In a lot of the material you find about Local Guides a number of terms and abbreviations pop up time and again. Here’s a list that helps you figure out what exactly is meant with them.
~ Abbreviations ~
GM: Google Maps
LG: local guide(s)
LGC: Local Guides Connect
LGCTM: Local Guides Clean The Map
LGCTW: Local Guides Clean The World
LGW: Local Guides World
POI: point of interest
SV: StreetView
SVT(P): StreetView Trusted Photographer
UGC: User Generated Content
~ Terms ~
360: a picture whereby you can move the cursor around in all directions, showing the point where it was made in 360°
Badge: a sign on your Local Guide profile 12 the number of points in the star indicating your level) or on Local Guides Connect (indicating achievements on Connect such as the number of Likes given or received)
Check the facts: the part of the LG program where you can check contributions submitted by others; you can access it on the Your Contributions page
Connect: short for Local Guides Connect
Connect Live: a yearly event organized by Google where a selected number of local guides are invited by Google (with all expenses paid by Google)
Connect Moderator: moderator on Connect who is not a Google employee, but a volunteering Local Guide, selected by Google (based mainly on previous contributions on the platform)
Contribution: something you add to a POI
Google Moderator: moderator on Connect who is a Google employee
Googler: Google employee, but not a Google Moderator (e.g. from the product or marketing team)
Kudo: in the original version of LGC, Likes were called Kudos
Layer: the information on Google Maps is organized in layers, e.g. everything related to transportation belongs to the transit layer
Local Guides Clean The Map: a project focusing on removing inappropriate content from Google Maps
Local Guides Clean The World: a project by local guide @ermest focusing on cleaning up litter
Local Guides Connect: the official platform provided by Google
Local Guides World: a major global Local Guides group on Facebook
Map marker: the red pointer indicating a POI on the map
Mappable: fitting to the criteria defined by Google to allow a POI to be added to the map
Not Applied: the reply you get when one of your contributions is not accepted
Pending: the reply you get when one of your contributions can’t be approved or rejected by the automatic process and needs to be checked bu a Googler
Perk: small reward given to all or selected local guides
Point of interest: a place on Google Maps
Rating: your opinion about a POI, expressed in 1 to 5 stars
Review: your opinion about a POI written down in a text
StreetView Trusted Photographer: contributor who has uploaded 50 approved 360 photos to StreetView
Trust score: a score that Google keeps on every local guide to help decide whether or not an edit suggested can be accepted automatically
Uncover missing info: used to be the part of the LG program where GM suggests POIs where info is still missing; it was only available in the mobile app, but has been removed in the spring of 2021