As a foreigner in South Korea, who is not fully understanding the local language, finding the proper places on your own is not an easy task. Getting lost while driving, miscommunication, and misunderstanding are common examples that are proving how difficult it is to live in such a situation. As a Local Guides, of course, I thought of using Google Maps in the first place. Yet, Google Maps in South Korea has not been fully featured for some reason. It’s strictly regulated by the government that Korean domestic geographical information cannot be exported to other countries and thus Google Maps which is based in the US. This condition leads Google Maps into the underrated level as compared to local Maps services like Kakao Maps and Naver Maps. Lack of (or missing) Places and wrong information of existing Places are some of the examples.
The first thing that makes Google Maps in South Korea inferior is limited information about Places. When you open Kakao Maps on your phone you will find a lot of information about Places in your surroundings. This information includes a name (in English if you set the language English), category (by symbol) and building number, as shown in Fig. 1 below. Meanwhile, if you open Google Maps you will not find the same experience. Number of Places displayed is quite a few, the name is also only in Hangeul which is not foreigner-friendly and the text displayed doesn’t look pleasing at all like text made of low-resolution images.
To minimize this lack of Places, I am trying to add as much as new Places with as detailed as information including name, phone number, hours and the most important precise location. Here is one of the examples of the new Place that I added (Fig. 2)
When I traveled to Cheongju City I visited the only mosque in the area with my friends. When I checked on Google Maps, this Place was not added yet. I thought this mosque is the only one so that it will not be easy to find by other Muslims. So I decided to add this place that will be very impactful.
The second thing is outdated (or even missing) information for the existing Places like inaccurate positions, opening hours, etc. Sometimes, a store changes the opening hours for some reasons or move the location to the next door. Without updated information, users will be misled. I had an experience when trying to find a convenience store called GS25. On Google Maps it is shown that location next to the Lotteria restaurant as on the image below (Fig. 3). When I visited that place it was not there. I got confused and after walking around that area, eventually, I found that place was actually moved to the next block, exactly on the location where Tours Les Jours is. And Tours Les Jours was not there anymore. As soon as I found this misinformation, I edited the pinpoint location on Google Maps as shown in Fig. 2 left.
Having the correct information about Places is very important in using Google Maps so that we will not be misled. Particularly, in South Korea where there are still many missing Places and wrong information. I believe in the future the new Places I added and the correct information I provided will be very impactful for others as I have been getting impact by many Local Guides around the globe. This is the most interesting thing I’ve done as a Local Guide.