NEW YORK, Aug 6 — Google has launched a new city guide that invites Google+ users to post reviews of local restaurants, sites and businesses in exchange for free swag and access to exclusive events in their area.

With little fanfare, the global search engine announced the launch of its Google City Expert programme last week in an effort to create an authoritative and reliable database of “high quality reviews” and rival leading user-generated sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.

To qualify as a local city expert, users must produce a minimum of 50 reviews and write at least five reviews a month to maintain their status.

In exchange, users will receive free swag i.e., “Google-branded items” and invitations to exclusive events in their local area.

If the programme sounds familiar, that’s because it’s not far off from Yelp’s Elite Squad programme, made up of prolific contributors who are also rewarded with perks like invites to exclusive parties and Yelp-branded swag.

According to Google, a “high quality review” is defined as a minimum of three to four sentences long, with “specific, helpful and balanced information about a particular business.”

To start, the Google City Experts programme is being offered in US cities such as Austin, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, and UK cities like Bristol, Edinburgh, London and Manchester. It is also being rolled out in Sydney, Australia and Tokyo and Osaka in Japan.

Meanwhile, last week Google likewise launched a newly revamped site for its crowd-sourced dining guide Zagat as well as free mobile apps as part of the brand’s rebirth. Google bought out the burgundy guide in 2011. — AFP-Relaxnews