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The 7 years that google owned zagat correlated with a massive improvement in the quality of their reviews.

I have done the google maps local guide program a bit and the way it is structured is great. The google map slowly switches into proactive mode and solicits photos, ratings, and reviews.

A few months ago a friend asked me what I was up to, so I sent them a photo of 2 flights of beer in an attempt to get them to meet me at the bar. later, Maps asked if I liked the bar and wanted to upload the photo. For the last 2 months that photo has been the official picture of the bar and received over 250k views. Minimal input or interruption for me, large return for google.

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> The google map slowly switches into proactive mode and solicits photos, ratings, and reviews.

Funny, I hate when google asks me this. It feels like an invasion of my privacy, a reminder that they are tracking everything I do.

It only does this if you have location services turned on. You actually told Google it was ok to use your location to provide location specific services. That's not what I would call "tracking", which implies something clandestine.

Google requires this permission to do anything remotely location-based and uses it extremely liberally. I shouldn't have to agree to have them link my photos to the restaurant I'm in just so I can save a home location for driving directions.

It doesnt post anything without your permission. And you can long hold the notification to suppress and never see them again. It's not that big of a deal