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Level 9

When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

A Vancouver Local Guide, @BenKlein, recently had someone recognize him while he was watching his wife play volleyball (read about it here), so I decided to ask him a few questions about his "celebrity" status in the city here and a couple of questions about his involvement with the program.

Not quite the weight of the worldNot quite the weight of the world

 

Question 1: What kind of feelings and/or reactions did you have when someone first recognized you from your Google Maps Contributions?

Ben's response: I actually felt quite warm. It was enjoyable to find someone who recognized me from a group of reviews. It was pretty cool to think that there was someone who was making decisions influenced by me.

 

Q 2: What got you motivated to join the Local Guides program in the beginning?

Ben's response: I started as we all did by writing a review for good service and having Google let me know I earned a point. Initially, I was aiming for the free storage (which is no longer available). The game and fun in making entries kept me going until other motivations kicked in.

 

Q 3: Which of your contributions do you feel is most useful to the community?

Ben's response: Community? If you mean Google businesses then correcting bad errors is the best I can do as a local. I had a bubble tea shop that was listed as warehouse products and wasn't coming up on restaurant searches because it was in an industrial area. I "closed" a McDonald's that was in the middle of a park and relocated it to the mall. For users, I am happiest when I can add a note that isn't visible from the website or map. Lack of access due to one way streets, unique offerings, busy periods etc. I can't do it for every review but the reviews I can make me happy. For other Google local guides, I like to corroborate working guides and flag "guides" who are misusing the program or are unclear on what they are doing. I flag inappropriate questions, reviews which contain questionable content etc.

 

Q 4: How do you see yourself in the global Local Guide community in the future?

Ben's response: I do want to get to level ten. My family is actually planning on becoming a little nomadic in 2022 so we will be in non-home cities for 3 to 6 months at a time. I am hoping to provide English language reviews in these cities from the view point of an actual local and not just a tourist.

 

Q 5: Tell us something fun about yourself!

Ben's response: I couldn't really travel well till I met my wife. She and I form a crazy travel team. I am disorganized to the point of near catastrophe and she handles that but she can get lost in a mall. Between my innate sense of direction and my total willingness to talk to every stranger I meet, we are never lost and always find the cool spots to visit. We are basically the Jack Sprat (and wife) of tourists.

 

What about you guys? Have any of you been recognized by the reviews or your profile on Google Maps? Or know someone that has? What kind of feelings did you have?

 

Please post publicly so others can benefit as well. I do not have private messages. Thanks!
Vancouver, BC, Canada
6 comments
Connect Moderator

Re: When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

Que lindo encuentro @Shirley, una charla en la que muchos de nosotros podríamos reflejarnos en algún momento. Gracias por compartir.

 

 Saludos Farid

For the case that has difficulty, in reading my answer, in the upper right part of the screen, in the drop-down menu of languages, you can select the language, in which you want to read the post.

Level 9

Re: When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

Glad you enjoyed it@FaridTDF! I definitely think it is very interesting to be recognized because of your contributions on Google Maps! 🙂

Please post publicly so others can benefit as well. I do not have private messages. Thanks!
Connect Moderator

Re: When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

Very interesting story and occurrence, @Shirley! Really enjoyed hearing about his perspective of that happening. I haven't had any random people come up to me but I've received numerous texts from friends, many who I maybe haven't even spoken to in ages, showing me screenshots of my reviews from places they were checking out and made a decision based on my review. At first I was a bit bashful earlier in my days, but now I'm always excited to hear that my review/content helped someone I know and I get even more excited thinking about how many people my contributions reach on a daily basis. 

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Former Google Contributor

Re: When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

@Shirley, this is one of the more creative posts I've come across on Connect - love! 

Connect Moderator

Re: When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

That's awesome @Shirley! I haven't been recognized by a stranger because of my contributions, the closest thing that has happened to me is friends finding my review or a photo I posted while they where looking at a place, and that already is great because it let's me know how visible my contributions are. I would imagine I would enjoy it just like Ben did if that happened to me.

Level 9

Re: When you're recognized by others because of your reviews, meet Ben!

Thanks @SP31 & @Jesi. Great to hear that you guys have had friends that recognized your reviews or photos too! I think that is very awesome as well! 🙂

 

Thank you @ArielleM_! I thought it was quite different too! It is definitely interesting to see how the community develops like this.

Please post publicly so others can benefit as well. I do not have private messages. Thanks!