After offering offline accessibility of Google Maps, the search engine-to-everything giant is continuing to offer more on its mapping service. Google has now announced a slew of fresh offers intended for the users who update its Local Guides program with useful information.
Google has announced that it is giving away one terabyte of cloud storage on Google Drive to users who post reviews, photos, and other such information that helps the company improve the mapping and navigation service. One terabyte of space of Google drive currently costs $9.99 a month.
Local Guides in the words of the company is “a global community that helps you explore the world while earning perks.” The program is a bit similar to and launched in competition to Foursquare and Yelp.
The one TB of storage space is only one of the offers in the five point list announced by Google. The company is also giving away early-bird access to new features and products. More the contribution from the users the more the points they earn on the program. More points invariably translate into bigger bonuses.
The free online storage space is a level four on the program, and reserved only for those who have contributed significantly into the program. If you happen to cross level four, then you have earned the chance of getting a free pass to Google’s inaugural summit in 2016 and get inside Google campus along with other contributors. Those eager to jump into the program have to chance to win Google devices if they earn enough points to clear level one.
Google’s new initiative to promote user participation seems to be in line with its new straggly to push for a radical change in its mapping and navigation service. Recently, breaking away from the tradition, it announced the launch of offline navigation in Google Maps for its Android app. But this feature has also met with some criticism given the fact that the map of an area has to be downloaded beforehand to access offline. In the offline mode users can only get driving directions and not walking or public transport routes, hindering the access to complete features of Google Maps.
