Points Of Interest - Poi Web Sites?

[+Ellteejak]

I am trying to find web sites that list POINTS OF INTEREST that can be uploaded to my GPS. I see that some GPS manufacturers have them. But I would think there would be some central area that has them too.

 

GPS Passion at www.gpspassion.com sort of has them. I see some sites/countries have listings of all the SPEED TRAPS for upload to the GPS (Slick!!).

 

But I am more looking at general points of interest.

 

Please respond here, or email me direct to let me know of sources.

[+Moose Mob]

I am trying to find web sites that list POINTS OF INTEREST that can be uploaded to my GPS. I see that some GPS manufacturers have them. But I would think there would be some central area that has them too.

 

GPS Passion at www.gpspassion.com sort of has them. I see some sites/countries have listings of all the SPEED TRAPS for upload to the GPS (Slick!!).

 

But I am more looking at general points of interest.

 

Please respond here, or email me direct to let me know of sources.

try www.Waymarking.com Once they make it more browsing friendly, it'll be a great place to find places.

[+Ellteejak]

There is a TOMTOM web site for POIs, but this is european based and it does not have much there (maybe 500 points of varied subject). I looked at the waypointing.org web site and did not find much there for POIs. Guess there is no META/SUPER/GLOBAL site for POIs anywhere?

 

At least no one is talking.

[+briansnat]

Waypoint.org

[+Ellteejak]

Connecticut has like 20 waypoints listed. Yet for Geocaches we have like over 500, maybe even a 1000.

 

Like I said I am still not finding the "MOTHER OF ALL" POI web sites, if one even exists.

 

 

Waypoint.org

[dutchmaster]

Yup, Waymarking dot com, gets my vote and the link is right on each cache page. Granted it's less than 3 months old but you can post your own or log visits to existing ones.

[+ibycus]

A lot of the interest people have in that kind of thing tends to drop out when they get detailed maps for their unit (which if they are keen enough, they eventually do).

 

The Garmin Mapsource Maps come with hundreds of thousands of Point of interest for a whole country.

 

The cool thing about Waymarking though is it's got categories that would be next to impossible for Garmin to ever include in their database, because no database is pre-existing for it.

[+HoundGrrls]

Man... no fair, taunting me like that. I thought you were going to post where I could get poi other than Hawaii.

[+Ellteejak]

I guess that it is true that Garmin creates there own POI databases to include with their maps. I was looking at some software that was included with my Gamin Ique PDA-GPS that was some company that is cataloging POI in a text readable address format, rather than a Lat/log format. I need to investigate if this service is a viable aggressive datasource that is updated with listings for gasolene stations and restaurants, and other information.

 

I need to check the PATHAWAY web site to see if they list POI sources.

Edited March 16, 2006 by Ellteejak

[+sbell111]

Man... no fair, taunting me like that. I thought you were going to post where I could get poi other than Hawaii.

Just make it yourself.

 

Taro root, peeled and steamed

Water

 

Mash the taro with a stone pestle, or "poi pounder". Add water until the poi is smooth and sticky

[+HoundGrrls]

Man... no fair, taunting me like that. I thought you were going to post where I could get poi other than Hawaii.

Just make it yourself.

 

Taro root, peeled and steamed

Water

 

Mash the taro with a stone pestle, or "poi pounder". Add water until the poi is smooth and sticky

 

Tastes better when someone else makes it, plus I doubt I have the upper body strength!

[Jeremy]

There is no Mother of All web site that contains prebuilt POI lists.

 

The POI databases in most GPS units are licensed by the manufacturer and are included in products that you purchase (so the cost is transferred to you). Most of the freely available information (like the NGS Placenames database) is material gathered by the US government and therefore free to the public. But the data isn't so much points of interest but points of reference.

 

The problem with Points of Interest is the idea of vouching for a location. What I mean by vouching is that someone needs to verify that the place exists, or still exists at that location. Also information like active phone numbers and other variables need to be kept up to date.

 

There are companies that has their sole task to verify each and every point of interest in their database - from the doll museum to the movie theater. Because of the effort that goes into this data you have to pay for it - so don't expect for it to exist for free.

 

One of the goals of Waymarking.com is to make the information available for download so you can access information that is up to date and unique to any other data set available via normal POI sources (even the pay ones). There's definitely a lot of work to go before we have this utopia but our plans are to make the data easy to download and access. Our next release in the next week or so will provide group management of categories which will move us even closer to our goal.

 

HTH

[+Ellteejak]

I think that a pay for database web site is okay. People have to make a living. I like the free ones too though. Look here http://www.swopnet.com/waypoints/

 

Does anyone have a listing of the PAY poi databases? Guess I just need to look deeper at the mapsource (Garmin) web site, as I am sure someone has a license to provide this.

