[As an experienced Local Guide, I now sometimes come across inconsistencies or notice that errors have been made that I used to make myself when I started out. So I am publishing a few ‘best practice’ posts, in the hope it can help others.]
This is one I struggled with myself quite a bit when I started out as local guide. When you’re walking around in a neighborhood, or explore one on the desktop version of Google Maps, the number of existing points of interest (POI) you get to see heavily depends on the zoom level you are at. Especially in urban areas, where there are obviously much more POIs than in rural areas, it can be quite important to zoom in an out at the appropriate locations.
I have no idea exactly how many different zoom levels there are, but I have experienced that carefully zooming in - even to the level where the maps gets heavily pixelated - can reveal additional places. But being zoomed it in at those extreme levels can make it hard to keep the overview of the area, so it’s really a matter of learning to use this correctly. Also: try zooming it as much as you can on crossroads. That will sometimes reveal one or more POIs that have only a streetname but no house number entered - which is of course a great opportunity to score additional points by suggesting edits. Check the screenshots below to see an actual example.
As I came across a wonderful example of the topic I was discussing in this post I published last Saturday, I have now included some screenshots to illustrate my point.
The zoom factor and its ambuigities is something I deal with everyday since most of my time on Google Maps is devoted to locations on a particular avenue.
I have noticed immediately that some of the sites do not appear until you zoom in quite closely and that even then their labels can be obscured by badly placed tags close by and so I have been editing some of the pins so that the map is much more easily readable.
If there is a logic behind the way that some POI labels only appear when the map is zoomed in to its maximum then I wish someone would explain how it works.
As it stands it can give both a false impression and an unfair advantage of some shops over others.
In an effort to improve matters I have been zooming into the maximum dimension and then moving the local pins so that they are more accurately located on their respective locations and this has already made parts of the map easier to read and has reduced the number of labels which are hidden by others.
On a obliquely related topic, is there any way to add missing places that are currently vacant by their addresses and postcodes ?
It would certainly help in our area to encourage other businesses to more easily gain some idea of available premises in the context of the area.
No @aka_R_n , if the place is vacant, it is not supposed to be on the map - a POI is always linked to a business owner (which is also why the advise is given that, if a place changes owner, you should mark the current POI as ‘Permanently closed’ and create a new POI).
In the meantime I have begun to create my own list of vacant shops (with simple PIN locations) so that I can systematically check that all the details of the avenue are correct and up-to-date block-by-block.
I might try to share that list online at some point in the future once the details of the entire area have been completed.
At some point I will investigate the Pros and Cons of the GMB programme so that I can recommend it to some of the local businesses in the future if it is seems to be of real benefit.
I am also trying to encourage some of the shops that have been on this street for over 3 decades to have more of a web presence so that their Google Maps listing can point to some form of link to make them a lot more accessible.
Our local area has a vibrant online presence in terms of social networks and this can help to bring prosperity to the area and increase the sense of community.
If I have marked the former business at a given address as permanently closed but this edit is still pending will Google Maps automatically reject any new business at this same address ?
If so then there could be a considerable time-lag befween the first pending process and the one that is likely to follow on from that with the creation of a new POI for the current business at the same location.
The damage that this must be doing to smaller shops and cafés must be considerable.
Hey @aka_R_n , that is actually a great idea: make a personal list on maps of vacant places around your neighborhood to easily be able to check afterwards where new POIs could be added.
About your comment “At some point I will investigate the Pros and Cons of the GMB programme so that I can recommend it to some of the local businesses in the future if it is seems to be of real benefit.”: In my view it is beneficial to all businesses to claim their business on Maps and use GMB to gain more control over their data.
In my experience you often get the option to add a new place even if the algorithm suggests if might already exist (“Did you mean…?”). But then again, that suggested add might go pending too… (Nothing new there)
I agree that in many ways it is best to give the shopkeepers total control but having said that would their GMB hold prevent sensible updates to their site by those with a bit more technical experience ?
My concern is that many of them had to be urged (gently, of course) to gain an online presence by being on Google Maps in the first place and then it was quite an effort to encourage them to create Facebook pages so that they could connect with their customer base online and so I am not sure if they would all welcome the prospect of yet another layer of complexity.
By the way, how did you navigate to this section of the forum ?
It is one of many which seems to have been removed from the top level menu now.
So far “Mapping Your World”, “Feedback and Feature Requests”, “General Discussion” and “Let’s Meet Up” appear to be missing from the basic interface.
I found it back because of the notifications on my profile. I have not had the time today to explore this new version a lot, but I do get the impression that it’s more difficult to find older posts. But I postpone my judgement until I have had some more time to explore.
I now wish that I had archived some of the forum pages a few days ago - or taken more screenshots - so that I could have a clearer idea of just how much functionality has been removed.
It does seem like parts of the forum were becoming a bit too controversial for a public audience and so it did not really surprise me that they have now been effectively suppressed.
The immediate removal of our ability to QUOTE was one of the first things which I noticed and I needed it to confirm some of the claims being made by a number of moderators that repeated attempts to add the same missing place could seriously affect our trust rating and make our future additions problematic.
This is why for me the issue of disclosure of our trust ratings has become a paramount issue and one which might come under the jurisdiction of EU legislation as it constitutes privately held data that has a direct impact on aspects of our work.
Olá @JanVanHaver gostei das dicas aqui mencionadas neste post! Sou aqui do Brasil-Brasilia,me chamo wesley também encontro as mesmas notificações para locais ausentes ou erros de endereços no maps.
Sou novo por aqui no local guides connect,gostaria de saber se você saberia me informa um tutorial de como posta e onde visualizar a postagens e muito mais para assim poder melhorar minhas habilidades.
Também percebo que depois da pandemia o google maps apresenta muitos erros de atualização de endereços e lugares no maps ( Ex: Envio de localização),mesmo depois de corrigido demora muito a atualizar a correção do local correto. É isso ai continue a ajudar!
In that case @wesleyvalente1 : welcome to Connect! It can take a while to figure out how everything works here, but fortunately there is a great post that explains the basics:
