If YouTubers getting tens of millions of video views are considered online stars, it’s hard to know what to call a couple of prolific Toronto contributors to Google Maps.“Our numbers are 274,454,383 views between Richard and I and, by the end of the month, we should be up to 1.2 million views per day,” said Sydney Eatz who, with Richard Trus, photographs and describes shops, parks and thousands of other Toronto sites, uploading the results to Google’s online navigation tool.They are Local Guides, citizen contributors in a global program. They earn virtual points and badges in exchange for continuously improving Google Maps with detailed and accurate “user-generated content.”While YouTube stars with viral videos can get famous plus rich from ad revenue, Eatz and Trus earn prestige among other Local Guides, and connections but no cash from the massive number of international eyeballs scanning their photos of gas stations or notes about a particular restaurant’s pasta and patio.Alphabet, owner of Google, YouTube and other firms, reported revenues of $26 billion U. S. between April and June. “We get paid in satisfaction, knowing we are helping people,” says Eatz, an aspiring video producer and host known online by the first name “Hottie” in reference to sweating from a hyperthyroid condition that also keeps her continuously hungry.Trus, who has a background in visual technology, adds: “There’s this real world and there’s this digital world, and Google Maps is the translator in between, and we’re specialists in that. Between Sydney and I we are ranked top 20 (Local Guides) in the world. There are companies now approaching us,” with opportunities to leverage that.Local Guides launched in 2015, similar to online review site Yelp’s “elite” program. Google says it now has 33 million Local Guides in more than 240 communities, with Toronto a ...
|
