I’m working with various local, national and international representative bodies for the sport of squash.
With the help of Google Maps, our main focus/prority has been identifying squash venues/courts (i.e. the “bricks and mortar” building), all over the world. And if they’re not on Google Maps, then we help to get them listed via the “add a missing place” functionality of Google Maps.
Note that a squash court (or more usually squash courts) could be a standalone/dedicated venue, OR it could be part of a large venue, like a gym or leisure centre.
We note that the Category of a place could be either a squash club, OR a squash court (see screenshot below)
So in our minds, a squash court is the physical premises, and a squash club is the “human construct” that may or many not be associated with squash courts.
Note also that a squash club can be a very “loose” association of members, i.e. most wouldn’t describe themselves as businesses (some would be not-for-profits), and not all squash courts/venues will have any clubs associated with them at all.
My question: should we be ENCOURAGING squash clubs to get themselves listed on Google Maps, i.e. inside the physical squash court(s) out of which they operation? Given that Google Maps does offer up the category of “squash club”, there doesn’t appear to be a technical reason not to.
But my concerns are as follows:
I have my doubts about how keen Google Maps is to list multiple “businesses” inside the same venue. For example, imagine a leisure centre with multiple sports. Will Google be happy to list, “The Tennis Club”, “The Squash Club”, “The Swimming Club”, “The Fitness Club”, etc. etc. all inside the same venue?
If there’s already a listing for “squash courts” on Google Maps, how keen will Google Maps be for someone to add a “squash club” at exactly the same place?
The ability to add places inside an existing location is created exactly for this purpose.
And the fact they Google created two squash categories means that we are welcome to add both the clubs AND the facilities.
I have not experienced problems adding real places (clubs or facilities) inside others locations.
So if the clubs are a real thing they should be added as well. Make sure to name them correctly and differently and give the clubs correct contact info.
Your case is interesting because there are facilities without much of a club. Although in my country all facilities will have some organized club also because that is a prerequisite to get funding.
Cheers
Morten
PS I would avoid placing the two pins exactly on top of each other to allow both to show up on the map at the same time.
Thanks for reaching out! As you know, there is a general category Sports club and more specific categories like Squash club so yes there is no technical reason why a squash club cannot be entered on Maps. Regarding policy, firstly, there is no issue with listing multiple “businesses” inside the same venue. Added to your leisure centre examples, a Maps listed Personal Trainer might regularly run his training sessions on a Maps listed public park. Secondly, the policy requirements that need to be satisfied are that there are a number of people participating in a given club and that it takes place at a permanent, recurring location, in this case a specific squash court.
Edited: @JanVanHaver , my fellow Connect Moderator might be able to add further to your question.
The main difference between having a single place, or a Club inside a Court, @RossG , is if they are really different or if we are talking about the same place (e.g. the club is “managing” the court, the contact (phone) number is the same, etc.)
In the second case the place should be only one, while if we have a club “hosted” in a permanent space inside the court, managed by a different subject, with different contacts, in this last case you are welcome to add both places
Actually @RossG a similar point can be made for quite a few sports-related categories and in fact I have published a post on that very topic a while ago. In the section ‘The Fix’ of that post you can read my attempt to explain how the various categories could be used.
Sincerely thanks everyone for your feedback on this topic.
It all helps to clarify my options and choices.
Taking the question a technical step further: do any of you work with Google Places API?
I ask because I’m trying to find where I can extract the Category data for any given Place. So in particular, I’m trying to find references to “Squash court” or “Squash club” in the data for a Place.
Answering my own question, I went direct to Google to question why the detailed Category information (like “squash club” or “squash court”) apparently isn’t being made available via the Google Places API
They confirmed that it’s not available to be accessed, and pointed me to existing IssueTracker items:
So for reasons best known to Google, they are not providing this information via Google Places API, which is irritating, because it would be very useful for us developers.
