Am I the only one who thinks that “Local Guides” is a needlessly misleading name? Before I looked up what it meant, I assumed that reviews tagged with “Local Guide” were actually written by locals, when in fact the author may just as well live on the other side of the world.

It prompts you to review/update info on locations that you've been to recently. Although you can do so for other locations as well.

Never underestimate the power of fake internet points.

They're not fake if they can be redeemed for things that would otherwise cost real money.

> Anecdotally it's mostly credits towards Google's own products, free storage, etc

Not anymore. I finally reached tier 5, but there was no reward no free storage. I haven't received anything. It's B.S.

The tier system changed recently, it's a 10 tier system now, and tier 5 is much easier to get.

I still don't see any tangible rewards. There's nothing listed about tier rewards. The only reward I've seen is getting a useless sticker next to your name.

Google, Amazon and Apple to an extend are all making money by exploiting the internet community spirit.

Every time Amazon sends an email for you to “review” the product, they are asking for free labour :-)

Same with google here.

I usually get a free movie ticket every month or so.

Everyone keeps thinking it’s like a full time job but really it’s a couple minutes whenever I go to post a review.

At high enough levels you also get invited to exclusive Google Guide meetups.

You're doing work for google, so you can invest in google products more?