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Some POI's not showing on Mobile Device

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Hi there,

apologies if I am asking a "noob" question here, have tried to search for the do's and don'ts. I have been making a number of edits to POI's, everything from Police Stations to restaurants in my area. Some of them are showing on the live map and then others that were done a while ago still show in the editor with all the details but don't appear on the mobile device map. An example is a labeled a fire department location last week and it is already showing on the mobile device, but several fast food chains and other locations that were labeled several weeks ago are still not showing on the mobile device? Are there types of POI's we are not supposed to label like chain restaurant's? I watched the youtube videos and read the wiki and don't recall anything saying don't label things like McDonald's or Arby's. Thanks in advance for the guidance, looking forward to making the Waze maps more valuable for everyone.

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Post by AndyPoms
The general rule of thumb is to not landmark individual businesses. This is for several reasons, 1) Waze is trying to get those businesses to advertise in the app, 2) If we can't map all of them, we shouldn't be mapping any of them (i.e. "Why is McDonalds mapped & not Burger King?") 3) They are all handled by POI (name or category) search with various providers (the tabs on the results window). There is one exception to this rule, Gas Stations, as on the ROTW Server (Rest of the World) they are needed for the Gas Price Feature of Waze - on the NA Server (US & Canada) we've been told we should be adding these as the US will be moving towards a Gas Price system like ROTW has (currently the list is from a 3rd party) and Canada does not currently have the ability to access this feature.

Also, landmarks have to be of a minimum size to appear in the app.

Depending on where you are located, they may have been removed by other editors because they did not meet local guidelines.
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Post by AndyPoms
kuduboet wrote:Thanks guys, I am in the USA in the state of Ohio, please point me in the right direction and I will go back and remove all my "discretions of the past" :oops:
Don't worry about it... It happens
kuduboet wrote:What about little one off family type restaurants that Waze probably won't sell to, but people might like to find?
Waze is willing to sell ads to them too (see https://biz.waze.com/ for info). These locations are handled by the other search engines & category search, so they don't need a landmark. If you search for "Bob's Wings" (a made up example) in the navigation window, Waze will return results from one of several search providers (Google, Bing, Yellow Pages, Yelp, FourSquare, Facebook, etc) you can then choose another provider using the tabs at the bottom of the results window.
kuduboet wrote:Please point me to the POI "Bible List" and I will lable those that should be and not those that shouldn't. Thanks all.
We're currently working on a full list for the US (discussion is here: http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=276&t=26005), I don't know about an Ohio specific list, but for the most part, Police, Fire, Hospitals, all good... businesses, bad...
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Post by AndyPoms
kuduboet wrote:I am confused why it has options like Pharmacy etc in the landmark choices, I would hope that the landmark choices would reflect those that we want people to identify, and don't suggest things like Pharmacy if we don't want businesses. Just my $0.02
The list of types came from a 3rd party system (likely the US TIGER dataset - what Waze used for the basemap import of the US), and they are just there... Just like "Railroad" and "Walking Trail" are in the list of Road Types, but those should typically not be mapped either (and if they are mapped in VERY specific ways to prevent other issues).
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Post by AndyPoms
jasonh300 wrote:EDIT: Andy, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!! :lol:
Jason, STOP COPYING ME :P (three times in one thread, jeeze...)
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Post by AndyPoms
kuduboet wrote:Okay so there is a new editor in the same town as me adding back in all the POI's for things like restaurants that I was doing wrong and removed after I was steered in the "correct editing procedures" direction, excuse the pun. So how do I tell this person to stop other than just deleting them? I can tell from their user number that they are newer than me, but don't know who they are, do we have a way of sending a user a message advising them to read the rules? Suggestions? Thanks
Send them a PM here in the forum.
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Post by AndyPoms
Go to the top of the page... Click where it says (0 New Messages) - that will take you to your PM inbox. Then click "New PM" & put there name in the box & click add.
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Post by AndyPoms
kuduboet wrote:Thanks, did that and when I sent it it said "message sent" but then it shows it in the Outbox and I don't see it in the Sent folder so did it actually send it?
Inbox = Incoming Messages.
Outbox = Sent Messages that haven't been read yet.
Sent = Sent Messages that have been read.
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Post by jasonh300
What country are you in? There are guidelines about what POIs to put on a map, depending on your country.

Individual businesses should generally not be put on the map as a POI, because Waze would like to have the option of selling advertising to those businesses. The exception is Gas Stations, because the gas station landmark prevents Waze from showing non-existant traffic jams at adjacent roads.

There's also a minimum size for a landmark. If you're below that minimum size, it won't show on the client.
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Post by jasonh300
kuduboet wrote:Thanks guys, I am in the USA in the state of Ohio, please point me in the right direction and I will go back and remove all my "discretions of the past" :oops: What about little one off family type restaurants that Waze probably won't sell to, but people might like to find? Please point me to the POI "Bible List" and I will lable those that should be and not those that shouldn't. Thanks all.
Generally, in the U.S., we landmark schools, government buildings, public parking, Shopping Centers (but not the individual businesses), sports facilities, parks, playgrounds and gas stations.

There's a very good guide in the Connecticut wiki that AndyPoms put together that you could probably follow, although some of the entries are specific to Connecticut. The main thing is that we don't want the map to be cluttered up with a lot of landmarks. They make the map hard to read. That's why the "no individual businesses" is a hard and fast rule. Also remember that putting in POIs in Waze doesn't necessarily mean they'll come up any differently in the search. In the U.S., that's mostly handled by Bing.

There are also guidelines about where to draw the landmarks, which you should check on the forums if in doubt. For instance, a Shopping Center should be drawn to cover the entire property. But most landmarks should always end at the sidewalks or fence line in the aerial view...not at the street, or snapped to the Waze roadway. Other types of landmarks should only cover the building.

I believe we're getting ready to put in general Landmark guidelines into the Wiki to cover the entire U.S., so stay tuned...
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Post by jasonh300
kuduboet wrote:I am confused why it has options like Pharmacy etc in the landmark choices, I would hope that the landmark choices would reflect those that we want people to identify, and don't suggest things like Pharmacy if we don't want businesses. Just my $0.02
Because in the TIGER basemaps, there are defined POI categories. When those basemaps were imported, all of the categories were also imported, but only certain Landmarks were imported...mostly bodies of water and parks.

EDIT: Andy, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!! :lol:
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