photos contribution reached 100 Million views, which was a very proud moment for me.
Recently I am focusing on adding missing places on Google maps, specially in large School and college campuses. Editing places which have wrong and out of date information. Adding names of the dishes, for which I have posted pictures, answering Question and answers.
So contributing to Google maps in various ways has become part of daily routine.
In summary what does the Local Guide Program mean to me? Giving back to the community, by adding quality content to the maps, helping businesses by writing honest review, adding missing places and edit outdated information on maps, above all make new friends with like minded passionate local guides all over the world.
It’s good to find the support in the family,it took a while to be that way in my family,too. Good luck to you!