[mseebach]

If you have access to a local who's tastes (and temperament and budget) are calibrated to your own, it's a good strategy. If you are in a place for a while and want the most out of it, researching on blogs etc is absolutely the right thing to do. But if you are passing by and looking for a place to have lunch, that's not feasible. Heck, even finding a local who routinely eats out in the local area (in a great many places, people will eat at home most of the time) can be a challenge - in touristic areas, the great majority of people will be other tourists or trying to sell you something. Google Maps, on the other hand, can instantly tell you if the brasserie on the main square is a tourist trap or decent, or if there is a small independent café with great salads on a side street five minutes from you. That's the problem Google Maps is solving.

[6cd6beb]

Fair enough, but I have a hard time google maps is building this system purely out of altruistic intentions, and not to sell us on the locations that pay their way into the "hip local venue" group a la yelp.