Who are we LG's

Google Maps contribution stories
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It’s being playing on my mind awhile, why am I here,
so let’s start with me, I think 2005 I was in the US &
got a Garmin to navigate me there, in fairness it was
pretty good there for the time, when home to Éire not
so good, & then maps from google came along on
smartphones, a blackberry I think think maybe or the 3g
or 3gs, I noticed & it me asked was this correct,
not mainly so corrected as best I could,
I then seen I could add photos, I’m in heaven now so away
I went, in the grand scale of things I’m doing ok & a very
happy L8 LG, in the last few weeks/months I conversed
with many of ye & all our stories differ, I now know level 10
LG’s don’t like points anymore because
there’s no level 11, some level 9’s are happy there
& more want to be 10’s, level 8 is a tough
place to be & so is 7,

to mention a few

@TerryPG
@Annaelisa
@StevenBerlin
@tony_b
@JustJake
@WilfriedB
@IzzyOz
@shunsader
@Mohdmohdaljaman
@AdamGT
@ShreyaMusings
@iyudhi
@Trail_blazer
@Rednewt74
@Mikeinthefalls
@PrasadVR
@LaloPadilla
@Herve_Andrieu

Why not
Tell your own story

Obviously names above are in no particular order,
Apart from the first, he got a bump up the road
because he had wind on his back, Canada would
know all about the wind,

Apologies for the long windness, the guys and girls with
70’000 photos for example, share to maps & delete
from phone or what storage ye use ?
I have so many questions, my sponge for knowledge
continues

I have but one request to all LG’s
look after the little things in life

Love to all

Peadar

If Éire was a small thing it would look like this

small things matter
small things matter1920×1280 69.7 KB

Green White & Gold

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@Peadar
Hello, interesting post. So for me, being level and all, I seriously have not cared about the points going back to level 7. I have only really enjoyed the views, and climbing up the view count leaderboard. I recal seeing someone with 1 billion photo views, and i was amazed. At the time I probably had 200k or so.

My goal was to visit shopping malls, and towns in scenic areas like Mammoth, Zion, Yosemite. I have been retired a while, and after breaking up with my GF, i was depressed. So i thought about maps, photography, socializing, and excersize. In fact i was seeing a psychiatrist and we both thought this perfect. So i got a couple of friends into traveling with me. I paid all expenses and so began the journey!

The goal was to visit a new mall, nature spot, town, or village each 3 weeks. I have not stopped for the past 5 years and now i surpassed 2 billion views.

Last year was a bump in the road. My mom passed away, i lost my dog, got a brain tumor, lost my best friend. 2024 was horrible. I am better now, but hey, thats my story! Probably too much info, but it makes me happy to share!

I just did a large photo shoot yesterday of an outdoor mall!

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Well done @Peadar. Your journey is not too dissimilar to that of most of us and for me it was pretty much a lone journey until I joined Connect in October 2017. I wanted to improve the quality of the Local Guides “dashboard” on and Maps and slowly my focus encompassed improving the quality of contributions on Connect (e.g. Is a picture always worth a 1000 words?. Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I took an interest in my most viewed photo. It wasn’t anything startling and certainly not quality photography! I wondered whether other Local Guides had the same and this got me thinking :thinking: In July 2020, after nearly 600 comments on that first post, the Leaderboards were born and so was the world of “stars” and associated lingo (e.g. star photo, star video and star 360 spheres, star views and of course rockstar Local Guides - Who are the Top Local Guides?). Five years later, Local Guides from 119 countries are participating, learning and growing together, motivating each other to improve the quality of our contributions and through this, achieving better outcomes and greater impact on our communities, all in a fun and friendly competitive way.

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I’ve often commented on the same thing @Peadar

It seems to me that many LGs attain that status without intending to nor being aware when it happens.

I got my first “not so smart” phone in 2011 (a BlackBerry) and used it mostly as a phone for work. I wasn’t fascinated with the camera (not even sure if it had one). I think my second BlackBerry was better than the first. As life progressed, the point came when almost everyone at work had moved to Android, so i was given a new phone to be on the same package as everyone else. That’s when Google started tracking my movements and suggesting i should edit facts relating to nearby places as I drove around. I got obsessed with that, but the feature eventually changed or went away.

I don’t live the restaurant life, so reviews was never my thing, but Google still occasionally asked me to rate places or write something about my experience. Not sure what prompted me to take my earliest photos, but my Star Photo is quite old (2019) and not at all excititng. The details are hazy now, but at some point Google started telling me I was a Local Guide, and suggesting what I needed to do to get to the next level. I had no real interest at first, because my lifestyle doesnt present a lot of ideal opportunities.

