Important changes: Why some statistics are currently no longer updated

Over the past year, localguides-ranking.com has grown from a small side project into a tool that many Google Local Guides use to track their progress on Google Maps: profile views, photos, points, contributions – all of this helped to visualise growth and motivate each other.

Recently, however, Google Maps has made some technical changes behind the scenes. The detailed statistics that could previously be read from the public “Contributions” pages of Local Guides profiles are no longer accessible to my server in the same way.

In practice this means:

• When you open your profile in a normal browser, you still see your numbers.
• When the same page is loaded automatically from a server, those detailed metrics are missing from the responses that come back from Google.
• The mechanisms that localguides-ranking.com used to regularly read and store these statistics therefore no longer work.

As far as I can tell, there is currently no official API from Google that allows programmatic access to Local Guides statistics (points, photo counts, views, etc.). At the same time, I want to respect Google’s terms of use and not bypass any technical protection mechanisms.

What does this mean for you?

• Some metrics can currently no longer be updated automatically (for example, detailed breakdowns of contributions).
• Basic data that is still visible in the HTML (such as name, level, points) can likely continue to be updated on a regular basis.
• Your existing history and past data will remain in the database – it will not be deleted – but certain fields may not be updated further for the time being.

I’m already reaching out through the official channels to clarify:

• whether there is any official, permitted way to access Local Guides statistics (e.g. API or export), and
• how a community project like localguides-ranking.com can align with Google’s rules and technical capabilities in the long term.

What happens next?

• localguides-ranking.com will stay online.
• Wherever it is technically and legally possible, statistics will continue to be updated.
• If Google provides an official solution (API/export), I will adapt the site so that complete and reliable analytics become possible again.

I know that many of you have used the site over the last year and rely on the data. I’m personally very disappointed that part of the functionality can disappear almost overnight – but unfortunately, the cause is entirely outside my control.

Thank you for your understanding and your support.
As soon as there are any updates about official solutions or viable alternatives, I will announce them here on the blog and on the front page of localguides-ranking.com.