@Country Sufferers I do get your point. You, myself and all contributors have the choice to participate or not. Know the game and play or not. Right now it is working for Google so they probably will not change soon. The company certainly knows how to run a point system program and motivate with recognition. So when no one participates it may change.
No doubt the value of what we post is huge.
To stir the discussion more, the number of posts about being paid is valid, but the real issue is not necessarily Google. They have do have DEEP pockets. But the locations we are posting to are being improved. So the real one that gains is the owner of the location. They should pay! In the documentation of user interaction with Google My Business pages better, fuller listings convert for the company at a higher rate. Since many companies just have a street view picture of the location they have a lower chance of converting a view to them going to the location to buy. Look at the view numbers on some pictures posted it is huge. So then a different solution might be to bill a location based on views of information we post for them?
How would you control bias from being paid? Google would have one motivation and the business owner would never allow anything other than a 5-star review and then there would be no credibility to reviews.
Please realize I am being the devil's advocate. It is Googles bat and their ball. We choose every day.
I don't agree with you, since this is a win-win partnership between Google, Local Guides and Location Owners. You forget, in Your argumentation, that Google provides You the acess to edit, and use for free, a Google Platform - Google Maps - in so many usefull ways!
Google Maps requires a continuously labor and improvement, from Google (paid) workers to enable free funcionalities and apps, usefull to:
- Local Guides
- Users
- Developers around the world
Besides, there is to point that:
- much of contributors create locations to serve their own business interests,
- much of contributors promote and give visibility to their favorite places
- much google map functionalities are free: for exemple you can embeed google maps in your blog /website for free and even use the google maps apps to do a lot of useful things for free.
So, if you think Google should pay all the contributions, you should also ask yourself, why Google don't ask money, for a lot of usefull funcionalities of google maps, that enabled, a lot of interesting projects like this:
- fogos.pt ( saved a lot of lives in Portugal, for free, because it uses a, also free, app from google maps, to maintain people actualized about the fire activity, in Portugal, in the fire related catastrophe in Portugal, this year. )
But this is only one relevant example of what we wouldn't have acess if Google had your mindset and asked money for the use of all funcionalities from their platform.
With free Google Maps the world is a better place!
With free Local Guides the world is a better place!
Welcome to Local Guides and our Connect community forum @Ntechsys. We are happy to have you here.
I am merging your requests with this post which talks already about a similar topic. Please check the solution here. As a reminder, Local Guides is a volunteer program. Primarily the forum is a place to discuss and exchange with other Google Maps users who have joined the program of Local Guides - meaning people from around the world who want to help others find out about new places.
Tips for getting started:
Search the community before posting as others may have asked your question (and received an answer) already.
Use a descriptive title for your post to make it easier for people to know whether they should open it.
Share a story with your photo(s) - tell your fellow Local Guides something about the location's history, why you like it, a few details on what is in the pictures, etc.
Use the Location field to geotag your post to a specific place, but make sure its important to the content of the post.
Don't share personal information on the forums, check out the private messaging option instead.
This area has helpful information about the Local Guides program in case you have more questions.
Thanks and have fun with Local Guides!
* Due to the volume of private messages please note that I do not reply to them
No, you don't. It's a voluntary program run by Google. There is no monetary benefits out of this. However, you get some recognition and perks that might encourage you in contributing more.
I am a local guide of level 7. I was eligible to apply for LG Summit 17. I got selected along with 152 other attendees from 62 countries and I have just come back from a wonderful trip to San Francisco. My air ticket and hotel cost during the summit (including my food) was borne by Google. When I reached level 4, I got a 100GM extra free storage in Google Drive. However, that perk is not available now, but my extra storage is still there. So, these are some examples of perks that you get as you reach a higher levels. You can get the points information here for different levels and a lot of other information about local guides.
2022
