Google announced that it would discontinue its offering of free 100 GB cloud storage to level four members of the Google Local Guides Programme. Prior to this announcement, Google had lowered the benefit from One Terabyte (1 TB) for two years to 100GB for one year. The initial benefit was the selling point for the programme way back in 2015 when it was fully launched...
The Local Guides Programme is an initiative from Google in which you "help others explore the world and get great benefits in return" according to Google itself. It entails making contributions to and through the Google Maps. I made a review of the programme earlier.
Before now, earlier in 2015 when the programme was at inception, Local Guides level four and above were offered end-of-year benefits. I recall someone sharing a picture of his Local Guides-branded t-shirt on the Local Guides official Google+ page.
Also read: Benefits associated with the Google Local Guides Programme
The reasons for reducing the benefits may not be totally unconnected to the fact that there are so many people who have come into the programme just for the benefits without significant contributions, hence they get to Level four too quickly. Level four is important because that's the level where the major benefits begin with level five (max level) being the ultimate with a chance to attend the Local Guides annual conference in San Francisco free-of-charge.
The reasons for reducing the benefits may not be totally unconnected to the fact that there are so many people who have come into the programme just for the benefits without significant contributions, hence they get to Level four too quickly. Level four is important because that's the level where the major benefits begin with level five (max level) being the ultimate with a chance to attend the Local Guides annual conference in San Francisco free-of-charge.
Google's explanation of its decision is stated below:
"As our global community of Local Guides continues to grow, we occasionally make changes to our program. We look forward to offering our most active and consistently-contributing Local Guides more features and perks throughout the year."
But if you're not yet a level four member or already are and waiting for your benefit, you can still be rewarded with free 100GB before March 17th when the benefit will cease to exist.
I am already a level five member. I was able to test the free 1 TB given to me for two years. I got it in December 2015, so I still have till ending of this year. Currently, I've garnered about more than 1.300 points with over 4 million photo views.
So gather up your points and get to Level four before the deadline to get your benefit.
Source: AndroidPolice