Hello, my fellow local guides!
Firstly, thank you, everyone, for your valuable contribution. I bet it took all our combined efforts to make the journey of Google Maps so smooth and flawless. It’s been a pleasure contributing to the Maps through all these years and now I’m glad that I’ll able to share about my tiny part this journey.
4 years ago, a friend introduced me to the Local Guides program and how we can contribute to the platform. I never had an idea that this could be real. I was excited at first and gradually started contributing. It was fun initially until I realized that people actually utilized Google Maps to find new places, refer to reviews and pictures before visiting any places and much more. You know, many of us feel happy from deep inside when we help others. This was the moment when I started feeling the same after contributing to the Maps. The more I did, the happier I felt. As a responsible denizen, I started feeling that it was my duty to help others by doing such contributions. I really felt that Google Maps was my own platform to help and guide others. For these active contributions, the Google Maps team even sent me gifts at different times as a kind gesture, but unfortunately, international packages barely reach me as they get lost during the transit. Even that didn’t demotivate me and stopped me from contributing as it was all about the happiness that I received. Local Guides program became an emotion to me, a responsibility and a duty to help millions of people from the tip of my fingers.
I love to travel, explore places and eat. So I make sure to click pictures and drop honest reviews to help both, the store owner and the future visitors. But there was one thing that I often noticed, which was very saddening. I saw many contributors are posting monosyllable reviews of ‘n’ number of places, even those which they haven’t visited at all, just to earn more points and level up really fast. This is where my visionary was affected as people were getting misguided due to someone’s desire to leveling up very fast. I urge you to stop anyone you know who makes such kind of contributions. These reviews are needed to be removed.
I think to make such corrections, it is not in our scope, so all we can do is not let someone commit a mistake here. I have several ideas on how such kind of activities can be controlled and I’d definitely like to share it with the Google Maps team so that they can make it a better place to guide and advise people.
So this was my story of Local Guides Program and what it means to me. I’d love to know yours.
Good day everyone 