Living in a small country, i never had need for paper maps nor mobile maps apps, but somehow i discovered Waze when i had my BlackBerry. I’d become a full time professional Wazer long before I saw Google Maps on the Android. Now I use both but Waze is more accurate. When I went to the Google Maps help forum to get assistance with an issue, someone (wrongly) suggested I go to Local Guides Connect for help.

After I joined Connect, @AdamGT created the Leaderboards and it became obvious there were more ways to grow as a Local Guide. I had a perpetual zero for Roads on the Leaderboards and I became determined to change that. Now Roads are bringing me the greatest number of points and are propelling me rapidly through the remaining LG levels.

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Great story and great prompt, @Peadar. I enjoyed maps in their paper and tactile form since I was a kid, driving across the USA with my parents. I was an early road editor on Waze when that first came along. But, much like @tony_b, the suggestions from Google to add my travel photos to Maps really kicked things off. For a while, it was treated as a travel diary of sorts.

Now, my overall purpose has changed. I really enjoy the anonymous nature of being a steward of useful and correct information to help businesses and folks who use Maps. Like many on your list, I use the system that @AdamGT created for us to look at my impact across photo submissions and to track the volume of edits and roads I do each month. Back in 2022, I wrote about how the Leaderboard Top 100 System even reignited my spark for being active on the Maps and Connect (HERE).

By the way, you posted a wonderful photo. I had to look that up to see if it was a colorful moth or a fuzzy butterfly. Now, I’d like to meet a fuzzy butterfly!

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Hello @Peadar thank you for tagging me in this great post and amazing stories so far!

Before telling my own story, your last phrase and wonderful photo “If Éire was a small thing it would look like this … Green White & Gold” reminded me, I always wanted to visit Ireland, but never made it. I hitchhiked to Scotland in 1969, toured England five times for leisure and twice for work, but never went farther West on the British Isles. Now tired of long distance traveling, unless neded :sleepy_face:

Funny, I could copy one or two statements from each of the other comments, confirming “this applies to me too”, but overall my story is quite different.

I got my first camera, a Kodak Retina S1 in 1966 and was more less constantly making photos since. As we speak, I have almost 150,000 of my own photos on our PCs. The majority made with an DSLR (Sony ILCA-77M2 or older), but for making pictures of food, the smartphone is more convenient.

You asked “delete from phone or what storage ye use?” Yes, immediately :grin: … after copying to the PC, but they are never deleted from PC storage! Meanwhile, I upload always from the desktop, unless (very rarely) doing an Upload by Customer.

In fact, I rarely take photos just for the purpose to post them on Maps. Instead, I make pictures as I always did and then select what could fit to help users of Google Maps.

However, during the recent 3 or 4 years, when visiting restaurants, I might make more than before and try, not forget making pictures of the menu in order to create a descriptive (and exact) caption with the name of the dish.

In August 2018, I posted my first photo to Maps. believing as Local Guide we are supposed to show (only) places close to where we live. After a while, I notice a photo showing increasing number of views.

In summer 2023 I posted a picture from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a famous tourist destination in Germany. First being surprised, the views were increasing by thousands daily, but then discovering in fall, the daily increase was a dozen or less. This triggered me, to track more detailed the number of views for the three most viewed pictures.

Not sure, since when I more actively used Connect, but for sure, it became very intense after the change on Feb 7, 2024. In fact, I probably was one of the first realizing that, because I did track my “best performers”, as explained above.

Having worked as IT specialist for 35 years, I was searching for and indeed found ways, to track each single photo, I ever posted to Google Maps. While I am still focused on my photos (never created any videos), I write review once in a while (not feeling really comfortable), respond to questions frequently and also edit roads occasionally.

P.S. Just this morning, Jun 11, 2024, I reached level 10. Ironically, made the last two thousand points not with photos, but by adding footpaths to parks nearby.

@StevenBerlin @AdamGT @tony_b @JustJake

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Busy day, I’ve only just read your replies & to be honest I have tears in my eyes,
not just one or 2 sentence replies but paragraphs & I thank ye all for that,
I’m probably what’s termed a lazy LG now, I was gung ho for ages on maps & then
my wife’s elderly parents started having health issues so focus shifted to them,
they both had long good lives & thought us well @ 94 & 97 years old, my own
parents are now starting to fill this space, without them 4 there would be no me or
wife, we will do for mine what we done for hers as they are first & foremost,
to coin a phrase “I will be back god willing” to my place on maps,
I did notice ye all love photography as I do too,
So I will leave ye with this the first time on her legs pic

up on my legs
up on my legs1920×1299 478 KB

Thanks Peadar to all

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Thank you also for tagging me @Peadar

A little of my history first. My grandfather on my fathers side was from County Cork Ireland. My grandparents on my mothers side are from Wales and I was born in England.(Don’t hold that against me). My family immigrated to Canada when I was a teenager.

