Local Guides settings, opt-out moving out of Google Maps to new page

Abner Li | Jan 13 2021 - 8:57 am PT

Google keeps Maps up-to-date with the help of “Local Guides” and rewards contributors through a tier system with various perks. A small change sees settings for Local Guides moved out of Google Maps to a new site.

On the web, maps.google.com/localguides allows you to see your points score and a breakdown of how many reviews, photos, answers, etc. you’ve contributed. It also allows you to quickly review without having to first pull up a listing. There’s also a “Connect” tab, but this opens a separate community website.

This page also has a link to “Settings” where you can “Change your city,” determine what emails you receive, and exit the program. In a quick email, Google explains that Local Guides are getting a new settings page.

The new site — google.com/localguides/settings — is not part of Google Maps and only houses the first two controls:

Update your location for a more relevant Local Guides experience: Today, we send you locally relevant emails and rewards based on the city selection you made when you first joined the program.
Control the emails you receive: change the types of emails you receive, or want to stop receiving Local Guide emails entirely

Meanwhile, opt-out is becoming its own separate site that’s not linked to in the new settings. Given this direction, it’s possible that maps.google.com/localguides will eventually be replaced entirely, as much of the functionality is already built into Maps at google.com/maps/contrib.

Google did not specify yesterday when the settings changeover is occurring as the old Local Guides page is still available.