Navigating through Google map of the capital city’s core, you may stumble upon everything from the tiniest corner shop to the plush five-star hotel in the vicinity. Google has, through years, earned the trust of millions of netizens with its handy search, find and locate options. When these details come served on a platter ever thought about the ones who bring you all these? The selfless ‘local guides’, as they are called, are behind incorporating every detail that you access on this online interface. Come Sunday, Thiruvananthapuram will host an event and citizens may see who their local guides are.
The Google Local Guides Meet Up and Photo Walk is taking place at Manaveeyam Veedhi on the day. “The meet is all about the guides saying hello to each other, sharing their experience, taking photographs and circulating it on social media with a hashtag. This is a first-of-its kind gathering in the city in my knowledge. Google has a set of guidelines to organise something like this. We will have a maximum intake of 60 participants. It is a self-funded meet,” says Syed Shiyaz Mirza, tech-writer-cum-video blogger and coordinator of the event. About 10 people have so far evinced interest to join in. The local guides work as volunteers and earn points in return.
“They do the job only to benefit a community on the whole. Meanwhile, writing local business review gives us reward. The money earned won’t get encashed, but be redeemed to buy apps from Android Play Store,” he adds.
The crowdsourced information’s credibility also rests upon the community that works towards it. Just as in Wikipedia, it has an editing option to correct if a misleading info is found. Interested persons can find details about the meet from the link https://maps.google.com/localguides/meetup/photowalk-at-trivandrum and register their names in the bloggoogleguidetvm.blogspot.in.
