Category changes - the ultimate overview

[JanVanHaver]

A screenshot of the StreetView image of a place on Maps where I recently changed the category (from drugstore to pharmacy)

Beyond any doubt, my favorite topic when it comes to Google Maps is: the categories of the places on Maps. Thist started out by discovering just how much there were - actually in a bit of an accidental way, as I admitted in an early post. After a while I found out that quite a lot of places in areas where I spend most of my time had either an incorrect, or not an optimal category linked to them. And I started stumbling onto inconsistencies in the list of categories available to local guides.

So I decided to dig deeper into the details of what was there and tried to come up with suggestions, posted in Idea Exchange, to improve the current situation. And around that time, I also found a nice way to figure our if anything had changed to the list of categories: news ones being added or existing ones being removed. So, my next move was to start making posts focusing on those newly added categories. Which turned out to be posts that triggered quite a bit of positive feedback from my fellow local guides.

What I want to do now, is make a list of those 'new categories' posts - where I will in the future also be adding the new posts I publish on that topic (so: better bookmark this post now 😉). Here we go:

• Categories added & changed - Q1 2024 (March 2024)
• Categories added & removed - fall 2023 (October 2023)
• Categories: a bunch are added, a bunch are removed (July 2023)
• New categories in Q1 2023 (April 2023)
• A category we've been waiting for: Memorial (December 2022)
• More German school types (and a few other new categories) (October 2022)
• Excellent news for pickleball fans! (August 2022)
• Did Google stop adding categories? No: here are some brand new ones! (April 2022)
• Category edits urgently needed: Vehicle Wrapping Service (November 2021)
• More Restaurant Categories (August 2021)
• New category 'American Grocery Store' (May 2021)
• New healthcare categories (March 2021)
• A flood of new categories - with focus on Asia (February 2021)
• For feline friends: Cat categories! (October 2020)
• Another bunch of new categories (August 2020)
• Once again: New category alert! (May 2020)
• Exciting new categories that you will certainly use (March 2020)
• Early Christmas present: 9 new categories (December 2019)
• Category clean-up: more removed than added (August 2019)
• Will you ever use these new categories? (May 2019)
• New category alert! (April 2019)
• New categories available: makerspace & golf shop (January 2019)
• New car dealer categories available (September 2018)

There's also a series of posts looking into the specific category-problems in certain domains. The series is called Categories Explained (?)

• Categories Explained (?) – Insurance
• Categories Explained (?) – Wellness
• Categories Explained (?) – Ball Sports
• How to check category translations

BONUS: Here are some posts related to categories, showcasing that the Google Maps team does take feedback into account and corrects mistakes:

• The Maps team DOES listen to our feedback
• Two category translation mistakes in Danish

[HiroyukiTakisawa]

Helo, @JanVanHaver 

Yes, the issues about the categories on Google Maps are a really important and complicated topic for me too. There are some categories that depend on each country, so they make more difficult to understand this topic.
Your idea is very interesting. I'll follow you 🙂 Thank you for sharing!

[iorikun301]

For me, @JanVanHaver , choosing the right category for POI is not always easy. Because for some categories it seems only have a little differentiation from one to another.

For example the "drugstore" and "pharmacy", as you've said. For some people, including me, they didn't know for sure what is the differentiation  between a drugstore and a pharmacy. We only know that they both sells drugs/pharmacies. That's same.

I think the problem is we doesn't have the clear description of each category listed (or do we have?). If we have this description, I think we could categorized the POI better to its category.

For example in my city, there are some convenient stores that are categorized under grocery store. Or a hawker stall for restaurant. And so on.. ☺☺

[JanVanHaver]

Actually @HiroyukiTakisawa I am trying to make "categories in international context" a topic that should be treated in some way during Connect Live 2020 (I mentioned it on my application and will do the same if there will be further opportunities to give feedback), so if you want to help getting that realized, that would be great of course. In my view it is really a shame that the Maps team is not leveraging the local knowledge of local guides to also improve this.

[JanVanHaver]

@iorikun301 one of the ideas I entered on Idea Exchange was to provide definitions for categories, but unfortunately that was closed already. This should not cause us to lose hope, however, because another idea I submitted, which had been closed months ago, was recently reopened and is now Implemented.

[HiroyukiTakisawa]

I agree with you, @JanVanHaver  We will happily support it and provide our knowledge and experiences.

[ken_jp]

@JanVanHaver 

Hello!
Thank you for information.
Great photo.
Thank you very much.

[JanVanHaver]

Great to hear you find it helpful @ken_jp - and there is more good news: I have noticed there are once again some new categories added and will post on that later today.

[AlejandraMaria]

¡Hi @JanVanHaver !

I didn´t have any doubt that your passion is editing and categories 😀 You are a Master of Masters.

"'Pig farm'" veeeeery curious... Reading you, I am more open to learn a little about these topics. I don´t know why but I am not a fan of editing... 

A big hug from the South of Spain,

Alejandra 💃🏼.

[JanVanHaver]

If the hug is virtual @AlejandraMaria that is perfectly alright now 😜