I fear it's going to be a long time before people stop complaining about free storage

[JosephDewey]

In March, we're coming up on the 1-year anniversary of when Google stopped the 1-year promotion of 100 GB. If I remember correctly, I was one of the last people who got the 1TB of free storage for 2 years, and my free storage ends on 6/8/2018.

So, this year, I think we're going to have lots of people saying, "What? My storage wasn't permanent? You mean I have to pay if I want to continue? That's it, I'm quitting Google Maps! And your little dog, too!"

I'm one of those weird people who like reading the fine print, so I've seen this coming for two years. I spent a long time internally debating if I'd actually renew the 1TB of storage. I'm now up to 123 GB, which I could trim down to 100GB if I wanted to, but I really like having a lot of online available storage, and so now I'm definitely going to renew the 1TB storage when it expires. $100 a year is a pretty awesome deal, now that I've thought about it for almost two years. Back two years ago, I thought it was a really steep price. But, I use Google Drive every day now. So, I think that what Google was hoping would happen to people with their promotion happened to me...it made me into an avid Maps contributor and got me hooked on Google Drive for life. But obviously, they were projecting this wouldn't happen with a high enough percentage of people, so they decimated the promotion initially and then completely got rid of the promotion.

I'm internally conflicted how I feel about what I think Google should do. Ultimately, it's up to Google how they decide to do promotions. Obviously, I benefited greatly from it, so I probably should feel that everyone else should benefit from it, too. I really rushed to get the 1TB of free storage, and having those last two weeks before I was level four of thinking all day, "how do I get more points this week? are there any more ways I can contribute to Google Maps today"...really changed the way that I looked at the world, and at Google Maps. Maybe I would be as excited about Google Maps without the promotion, but I'd probably need a time machine to tell. I've met a lot of people who seem just as excited as me about Local Guides, and they joined after the promotion ended. Sorry for this post being inconclusive, but I guess that's also kind of my point...that it's going to be a long time before the discussion is over. Even though it kind of already is.

[KarenVChin]

@JosephDewey, this is a popular topic here on Connect for sure. I don't know if you are familiar with how to properly use your Google Drive space.

@ErmesT wrote a great "How-to-use your space in Google Drive" post which describes:

With a correct setting, you will be able to store:

• Photos, in Google Photos, at High Quality (16MP), for free (unlimited storage)
• Videos, in Google Photos, at High Definitions (1080P), for free (unlimited storage)

Cheers,

Karen

[JosephDewey]

@KarenVChin kudos for being the first to notice that I have 70GB of storage that could be freed up immediately! However, I really like having the original-quality pictures, and for me, it's worth 100 bucks a year. So, it's a very conscious decision on my part. But good point, most people with my usage would be just fine on the 100GB plan, which is only ten bucks a year. And, I think is pretty easy to get promotions for it, too. I've previously gotten 100GB free with each of the Chromebooks I purchased.

[KarenVChin]

jpYeah, I know it's a toss-up / personal preference between paying and getting unlimited photos /videos storage (with criteria).  I just wanted to make you aware of what your options are @JosephDewey. 

As you stated, we get your question /statement a lot here on Connect.  But if there is a way you could take an audit to double check to see if you move that 70GB needle down, you might save some $$ = )

Cheers,

Karen

[JosephDewey]

@KarenVChin Thanks! I really, really want my original quality images. And I'm really very okay with the cost. So, I'm going to spend $100 a year for probably at least the next 2 years. But this advice could be very helpful for other people.

[Csaba]

I understand and appreciate your decision, @JosephDewey. At the moment I am fine with the "compressed" images (my original images are not bigger than the 16Mp "limit" anyway). If this 2 years of 1Tb storage was indeed a "promotion" to get more people to subscribe to the pay "version", let it be. At least you had the time to test it and make your profound decision.

[JosephDewey]

@Csaba Thanks! I think that Google still does some compression even if they're under 16MP. But for almost all regular uses of pictures, especially viewing on a phone, it's really impossible to tell.

Back to the subject of my post, which wasn't my personal drive storage or free picture storage....

Something that I'm really glad about is that Google stopped using the words "perks" and "benefits" so much in conjunction with the Local Guides program. I think that was probably a good way to get a lot of initial users. Probably offering sporadic and infrequent perks/benefits, especially ones with very limited timeframes, is a great way to bring in new users, or reinvigorate old users, but personally, I think it's very good for the overall program that they no longer have any permanent perks/benefits.

With the way that the Google Maps rules are written, there's not really a way to earn much money or get much of any tangible reward while contributing as a Local Guide to Google Maps. Even though I'd never do this, I suppose you could charge a business to take their picture and post it as a local guide...even though the better business model would be to charge them for the picture and help them upload it to their mybusiness account. But you can't write reviews in exchange for any kind of benefit from the business. So I think in reality, there's a pretty low ceiling to what the perks could theoretically actually be. 

But for me, almost of my contributions have been because of intrinsic motivations and rewards. Even when I was applying for the summit, my big motivation in applying wasn't to win a free trip...it was because I wanted to feel like I was one of the top 150 Google Maps contributors in the world. I think I would have worked just as hard if the Summit were virtual, and just a list of 150 names and pictures on a .JPG of the world that Google highlighted.

It's not that I don't like perks...I think they're cool, and I'm not going to say no to any of them. But for the good of Local Guides, and for the future of the program, I hope that Google invests more in helping people to feel excited while contributing, rather than with trying to reward or comp them. Lots of people will keep complaining about losing or not getting drive space. I don't think anybody has ever complained about reaching level 8, or the cool level 8 badge that comes with it.