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Comment by ocdtrekkie | Hacker News Reader

Yes, Google has tricked a massive army of people into doing free work for one of the most profitable companies in the world. Things like "Google Local Guides" give people a gold star (and maybe a pair of branded socks) for doing unpaid labor. It's kinda hilarious, but also sad.

I imagine there are Google executives in a room somewhere laughing their full heads off every time they think about how there are people who do free work for Google who think they are making the world a better place or something.

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When they tried to lure me into a "Local Guide" I was offered a free flight, hotel and food at Menlo Park. Once, but still good enough for no work at all.

I can see how the gamification aspect of points and levels might be more motivating for some people, but mostly I see Local Guides as not too different from people posting pictures and reviews to various social networks, except that it is more discoverable by people using Maps. I submit contents to Maps for mostly the same reasons why I use social networks and expect nothing in return.

>laughing their full heads off every time they think about how there are people who do free work for Google who think they are making the world a better place or something.

So when you go to a store that Google Maps says is open, and find it's closed, you refuse to correct the hours and go "MUHAHAHAHA...I refuse to help Google, take that, corporate scum!"

Why would I bother checking Google Maps? But basically, yeah. If Google wants my expertise and data collection ability, they can pay me for it. As it stands now they just cold call businesses and ask them with an AI thing.

What other source would you rather check?

OpenStreetMap?

Okay! I just opened OsmAnd and looked up my local supermarket. Sadly, no work hours. And this is a very popular supermarket right next to a train station in central Brooklyn, NY.

The thing is that business owners do update the info on Google Maps, and have an incentive to do so, but only volunteers update OSM.

OSM shines where businesses don't care but volunteers do: trails in a park, non-commercial POIs, etc.

I always check the actual website of the business in question. Search engines are wrong like 40% of the time in my experience.

At a company my wife worked for, the social media department spent half its time fixing store hours, addresses, and map locations in Google Maps and Apple Maps.

I guess it's nice that ordinary people try to do these updates for Big G and Apple. But they're often wrong, or they presume a one-day change is a permanent change, or that it applies to every location on the planet.

What? Why on earth would I correct it?

I'm sure you can figure it out. I believe in you. (And that response is because I'm 100% treating your question in good faith and not "I know why I would, but also I know why I wouldn't and prefer that, so I'll pretend I don't know why I would".)

So the trillion dollar company can be better, of course

and maybe a pair of branded socks

Back when it was new and interesting, TripAdvisor used to send people hats if they reviewed a new or unusual hotel.

I wish I hadn't lost my hat before I had a chance to wear it while checking into a hotel.

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