Our beloved Google Maps is about to feel even more like Foursquare, with a public launch of custom lists right around the corner. The feature will allow users to create lists of their favorite and most visited locations, and even a ‘bucket list’ of places they wish to visit in the near future.
As per a TechCrunch report, users part of Google Local Guides (a program that rewards users for their contributions to the Maps community with early access to new features) have already begun seeing this feature on their Google Maps app. The search engine giant itself has emailed it’s guides to inform them that all those who are Level 2 or above on Local Guides will get access before launch.
If you’re a Local Guide of level 2 or higher, you just need to click on the Menu option, where you should find it in the ‘Saved’ icon. In case you’re wondering how to level up on Local Guides,the answer is that it all depends on your overall contribution to the Maps community in the form of users reviews, photos of locations, etc.
This isn’t the first time Google has made efforts to imitate foursquare’s features. In 2014, it rolled out the ‘Explore’ tab that let users to obtain context based search results, such as weather and time of the day. This was two years after Foursquare broke up with Google: that’s right, it stopped using Google’s API and instead opted for the good old open source Open Street API.
So if you are a Local Guide upward of level 2, time to update to the latest beta. And if you are not, well, you will just have to wait for a little longer.