 

 

There is no Mother of All web site that contains prebuilt POI lists.

 

The POI databases in most GPS units are licensed by the manufacturer and are included in products that you purchase (so the cost is transferred to you). Most of the freely available information (like the NGS Placenames database) is material gathered by the US government and therefore free to the public. But the data isn't so much points of interest but points of reference.

 

The problem with Points of Interest is the idea of vouching for a location. What I mean by vouching is that someone needs to verify that the place exists, or still exists at that location. Also information like active phone numbers and other variables need to be kept up to date.

 

There are companies that has their sole task to verify each and every point of interest in their database - from the doll museum to the movie theater. Because of the effort that goes into this data you have to pay for it - so don't expect for it to exist for free.

 

One of the goals of Waymarking.com is to make the information available for download so you can access information that is up to date and unique to any other data set available via normal POI sources (even the pay ones). There's definitely a lot of work to go before we have this utopia but our plans are to make the data easy to download and access. Our next release in the next week or so will provide group management of categories which will move us even closer to our goal.

 

HTH

[+Ellteejak]

Looks like Garman has a pretty good listing of POI points built into there units. I am going to test out their POIloader tool (free application) to see if I can download the list.

 

Maybe I can then change the parameters of POIs to create proximity alerts for waypoints. I like proximity alerts to warn me that a geocache is nearby, or a bathroom.

[+nfa]

Hi,

 

Northern New York Geocachers (NNYGeo) members have started a list of POI waypoints on our website, in categories like:

• WIFI Access Points
  
• Restaurants
  
• Hotels
  
• Camping Sites
  
• Geocaching Supplies
  

Jamie

[+Ellteejak]

You guys are great at Northern New York !! This is one of my frequented travel destinations. I will bookmark you so that I can use the POIs later.

 

I also found a couple WIFI hotspot POI web sites

 

1) T-mobile Hotspot listings selfcare.hotspot.t-mobile.com/locations

2) Free Wifi by state listing www.wififreespot.com

3) wifinder.com

 

 

 

Hi,

 

Northern New York Geocachers (NNYGeo) members have started a list of POI waypoints on our website, in categories like:

• WIFI Access Points
  
• Restaurants
  
• Hotels
  
• Camping Sites
  
• Geocaching Supplies
  

Jamie

[+Fathergoose]

travelbygps.com

[+Cache Heads]

This has driven me crazy ever since I got in to the whole GPS thing. POIs supplied by GPS software manufacturers like Garmin and Magellan are horribly out of date, completely unreliable and they don't even offer downloadable updates -- so the ability to find and download POIs on the web really would be helpful. Waymarking.com shows some promise, but my biggest hope is that eventually Google will help us out with this. If you search Google Earth for a restaurant or hotel or any other business, they are as up-to-date as an online yellow pages and if you right-click any POI (i.e. - Pizza Hut), select edit, check the advanced box and then click the location tab it shows the coords. So, they already have all of the info we need-- they just need to implement a way of exporting it by area or category. With the giant leaps that Google continues to take, I wouldn't be surprised if they start offering something to this effect in the future.

 

Of course, that doesn't help you right now.....

Edited March 19, 2006 by Cache Heads

[+Ellteejak]

But this is great!! This is like the holy grail!! of POIs (Points Of Interest) and Waypoints!!

 

There are people who are designing GOOGLE MAP interface tools to do searches and displays of their tracks. You and I need to try to generate some interest from these "google map folks" to build a web site tool that does this like you mentioned.

 

A tool to take multiple google found addresses, and consolidate them into a *.GPX file (or equivalent) for download into a PDA tool (like cachemate).

 

I will contact the author for Cachemate and ask him if he (or his minions/ aka friends and colleagues) will take this on as a project. Also need to find the GOOGLE EARTH folks that are using that tool.

 

I think you just started a snowball, that will turn to an avalanche

 

 

This has driven me crazy ever since I got in to the whole GPS thing. POIs supplied by GPS software manufacturers like Garmin and Magellan are horribly out of date, completely unreliable and they don't even offer downloadable updates -- so the ability to find and download POIs on the web really would be helpful. Waymarking.com shows some promise, but my biggest hope is that eventually Google will help us out with this. If you search Google Earth for a restaurant or hotel or any other business, they are as up-to-date as an online yellow pages and if you right-click any POI (i.e. - Pizza Hut), select edit, check the advanced box and then click the location tab it shows the coords. So, they already have all of the info we need-- they just need to implement a way of exporting it by area or category. With the giant leaps that Google continues to take, I wouldn't be surprised if they start offering something to this effect in the future.

 

Of course, that doesn't help you right now.....

[medoug]

I sometimes use:

 

http://www.lat-long.com/

 

but there is no way to download the coordinates that I am aware of.

 

medoug.