What if Google Guides had incentives like a living wage, people would put more stock into and weigh our opinion the greatest. Because being paid to do something, someone is bound to do that something to the best of their ability. If any jo-shmo can write up a few line opinion and put stars up, then it’s kind of a free-for-all. If businesses knew we were there for business, they would know we mean business. If Guides were given a living wage to be living on, how well do you think we would do our work for Google vs a free - I’ll do it whenever I’m there…? I have to say I would go out of my way to explore a lot more and to notice my surroundings and be able to convey what I have experienced so the next person who wants to know, reads my review can know what to expect because he/she read a review from a paid Guide who has experience and knows what we’re talking about. Basically what it comes down to - paid = higher quantity and higher quiality reviews. And Google can help the community by lifting us and the surrounding communities up with a higher wage.
Hi @LDiamond I can totally understand where you are coming from but your missing the point. Local Guides do what they do to give back in some way. We already love what we are doing. It’s like we are paying it forward. We already do high quality work and we love it. Now you can apply to work for Google. They have a lot of openings but here we are local guides who take pride in helping others and Google is paying us by giving us a global community of friends and resources. Im going to suggest you read about some great local guides like @ErmesT @Cecilita just to mention a few who love to give and give to love
Hi @LDiamond
Even as writing reviews is done with no payment there are huge problems with spam reviews.
Could you imagine how the problem would escalate if people could earn cach for writing reviews? I fear the spam problem would explode.
Cheers
Morten
Thanks for tagging me, @Hkitty0573
We had several conversation in Connect about this subject, @LDiamond , and there are several reasons for saying no:
- First of all, because this is against the Local Guides Program Terms and Conditions and the related policies and rules. As you can read in Add, edit, or delete Google Maps reviews & ratings “Your reviews and opinions are voluntary. We don’t pay reviewers to add reviews to Google Maps”. Local Guides is a program in which the first beneficiaries are the users themselves, as they can receive constantly updated information thanks to the activity of volunteers like them. Information we receive for free, as we do not pay for the service we receive (a constantly updated Maps, and a free navigation system). Before Google Maps I was paying 100 € per year to update my sat nav, and to receive two (two) updates per year.
- What we write in our reviews are our opinions, which we freely write based on our personal experience with a business. Would you feel just as free if your reviews were “in the market”?
- This brings us to what @MortenCopenhagen said about spam. There are already too many Local Guides offering to write “paid” reviews, and too many businesses offering rewards for receiving positive reviews. In legal terms, this is the alteration of a company’s rating, and in many states it can be considered a crime.
However the rules can always be changed, but this would lead to a number of considerations, also of a legal nature, which I have tried previously to explain here in detail. You write very nice reviews, but we all know that many try to hack the game even just to receive a perk, writing reviews only to be able to say that they have written many, favoring quantity over the quality and honesty of the contributions. Being an active member of this community I meet several times a day Local Guides who ask for a perk because they declare that a bar “is a bar” and a hospital “is a hospital”. Just imagine what could happen if those reviews were “paid for”. How many lawsuits should Google initiate, for breach of the terms of the contract?
We don’t “work for Google”. We voluntarily contribute to a program whose primary beneficiaries are us. If Google had wanted professionals to do this, they would not have started the Local Guides program. Instead, they would recruit staff through their site (https://careers.google.com/ ), as they do for anyone who wants to work with them, and make the Google Maps program a paid program.
I apologize for my “long” answer, @LDiamond , but I believe it is important to understand the implications of what we are suggesting. Of course mine is just an opinion, based on five years of interactions within Connect.
Thanks for the insight, makes perfect sense.
I just do it for fun, I am 69 and have to walk daily when I can with my dogs because of knee issues. Taking photos for Google, Tripadvisor, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook is fun for me. I send only my best to Twitter and Instagram. I see no advantage of getting paid as google would be all professional photos with no real value to those of us who want real-life photos with the good and bad shots.
@ErmesT thanks for explaining the cons of getting paid to do reviews and now you have a link for those who want to apply for Google jobs. I couldn’t have said it as well and @MortenCopenhagen thanks for explaining the issue of spam. That didn’t even enter my mind. I’m a volunteer for Google and I’m honest with my reviews. I was at store 2 days ago an a curious employee ask me what I was doing. I told him im taking pictures to do a review for Google Maps. He asked if I get paid and I told him a volunteer for Google Maps and I don’t get paid but the contributions I make are payment enough.
Yes, thank you for your response! More information vs less is always welcome : ) I am new here so I apologize for not reading up fully and understanding the full content. I will keep my activity up for the community because I think it’s fun and when the tables are turned, I would like to know more information! So after reading your post and links, I understand a lot more with the paid legal issues Google could encounter with different situations. Thank you and I will keep reading and informing myself so I can contribute higher quality content and build on what has come before for Connect and the Community : )
@Hkitty0573 @ermest Oh yes, I understand the point but I didn’t understand or even grasp the whole picture about spam - that would be a huge problem and since Google is world-wide, hackers from around the world could find ways into the Google system, so - it makes sense to recruit from a pool of people who are passionate about their community and will do these actions from their hearts instead of material gains because unfortunately, that’s what we as a culture have been conditioned to do - get better cars, bigger houses, better yards, more more more. So the people who do it for the community are the real heroes of our generation, cheers
The chance to share and show I care. The experience and education I have loved the knowledge sharing really motivation now I am in tourism marketing , clean tech sustainable attainable outdoor exploration. Sharing activities and events while promoting local small bussiness and accessibility
@LDiamond I understand what you are saying and I respect your opinion. Unfortunately you can’t control what hackers do. Like @ErmesT said we are getting paid because we have a free GPS and we are making it better for us and the public. I remember when we had to buy GPS device. They were expensive around $300 dollars we had to pay. We had to pay to update them. Even then it was always defective. Now we have a perfect GPS courtesy of the local guides contributing with updates. You can always apply for a job at Google. I believe @ErmesT sent you a link to apply online.
@Hkitty0573 @ErmesT Oh jeeze, that is a lot. Thank you for all your info and insight! That helps me make an informed decision where I am at a crossroad right now. There are many many things that I have yet to discover and any info posted might help someone else somewhere in their lives as well. I have a few tasks at hand to get finished moving here to Utah - Thank you for the link - I will submit my info soon : )
@LDiamond that’s why we have local guides connect. You should always share your ideas. Like you said we all learn from each other. Have fun moving to Utah. I would love to hear your experiences in a new state.