2022
Being a Local Guide is fun. It’s an excuse, an incentive, to collect memories, to visit interesting places, and to explore the world. You get to make new friends along the way, and that’s just an added bonus. The real satisfaction for me always has been what I call “Keeping Maps Clean,” correcting even the slightest mistakes—removing an extra comma, making sure the post codes are right, ensuring correct capitalization in place names, you name it—to make sure that the information on Google Maps is extremely accurate.
I have enjoyed all these aspects of being a Local Guide for more than 3 years, and I have given extra care to keep Maps as clean as I possibly can, regardless of the type of place I’m contributing to. But during the past few months, I have changed my focus entirely and started spending time with Google Maps a little differently.
I am now focused disproportionately on banks.
That doesn’t sound very fun, I know. But the fun, like I said before, has always been a pleasant bonus for me. My pedantic urge to keep Maps accurate trumps that any day.
Why banks, you ask. To answer that, let me tell you a little bit about my home country, Sri Lanka.
As a country with a GDP per capita income of $4,100, we are what is known as a middle income economy. That doesn’t sound too bad, but a look at the mean household income, especially of the poorest 40% of the population, makes one realize that a lot of people have to go through a constant struggle to make ends meet.
Because of this, access to finance is extremely important in Sri Lanka. A lot of people deal with banks and financial institutions to secure housing loans, vehicle loans, startup financing, etc. Microfinancing schemes are also popular, especially among agricultural communities.
I realized this specifically when I quit my job and started my own business. I briefly considered approaching a bank to ask for startup funding, which did not end up happening (I bootstrapped my business entirely instead), but I realized that a lot of people, especially in rural areas, rely on banks regularly for their small business needs, for instance.
So, in the light of this new realization, I decided I could do something meaningful with Google Maps. I decided that I will make sure every branch of every bank in Sri Lanka will have the most accurate information on their Maps listings. I have said elsewhere that I consider the Local Guides program to be an easy, effortless way to give back, so I wanted to do something in this spirit.
Here's what I did (and still do):
It’s not practical for me to visit every single bank branch to verify this information myself. But luckily I don’t have to. I simply have visit the bank’s website—and almost all of them have a website—navigate to the contact page, and I can update the information given there on Google Maps. It's the least I could do.
This is what a standard contact page looks like:
Once I'm here, I do the following:
- If a particular branch does not have a Google Maps listing for some reason, I use Street View to look up the exact location of it, and add it to Maps as a missing place.
- For branches that are already listed on Maps, I make sure the location corresponds to the one mentioned in the website, the category, address, phone number, website and opening hours--this is very important because some branches are open 24x7, some have Saturday banking and some offer 365-day banking--are correct.
- If I had visited a branch in the past, I make sure I add a review including the special financing schemes and services they have available that may be of use to anyone looking.
- If any info is unavailable on the website for a certain branch, I call the head office and ask for it.
I have been doing this every day for about 2 months now (missing a day or two here and there.) There's a lot more to go through, and it's a very slow journey, but I'm determined, and I'm convinced I'm doing something useful.
This may not look like an exciting project, but I love the small details, and I don't mind doing seemingly boring grunt work, so it's right up my alley. When I'm done with this, I'm sure I would find something else on Google Maps to "clean up."
I invite you to find a small but meaningful area like this, in a field that you may be interested in, and to pair it with your Local Guides experience. If I have the good fortune to get attend the Connect Live event his November, I'd love to meet you and have a chat about your boring little project.
Hey @MoniDi,
I spend so much time on stock photo sites for my work, the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of a cover photo was those! Even the photo library completely slipped my mind.
I have now changed the photo to one I took during a photo walk. Thanks!