I lived in a small town and visiting Toronto one day on a sales convention ,guessing around 2005 I discovered Google. Brought news of it back to our office and everything loved it. First search engine with no ads.

As years progressed I think I did my first review and added my first photo sometime in 2016.( The pub eventually closed) I dabbled a bit and like @JustJake ,Google would send me suggestions on what to review. Eventually I began receiving Stars, became a level 5 or 6 and started reviewing and adding photos thru 2018. In March of 2019 I received an email inviting me to join Connect, I did and have been hooked ever since. In my early days there where many constructive discussions on how to take good photos and how to Clean up Maps. Even way back then @AdamGT was hinting at leaderboards before he started the Snakes and Ladders chase.

Since then I have delved into more, of how we can help people across the world.
Editing the maps, I have added many roads across the world, cleaned up the maps. Started getting into edits last year as well as Videos, my new passion.
Love getting out, walking, taking photos and videos of everything.

I am still Gob Smacked at the number of views my contributions achieve.

Again thanks for tagging me Peadar.

Wherever you go may and whatever you do may the luck of Irish be with you.

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Lieber @Peadar entschuldige meine späte Antwort, mir geht es gesundheitlich nicht gut.
Irland als mehrfarbige kleine Blume zu zeigen ist sehr schön.
Das ist ein erster Gruß am Morgen, später mehr.
Liebe Grüße

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Firstly thanks for your reply,

Ouch 2024 was not so good for you & I’m sorry for your losses, but equally happy to hear your doing good & working through it, I’m sure you treasure the memories of all
three of them, that wasn’t easy for sure along with your own issue,
you are a tough cookie to go through that much,

words are beyond me, WOW & WOW again, 2 Billion views,

I shouldn’t do or say this but here is your challenge @StevenBerlin
I want to see you at no8 on the average/views photos for June 2025
Ye level 10’s guys with one stroke could blow me away, over to you SB,
& happy culling, watch your back @TerryPG :wind_face:

going by your profile name I thought you were in Berlin, goes to show
you how much I know,

You mightn’t think this but you have left a legacy, this small fry me thinks
my photos will be around after me & yours definitely will be

Thanks for sharing your story
I am truly humbled

Peadar
Éire :ireland:

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@Annaelisa
Forget me & concentrate on you getting better
I wish you a speedy recovery
& we will chat soon
thanks A
P

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@Peadar

Hehe. Thx, i really dont monitor the average views, but i know @AdamGT spends so much time on the leaderboards and does outstanding work for us all, so perhaps i shall get more involved in checking all those boards.

Since last February, its been hard getting excited over views. I use to climb the ladder since I am very active. But now, it is not the same :frowning:

I can do 3 malls in a month or 1 mall and it really won’t make a significant difference!

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Great post @Peadar and you got me thinking about how I started on my LG journey.

In the past I was very active on Trip Advisor sharing my photos and reviews. I did this for quite a few years before life got in the way and I stopped actively contributing.

Just on seven years ago I lost my husband and I found myself in the uncharted territory of having to navigate using my own skills. Anyone that knows me will happily tell you that I am seriously navigationally challenged! I consider I have been successful in my map reading if I manage to arrive somewhat on time and with only having got “lost” a couple of times on the way. This lack of skill led me to Google Maps where I really appreciated the street view that gave me an inkling of what I needed to look out for. I do use the guided directions on my smartphone but I get immensely frustrated when told to head north west etc as I have zero ability to determine what direction that is!

Jump ahead by 5 years and I was still using Maps and appreciating all the extra features that I had discovered along the way. Strangely it had never occurred to me to actually add any of my own photos or reviews to Maps! I then met my new partner who is a local guide and suggested that I might like to become one too. This was a lightbulb moment and I really liked the idea of being able to help other poor souls, such as myself, navigate successfully or at least with fewer wrong turns. I also really like being able to help small businesses gain recognition for the work that they do. I am totally honest in my reviews but I tend to only add somewhat positive reviews and I prefer not to add negative ones at all.

I loved reading the Leaderboards on Connect and I was so impressed with them that I joined the T100 too. I became very engaged in all things Maps thanks to @AdamGT and his wonderful dedication to motivate us all. I had a hiccup along the way and lost interest just after Feb 2024 when all the changes occurred in Maps. I am trying to get my mojo back now and become active again as I really enjoy being part of this great community.

Thanks for tagging me in this post and I have to say I have really enjoyed reading all the different stories so far

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