I’ve been looking at a UR where a user is reporting that Waze takes them to the wrong destination when they search for Guildford Park Avenue. I know Guildford really well so was able to decipher their rambling message.
https://www.waze.com/en-GB/editor/?env=row&lon=-0.59110&lat=51.24774&layers=3045&zoom=4&mapUpdateRequest=4869296
I’ve checked on Livemap and in the app and when you search for “Guildford Park Avenue” it takes you here
https://www.waze.com/en-GB/editor/?env=row&lon=-0.57867&lat=51.23509&layers=3045&zoom=7&segments=121547596
instead of here where it should and I can’t work out why.
https://www.waze.com/en-GB/editor/?env=row&lon=-0.58246&lat=51.23830&layers=3045&zoom=6&segments=121547534
I don’t think it’s a Google search problem as that take you to the right place. If you click on more results in Livemap you eventually get given the right one.
As an aside, and I don’t think it’s related, some of streets in the general area to the west of Guildford Park Ave had had their street names removed in the last couple of months. I’ve just put them back and I’m 100% certain they were there before as I named that whole area originally. I’ve left one road unnamed in case further investigation needs to be done.
Don’t be too quick to dismiss the incredible ability of Google results to quietly screw up Waze destinations. If you open up the Google Maps site and search for “Guildford Park Avenue”, the “did you mean” drop down list shows two potential results:
in that order… Even abbreviating the search to “Guildford Park Ave”, or including the “Guildford” suffix, doesn’t make a difference, it’s only if you throw in “GU2” that Google finally realises you really did mean Guildford Park Avenue as opposed to a road in Guildford that just happens to include “Park” in its name :roll:
That’s true but if you type “Guildford Park Avenue” in the app you get offered, in this order:
Guildford Park Avenue
Guildford Park Road
Park Street
Park Road
If you pick Guildford Park Avenue as most people would you get taken to Park Street. The app does tell you it’s taking you there but you have to be paying attention.
If you actually hit the search button rather than picking one of the initially offered results it gives you the Waze result in the right place
I wonder why you aren’t offered the “Guildford Park Ave” Waze result initially.
True, although since Google returns a multi-choice result for this particular search term, it really wouldn’t surprise me if the app is getting a bit confused over which location will be used when selecting such a result, causing it to be presented to the user as one location whilst behind the scenes it ends up using a different location.
And TBH, I’m constantly being underwhelmed by the ability of the initial search suggestions list to give you the correct result except in cases where there’s absolutely no chance of ambiguity - as you say, why Waze doesn’t prioritise it’s own results over those obtained from third party sources is a mystery. And the way the suggestions are presented to the user, with no indication as to where the results come from, makes it even harder to decide which result to pick.
I wonder how many users are even aware that if you hit return after typing in your search term you’ll be taken to the full results page with all the individual data source tabs, and how many think those initial suggestions are all there is…
It sounds very much like it’s an issue that editors can’t influence. I’ll have to go back to the Reporter and say they should use the search button.
I’m wondering if the app developers have just cut and pasted a Google search module for the search box so it has the ability to quickly populate suggested results as you are typing. I bet the Waze database isn’t consulted at all until the search button is pushed as those results take a few seconds to come back.
Further experimenting with in-app searches for roads in the UK that I know are present in WME but not Google Maps (but where the same road name does exist elsewhere in the world), indicates that the initially suggested results list contains results culled both from a realtime Google search plus any results already stored by the app. So searching for one of these roads will always return the exact same worldwide results as searching for that road in Google Maps, however if I then hit return and select the UK result from the Waze tab, this result will then be included in the initially suggested list on subseqeuent searches for that road name.