2022
When I first started uploading photos to Google Maps, I did it for the free Google Drive space. Over time, as I realized almost every other travel and business platform was biased, I began to appreciate the simplicity of Google's model.
Having traveled to 50 countries, most of them in the last three years, I sincerely believe mobile technology, coupled with honest reviews and publications, can help individuals promote social and economic development. We tend to forget now, but when the internet first went mainstream, the goal was to make information free. The idealism behind the tech movement, especially in Silicon Valley, was a firm belief that the act of sharing one's knowledge accelerates collaboration and leads to innovation otherwise impossible.
Today, we have innovation but not integrity, and part of the problem is a lack of objectivity because of paid endorsements or attempts to gain viewers at any cost. As far as I know, local guides posting on Google do it "for the love of the game," or in my case, "the love of travel." As long as we maintain integrity, we can use technology to fulfill Larry Page's and Sergey Brin's original vision: to make (objective) information free, and to bring people together in meaningful ways.
