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Level 4

Add a level

How to add floor number/level to a business in a mall or building?

There is building with lots of shops and companies in deferent floor but in G Map the floors do not exist.

How to add it to when I am suggesting an edit?

 

10 comments
Level 5

Re: Add a level


@BabakN wrote:

How to add floor number/level to a business in a mall or building?



Same question. Follow this from the UK. Thanks for raising this serious is


@BabakN wrote:

How to add floor number/level to a business in a mall or building?

There is building with lots of shops and companies in deferent floor but in G Map the floors do not exist.

How to add it to when I am suggesting an edit?

 



sue. 

Level 8

Re: Add a level

@BabakN, @JimBee123.  I asked and tried without much luck.

 

Basically, it is just enter into the address field correctly.

 

Suite, Street Address, City, Country, Postal Code

 

Ideally, Suite is just a number that can represent the Floor and Unit.  (Not possible sometimes due to local usage like the case as simple as 08A, for Level 8 Unit A)

 

But due to address prasing issues, they got stripped out when published for me.

 

Please see my thread https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Mapping-Your-World/What-is-the-typical-address-format-in-your-... for what I have tried.

Connect Moderator

Re: Add a level

Hello,

 

What you are referring to is called Indoor Mapping.

 

Indoor Mapping is not available to the public, and can only be set up by Google's Indoor Mapping Team.

 

They do so when the owners submit the plans for the building.  It needs to be the owner or some other person that owns the copyright to the plans, the general public cannot submit them.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages

Level 4

Re: Add a level

Thanks GreggG,

I know about indoor mapping and think it is a good strategy that just the owner can add the indoor map.

However, I think the floor number (or level) is still should be included in the address. Who add a missing place (or edit an existing one) should be able to specify the 3rd dimension as well. 

A mall or business center with no indoor map looks like a mess when all businesses are added.

Generally, Google Maps can add (estimation of) floor numbers without knowing the indoor maps as well (they already know the height of buildings). During the procedure of adding or editing a place, it should be asked to which floor does it belong. 

Connect Moderator

Re: Add a level

Adding a floor number is adding a descriptor, and neither names nor addresses are supposed to have descriptors.

 

I know you feel this should be an exception, but the problem with exceptions is that then the next person thinks there should be another exception, and so on.  Additionally, this is not a needed exception, as indoor mapping does exist and provides the solution.

 

If the owner has not set up indoor mapping yet, for most multi-level buildings where it is not obvious where each tenant might be located there is normally directories at the entrances.

 

In addition, the floor in such buildings is normally indicated by the suite number.  For example, a suite of 326 normally indicates that it is on floor 3.  Suite numbers are allowed parts of addresses; that is what you should attempt to add to the address.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages

Level 4

Re: Add a level

I do not see floor number as a "descriptor". Is the world 2dimentions or 3? I do not think just latitude and longitude is enough; elevation is also needed to specify any point in the map (unless you want to stay with paper-based 2D maps). 

Each business is related to a point in the world which should be modeled by GML Simple Feature Point.

 

Connect Moderator

Re: Add a level

If you are adding information to the standard address in order to describe its location, that is a descriptor.  I'm afraid they are not permitted on the map.  As a trusted reviewer, when people add them to the address I either have them remove it or deny their edit.  The rules of the map are not bent when someone feels something is beneficial; when it comes down to it almost everything someone adds in an edit that don't meet the rules was considered beneficial by the author of the edit.

 

With regards to your points about the world being 3D, as I stated there are already methods by which that information can be relayed.

 

Thank you, though, for your interest in improving the map; that is always appreciated.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages

Level 8

Re: Add a level

So even a shop like Ikea occupy the whole 5th Floor of a Mall-A, we should not add the floor in the address field?

 

Or a supermarket share half of the 4th floor while KFC uses the remaining, we should not add  4A and 4B to their addresses?

 

So what is an Address?

 

I always thought the address shown in the Places are here to help people to locate and visit the business listed.

 

So much to unlearn.

Connect Moderator

Re: Add a level

So even a shop like Ikea occupy the whole 5th Floor of a Mall-A, we should not add the floor in the address field?

 


If you have 90% of the floor and then you take over the other 10%, has your address changed?

 

No, it hasn't, rather if you occupied suites 501 through 509 and used "501" as your address since that was where people entered, then when you take over suite 510 your address would still be "501".

 

Changing "501" to "5th floor" is changing a proper address to a descriptive one.

 

 

Or a supermarket share half of the 4th floor while KFC uses the remaining, we should not add  4A and 4B to their addresses?

 

Are the assigned suite numbers actually 4A and 4B?  If so, use them.  But if it's just something a mapper has used to try to distinguish them, then do not.

 

 

 

So what is an Address? 

 

And address is a formal description of the location that follows rules for the particular address format .  Places have multiple addresses, such as a legal description, a short legal description, a PID (property identification number), a situs address and a postal address, among others.

 

The common format most know that involves street number, street name, city, state/province, etc. could be a postal address or a situs address.

 

What is sought on the map is the situs address, as it provides the specific location.  Often the situs address and postal address match, but usually when they vary it is because the post office is using a different street name, suite number, city name, etc. other than what the actual addressing authority designated (usually the addressing authority is the city or county/district).  The map, though, has the actual assigned street names, the official boundaries of the cities, etc.; thus why the reason the situs address is used.  The situs will always match the reality of the map, whereas the postal address might not.

 

 

I always thought the address shown in the Places are here to help people to locate and visit the business listed.

 

Yes, it is, but that doesn't mean you can add things to it that are not part of the address.  Adding "The blue building", "Across from McDonalds", "Down the stairs" and "Inside Safeway" are all descriptors that may help locate it, but are not part of the address and should not be put in the address.  The same applies to "Floor X".  Adding things that are not part of the address leads to the system not being able to understand the address, and when it does not understand the address all sorts of issues occur.

 

 

So much to unlearn.

 

I'm not sure if you mean you have to unlearn your general understanding, or something you learned while mapping.  Whichever the case, please make sure that everything you do follow the guidelines for mapping, which are currently at support.google.com/mapmaker but which will probably soon move, plus any supplements that came from the Map Maker TCs or any RLs that received the information directly from Google or the TCs.

 

I'll close by pointing out that when you use Map Maker to show you how addresses are stored on the database, you would see that the only place that you could enter a suite or floor would be in the Address Line field.  That field specifically is for numbers only, letters are allowed for situations like "4A" being the suite number but no descriptive words are allowed.  To be more precise you cannot add words such as Unit, Store, Box, Suite, Apartment, Floor, etc. to describe what the number represents.  This is a big reason why you want to use suite numbers instead of floor numbers; "401" or "4A" will help the person find the location since they should be able to match the suite number when they arrive; but "5" would probably have them wandering around the first floor looking for unit # 5 when you actually meant the fifth floor.  Finding out the unit number and putting in "501" will accomplish the goal of getting one to the correct location.  If one does not know the unit number then it should be treated just like any other aspect of the feature for which you are unsure; leave it blank and let the next person with the proper knowledge fill it in.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages