2022
Hello Everyone 🙂
Yeah, as the title describes.
I myself, feels like a local in a foreign land. I've born & raised in Karachi, Pakistan. And moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (to my wife's home country) more than a decade ago. To settle down on a foreign land, I feels like a 'fish out of water' initially & this is where my hunt started to find the best way to navigate. To roam around this metropolis of Kuala Lumpur initially I mostly was depending on paper maps of different districts. It was not later than 2011 that I become familiar with this newly emerging technology of GPS & mobile apps. Honestly speaking, I was a die hard fan of Nokia's ovi maps. But lack in updates was the major issue & I have started finding myself stranded on dead end streets while driving. This was the reason which forced me to move forward.
In late 2012, I have started using google maps for (initially) my navigation needs & the amazing team behind Google Maps has never misguided me, I had no more fear of going out & lost directions on this foreign land 🙂
Level 9, Local Guide on Google Maps
Level 9, Crowdsource Contributions
Also in the proud list of Top Solution Authors 🙂
Attended several meetups & hosted meetups in 3 countries so far
I'm a google user since early 2000's but it was the year of 2016 when I started to know a bit about the Local Guides program by reading reviews of places from local people around in my town. Since I was a foreigner here I must accept the fact that Local Guides has never make me feel like a foreigner. They have shared their experiences anonymously for me, wherever I go or visit even for a single meal to a restaurant, I've got this powerful tool where I can read the most authentic reviews & can see the pictures of my favorite dish from an eye of a Local Guide.
Similarly I have started to giving back my personal experiences about places to google maps, I remember my first contribution was a simple picture & once I upload it, I got this warm thanks email & a invitation to be Local Guide. Even though I had started my contributions in January it was not until last year in June, I found about connect. I register my self to connect & found the whole new world has open arms to me.
I'm very proud to say that my friends are all over the world who shares the same passion & dedication as mine. I had never thought that one day, I can just take my phone & feel free to message anybody anywhere in the world.
A Big Thank You to Local Guides Connect platform.
I works as a Finance Executive, I have to deal with the numbers almost all the time during my working hours & here is my acknowledgment email from 2017 contributions with full of numbers, I was so glad to see my stats for the year 🙂
With all the ideas & experiences of people, I manage to read over time on connect, I always try to contribute in the best possible way & I feel so glad to see my photographs & contributions to be spreaded over 5 countries & almost all the places where I have visited.
I have inherited the bug of helping people & that's where I have started to contribute to crowdsource, Currently, I am at level 9 on Google crowdsource too 🙂
& also in the list of Top Solutions Authors on Connect.
Somewhere in early August last year, Google Maps has started giving the option for users to directly interact with the business via Q&A section on there profiles & since the GMB is not yet too popular among small medium enterprises especially in the countries where I have been UAE, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia & Singapore. I often receive the questions from people on my Gmaps app. I feel so satisfied after providing the information in the answer section about the places I have visited. So far I have answered 400+ answers to people on Google Maps
To be a Local Guide comes with a great responsibility too, that's the reason I strongly believe that the volunteer work has to be the best type of work.
I always think twice before giving out answers, to make sure the people get the best information possible.
I should not forget to thanks here another fellow member of Local Guides @AkmalB who has guided me a lot in my initial days & helped with his guidance not only to remain active on connect but also on other social channels. He was the first Local Guide I met in person. I was so glad to meet a person who shares the same passion with me 🙂
It was then, I found out about the streetview program & 360 photography, since I'm a quick learner 😛 I got my Street view trusted badge in September last year. I had contributed around 500 pano's of 360 so far.
My
SVTp
stats.
Isn't amazing 😉
Yes, it is & guess who was my mentor behind it, The Legend @LucioV and the persons who shares the same bug of helping others with me our very own well known brothers @StephenAbraham & @ErmesT
With all these great people guiding me on every step, I kept my passion alive wherever I go.
Please feel free to read my post about my friendships Global-Friendships-via-LG-s-Program 🙂
To make Google Maps more helpful & reach to new Local Guides, I have attended several meetups & would like to share some of my meetup experiences here.
Please feel free to reach out these pictures & some recap posts for a quick view 🙂
Few links which I managed to grab quickly 🙂
RECAP-Quill-City-Mall-Shelfie-Walk-Meetup
RECAP-Burj-Khalifa-Dubai-Exploration
RECAP-The-36-Walk-Kuala-Lumpur
My introduction video for connect live 2018 application, Have a look 🙂
I wish to meet the amazing team behind google maps & would love to share my experiences & ideas with them. I also wish to attend this year connect live 2018 because I believe we are all learners & wish to get the most advanced first hand information.
Best Regards
