’s cal Guides program for Maps is offering perks in a bid to bulk up the number of reviews.
Those who contribute reviews, photos, other details to Maps can now earn 1TB of Drive storage, early access to new products, other freebies.
To do so, says you’ll need to sign up for the cal Guides program start sharing your opinions through Maps via the Android iOS apps.
You can keep track of your rewards level add in new insights through the Contributions tab inside of Maps. Reviews you submit tend to show up right away, though photo submissions will often sit on hold are reviewed by a human before they go live, just to ensure nothing sinister makes its way onto a map. ong with reviews photos, you can earn points for correcting errors or identifying sites that aren’t yet listed on Maps.
Other perks include entry to a Nexus smartphone giveaway access to product betas before the rest of the public.
The story behind the story: has long sought to build Maps into a full-blown Yelp competitor ( once tried to buy Yelp, in fact). has made several reconfigurations to Maps over the past couple of years that highlight restaurants other places to go when you’re on the town or traveling. The biggest missing piece has been that organic peer-reviewed experience that you get from Yelp. By peddling some free stuff, the plan is clearly in place to bring in more voices.
