Share your best tips for other Local Guides in the New Year here

[TedD]

My first real Local Guides interaction was at a small restaurant in Hays, Kansas. We were planning a driving trip to the east coast and were looking for a place for lunch - we picked a spot on the map (Hays!) and looked for a restaurant there.  When we found a place named Al's Chickenette we knew we had to stop.  I took a picture of my lunch before we ate and posted it while we continued the trip. In just a short time, it had thousands of views. The only reason I know this, is because Google sent me an e-mail saying how well it was doing!  It's still one of the top pictures for Al's and has been viewed over 50,000 times.  After that, I was hooked on being a Local Guide - it's tons of fun!

Best tips:

• Always take a picture of the outside of a place you are visiting, people love to see what it looks like when they haven't been there before.
• Taking pictures of food can be passe, but get a quick snap of the meal before you eat - you may or may not end up posting it, but you've got it anyway
  • When you take a pic of your meal, add a contrasting object with the plate - a fork laying against the plate or a cup of tea.  This adds interest to the photo and makes the meal look more appealing.
• Try not to get other people's faces in your photos.
• Take a few photos if you can, in case some turn out blurry or colored bad.

[YK1001]

Hi @JonB, @HenreeG

In my region, sometime that term is to mean a representative photo.  Or photo seems like moving.  Or the objects in the photo looks like live.

[Anguel RoumenovB]

So, this comes more from my art background than a whole ton of experience with this Local Guide stuff. A lot of photos I've seen are framing important or interesting features, but lack clarity because they're often too dark, blown out, or their contrast is severe.

People will often say the first thing is composition, but I find that keeping it simple and just aiming at what you're shooting is better than getting obsessive and trying to be Ansel Adams. For me the biggest tip I'd give is to try to be aware of the exposure of your photo. It's an easier thing to worry about than composition(don't have to run around, crouch, stretch, etc) and can help any photo no matter what it's of or where it's taken. The auto setting on any camera is always very generalized and not tuned to the specific conditions of the place you're in. A big thing a lot of the instagram filters do is change the contrast balance and very often the exposure overall. Just about all phones now have a "pro" mode that will let you get a bit more involved in the settings. There's tons of info you can look up on the internet about it, but I think the best thing to do is just experiment with all the extremes of whatever features your camera exposes for you and see how different things can get. It will often have other features than exposure, but having a good exposure is one of those fundamental things that will do a lot to inform your understanding of how to get the right show. The right exposure can help your images seem more colorful, more accurate in their color, more accurate in the sense of light, as well as being much clearer in presenting information to the viewer. For this kind of stuff I think clarity is by far the most important thing and it's a mistake to assume that the auto settings understand more than you do about where you are or how things look.

Hope this all helped in some small way, cheers everyone!

[NasriB]

I recommend that when a guide add new places, spend some time to look for a website that talks of her place so that others could have a quick link to more information available online. It will help Google map to also validate your location to be a real place.

[SumiitB]

I strongly believe with good insightful reviews it helps a person to decide, which place is suitable to visit in which time of the year, what to carry, what not to carry, where to eat and most importantly how to make your trip/stay helpful with your loved ones. Pictures add more value to the review shared. Let's together make local guide best review site to reckon with.

[SnehaP]

Hi,

It sounds good to help out more on local guides. As a traveler I can understand the value of reviews, maps etc. I hope this year we can contribute much more. Have a wonderful year ahead.

 Many thanks for giving this opportunity.

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@BellaW wrote:

As Local Guides, you’re the explorers who share daily discoveries on Google Maps, from reviewing great lunch picks to photographing lesser known parks and other beautiful finds near you. While connected by a mission to make it easier (and tastier!) to navigate the world, each of you contributes in your own way. To celebrate all these efforts and kick off 2017, we’re compiling a list of your best tips from the past year.

On this post, share your insights into:

• Taking great photos
• Writing helpful, detailed reviews
• Adding hidden or great new places
• Answering questions
• Tracking down missing and incorrect information (editing a place)

Feel free to add anecdotes and inspiring stories about any of your favorite local finds and give kudos to anything added here that you find helpful

p.s. Check out our in-house photo expert @AnnaDickson’s tips on how to upload great photos to Google Maps.

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[AswinV]

Roaming around the world is a great thing. Sharing the experience and guiding others is even great. Happy new year to all local guides.More places to explore in 2017

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@BellaW wrote:

As Local Guides, you’re the explorers who share daily discoveries on Google Maps, from reviewing great lunch picks to photographing lesser known parks and other beautiful finds near you. While connected by a mission to make it easier (and tastier!) to navigate the world, each of you contributes in your own way. To celebrate all these efforts and kick off 2017, we’re compiling a list of your best tips from the past year.

On this post, share your insights into:

• Taking great photos
• Writing helpful, detailed reviews
• Adding hidden or great new places
• Answering questions
• Tracking down missing and incorrect information (editing a place)

Feel free to add anecdotes and inspiring stories about any of your favorite local finds and give kudos to anything added here that you find helpful

p.s. Check out our in-house photo expert @AnnaDickson’s tips on how to upload great photos to Google Maps.

[YK1001]

Hi @AndreaW,

I beg to differ.  Our review should base on  actual experience.  And even a review is about a bad experience, it will still be helpful.

[JohnMar]

Great points, Hulk. Mobile devices demand brevity. Newspaper stories used to be written with all you needed in the first paragraph. People are busy, was the reasoning. 

I attempt to do two paragraphs with the second (or final, if I go a little longer) being the "insider tip" that might make a visit special. 

[acidm]

Closed or Unavailable Accomodation.

Just a thought here as Im a very regular traveler, and I travel on either a bicycle or motorbike. During these travels my accommodation are mostly at little hotels/guesthouses/small resorts along the way which I picked up through Google map. But many times, when I reached these places, they are closed and no longer in business. I always report these to Google. I hope fellow travelers would do the same as it could help a lot for travelers like me on bicycle. Bicycle traveler with heavy loads can become very frustrated when pedalled 10km only to see the chosen hotel/guesthouse has closed down, and then needs to bike again somewhere else. Tq