Funny commercial POIs

[+user13371]

I've noticed this in several different mapping packages for different brands of GPS (Garmin, Magellan, and Lowrance). So it's not really brand-sepcific GPS issue but more likely where they're all buying/renting their directory information.

 

It's really helpful that the millions of POIs in your map software include gas station and shopping centers - never know when you'll be lost in a strange town, nearly out of gas, beer, or potato chips.

 

But have you ever noticed some of the POIs are obvious rubbish? Either completely wrong, or somewhat less than useful

 

I was just looking at my own neighborhood for a mile or so around, and see there's a listing for a grocery in the middle of a residential street. A jeweler listed a few blocks away, also on a residential block. A company calling itself an "Indian Trading Post" located at a main intersection - but I know there's just a (closed) gas station there.

 

I am not making any of this up. I'm guessing what shows up as a "grocer" or "jeweler" on a residential street is/was someone's Shaklee, Amway, or Merlite distributorship, run frm their home. No idea how an old gas station got listed as an Indian Trading Post

 

Has anyone else ever seen or pondered this? What's the oddest commercial POI you've ever found? Have you ever been mislead by one of them or actually gone looking for a business that was not there?

[+julianh]

In Australia, Garmin MapSource maps include "Sensis" data, which is the company behind the Yellow Pages & White Pages phone directories, "Trading Post" personal classifieds, etc.

 

There are a lot of POIs for small businesses in residential streets, where there is no shop-front, so I guess these are just the registered address of a small business. (A house a few doors up the road from me is listed as "Scooter Specialists", but I have never even seen a scooter in the driveway, let alone a showroom!)

 

However, there are plenty of businesses with full shop-fronts which don't appear as POIs on the maps - I guess that when you take out a business listing in the phone directory, you may get an option to pay an additional fee to get yourself embedded in the map data?

[+TimsLackies]

Here's another possibility, for at least a few of the points: cartographers often include non-existent streets on their maps -- ones that they make up, so that they can determine if someone is illegally copying their maps. (I forget what they call these phantom streets). It's possible that at least some of these POI's serve the same purpose.

[+StarDoc]

I've seen the same thing as I'm driving around town. Many POIs are completely wrong with places in the middle of residential sections, etc. I'm using Garmin's Metroguide that is a few years old, but still, a satellite dish company in a place that's been a parking lot for at least 30 years is annoying.

 

I kind of like the previous idea of the copyright checking, but I would guess that there are maybe a 50-60 in Fargo, ND that are off. Multiply that by all the states, and you get thousands that are potentially wrong. That seems excessive...

[+coggins]

For NavTeq map data, you can report wrong POI's with the NavTeq Map Reporter:

 

http://mapreporter.navteq.com/dur-web-external/

 

 

They get updated in new releases, but they need the lead time to process the info (they weren't sitting around waiting to here from you at the last second).

[+user13371]

For NavTeq map data, you can report wrong POI's...

Y'know, I really don't think it's (primarily) Navteq fault, because I've seen this quirk in various mapping programs -- not all based on Navteq data.

 

I'm pretty sure the street data and the commercial POI data come from different providers, but I don't know at what point in the development process that they get integrated. Don't know who signs the contract with the directory company or who retains ownership of the data either.

[+holmqer]

I've noticed the same thing, but digging a bit deeper I noticed a pattern. There was a restaurant listed that was actually in another town at the exact same address. In my particular case the NavTek POI said the place was in Windsor, but was actually in East Windsor with several miles and the CT river in between the POI and its real location.

[+holmqer]

I've noticed the same thing, but digging a bit deeper I noticed a pattern. There was a restaurant listed that was actually in another town at the exact same address. In my particular case the NavTek POI said the place was in Windsor, but was actually in East Windsor with several miles and the CT river in between the POI and its real location.