Canarias Local Guides

[JeroenM]

Dear @LuisRG,

I hope all is well.

I address this post to the Local Guides Team to you as you were our coach and official contact when we were still supported as an unofficial community by the Local Guide Team.

We have noticed the recent additions to the program rules with regards to branding and would like some clarifications about the website domain guidelines.

It is totally understandable that it is not desirable to have domains such as “localguides.co.uk”, “localguides.es”, etc. It is not clear to us, however, if this new rule includes restrictions on domain names like our canariaslocalguides.es?

In addition, could the Team please clarify if the new rule is also applicable to the word "Local Guides" in other languages?

Our domain was registered in October last year, but I know that there are several other unofficial regional communities that had their own website for much longer. Our website clearly state (above the fold) "We are you are not an official Local Guides channel or affiliated with Google."

If indeed, we are all to change our domain names, could the Team please be so kind to allow us a transition period? Preferably, when our annual hosting fees are up for renewal?

We spend a substantial amount of money on hosting and hacking prevention (firewalls and SSL certificate), not to mention registering our website with the Spanish government to abide by the EU privacy laws. It would be a big blow to our non-existing budget if we are forced to change our domain directly. A transition period would be highly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you and thank you in anticipation.

With kind regards,

Jeroen Mourik
Administrator Canarias Local Guides

[JeroenM]

Hi @BruceDM, 

I wrote to @LuisRG on Monday and have not received any response until now. I know Team members are inundated with tag messages, are allowed some time off, etc....so I appreciate that messages could easily be missed. I also appreciate that some answers might need to be cleared by higher management. I am happy to wait for an answer.

Meanwhile, could you or another member of the team please confirm you received my question about www.canariaslocalguides.es?

Cheers!

With warm regards,

JeroenM

[JeroenM]

Hi @MariaBi

As did not yet get a response to my question to clarify the new branding rule, I am reaching out to you.

As the spirit of the new rule states "anything similar that may make your product appear to be an official Google product", am I right to conclude that having a domain for our regional unofficial Local Guides Community is NOT an issue?

Please confirm either way (yes or no). Thank you!

JeroenM

[BruceDM]

Hello @JeroenM,

I was taking a look into your issue.  Above all else, you must make it clear that your website is not a Google endorsed project nor should there be any representation of yourself or any of the activity on your website as sponsored or supported by Google.  With any projects that you undertake, it is ok to ask Local Guides for their participation but marketing or representing personal brands, interests, projects or organizations here on Connect is against the Local Guides Terms and Conditions.

[JeroenM]

@BruceDM

Thank you for getting back to me.

---

@BruceDM wrote:

Above all else, you must make it clear that your website is not a Google endorsed project nor should there be any representation of yourself or any of the activity on your website as sponsored or supported by Google.  With any projects that you undertake, it is ok to ask Local Guides for their participation but marketing or representing personal brands, interests, projects or organizations here on Connect is against the Local Guides Terms and Conditions.

---

The part of the rules that you quote is all clear to me. It was not clear if www.canariaslocalguides.es which is the URL of a previously supported unofficial Local Guides community is against the rules. Based on your response and my previous assumption that this URL is not in conflict with the misrepresentation rule, I take it that it is okay to leave it as it is. If the Local Guides Team decides otherwise, please let us know, we are happy to oblige.

On a more personal note and for the record, the other unofficial community that I am involved in that did have a domain name that had the format www.localguides.xxx has been rebranded last month. When I registered that domain in March last year,  it was always the intention that it would run under the supervision of the Local Guides Team. Since the team decided not to adopt the project and parent our community initiative, it was already expected that we would have to rebrand.

On behalf our regional members in the Canary Islands, thank you!

JeroenM

[BruceDM · Accepted solution]

@JeroenM, 

I didn't respond to your last post nor was I able to explicitly answer your original question as it required some additional checks.

The domain name as you currently have it is not appropriate as it violates bullet two of our externally available brand guidelines "Do not name your product(s), domain name(s), website(s), company, or other assets “Local Guides,” “Google,” or anything similar that may make your product appear to be an official Google product."

As the domain name is presented, it is not something we allow as it is an inappropriate usage of Google's brand as set forth under our recently launched Local Guides Brand Guidelines.  So to reiterate, www.canariaslocalguides.es is not an appropriate domain name and we would require an adjustment.

[JeroenM]

Thank you @BruceDM for your clarification, I shall take care of it tomorrow.

[BruceDM]

@JeroenM - Thank you for your cooperation.