as a user of Google maps and all of their platform it helps me and other so discover something new to someone else I don't know about you but I really enjoy showing some of the best places to visit when they are in my area and plus I speak fluently 5 languages and currently working on my French and Italian so it widens the number of people I can help out and usually as a local you know more of the place than then new people coming to your town and google helps out a lot with their tools and not only as a local guide but also as a beneficially as a photographer I really enjoy getting out of my town and travel don't matter if its just in another town besides mine or across the globe google really helps out to see other places and meet new people.
for you what is the best feature that helps you out mine is whenever you hit your favorite restaurant it asks you to review it right away without even looking for it. it's awesome.