2022
Being involved in the Google Guides program provides each of us the benefit of being able to share our personal experiences from the travels we do. From our daily commute to work to a new place, we have never been to before. We experience these different than the next person. Thinking back to the travels that our ancestors made, who had no idea what to expect ahead, except for the stories from others they met along the way. And some of that information no doubt was scattered, filled with errors, or leading them into harm, how would they have known? With Google Guides, that information is validated and cross-checked, as well as enhanced with more compelling content.
Recently, I stood looking at the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It made me think of those early settlers who, after many exhaustive days of travel on horseback, in wagons, or by foot, what they must have felt when those mountains came into view. No question they saw the snow, and the weather. What guide did they use to continue their trek? Sometimes it was another human, and no doubt, often their internal compass. Who was their Google Guide?
Wanderlust is a part of a man’s spirit. Keeping on the move to evade danger or just following a food source, travel documentation has been a part of the survival of humanity. And travel itself has engaged and excited people, be it the appeal of the open road, a sense of adventure, or just the fact that we need to find new routes as part of our daily work life. Today with research available at the swipe of a finger on a battery-powered hand-held device, we still want to know what to expect and where to go. Are we any better off today than those early travelers were?
William West Hopper
