Logic behind custom POI's

 

I have a question about the logic behind creating custom POI files. I saw on this site the discussion about creating a custom POI for hotels, however, in my Nuvi 350, lodging is included. Some would say that all of the hotels are not in the Nuvi, however, when the custom POI is created all the hotels are also not in this either.

Therefore, how do we get our arms around capturing at least the majority (95%) for any custom POI that is created.

Is there a way to look at the Garmin built in POI file so we can see what locations might be missing and then add them from there? If not, then we are always starting from scratch and we probably miss as many locations as they do, or maybe we do a more thorough job.

Your ideas please.

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I tripped going up the escalator and I fell for an hour and a half!

Custom

I would say the custom is more accurate. The built in is always a few years old so any new ones are usually not in it. The customs are mainly created off the locations on the company websites so the out-of-date factor is not 2-3 years.

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----- Magellan Maestro 5310 ----- Free Garmin Nüvi 270 -----

more choice is good

Garmin POIs tend to be very incomplete. They also may not have any POIs for something that you are interested in.

The quality of POI files here varies. Some are not of great quality either. Others are true labors of love and reflect a lot of effort that has gone into them.

Ya can't have it all

If I understand you correctly, you want a POI file that has every hotel, store, etc.? Such a file would be too large to fit on a NUVI 350.

POI-FACTORY contributors strive to produce complete files for a particular subset. For example, big box discount stores. These are usually for a single chain (WAL MART, Circuit City, etc.). In addition, the files are usually most accurate for the local area of the contributor (metropolitan Los Angles, New York, Chicago, etc). In this way, the contributor can personally check many of the sites to verify information listed on corporate web sites.

Unless you routinely travel coast-to-coast by car, you would never need a complete nationwide POI file in the first place.

I usually load just a subset of the POI files on my NUVI 350 that are applicable to my local area. There are several ways to geographically edit such files).

The real benefit from POI-FACTORY files is that each file can be critically reviewed by users for their area and over time they will approach 100% accuracy.

-jgracey

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I have seen the future and it is now!

Two separate databases

bpa5152 wrote:

Is there a way to look at the Garmin built in POI file so we can see what locations might be missing and then add them from there? If not, then we are always starting from scratch and we probably miss as many locations as they do, or maybe we do a more thorough job.

The built in Garmin database and the Custom POI database are separate in your GPSr. Therefore, if you looked up a hotel in the Garmin database and didn't find it, you would then have to look it up again in a hotel folder in Custom POIs. So making up a complete list as a combination of both built in and Custom POIs wouldn't work.
The data in the Custom POIs is generally more accurate than those in the Garmin Database as many in the Garmin database have moved or closed.

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Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

As an example..

bpa5152 wrote:

I have a question about the logic behind creating custom POI files. I saw on this site the discussion about creating a custom POI for hotels, however, in my Nuvi 350, lodging is included. Some would say that all of the hotels are not in the Nuvi, however, when the custom POI is created all the hotels are also not in this either.

Therefore, how do we get our arms around capturing at least the majority (95%) for any custom POI that is created.

Is there a way to look at the Garmin built in POI file so we can see what locations might be missing and then add them from there? If not, then we are always starting from scratch and we probably miss as many locations as they do, or maybe we do a more thorough job.

Your ideas please.

You need an electronic store i.e. Circuit City... I'm sure you can find one with your Garmin poi, does it still exist? Bottom line the Garmin poi will have many locations that no longer exist..

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It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. -Sophocles snɥɔnıɥdoɐ aka ʎɹɐƃ

Another reason(s)

Another reason(s) to have the Custom POIs is so you can take advantage of Proximity Alerts and also to use the TourGuide functions.

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MrKenFL- "Money can't buy you happiness .. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery." NUVI 260, Nuvi 1490LMT & Nuvi 2595LMT all with 2014.4 maps !

Specific Hotel Chains

A custom POI will give you the ability to look directly for a specific hotel chain. Often when we travel we like to stay at a specific chain because that is where we have most of our points. Instead of sorting through a list of hotels we can go to the custom POI and find the closest hotel in the specific chain.

I got it, great answers.

I got it, great answers. Thanks

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I tripped going up the escalator and I fell for an hour and a half!

Actual Location

I'm surprised no one else mentioned this, but another advantage of custom POIs is that the coordinates are usually more accurate than the built in POIs.

All of the built in POIs are created by batch geocoding. This means that the coordinates are based on assumptions as to the location of the actual address.

Whereas with a custom POI the creator, if he or she so chooses, can select the actual coordinates using a satellite image.

Custom POI's (Better)

We have a Chili's Restaurant by us now over 3 years old, but still doesn't show up on Garmin POI's, it only shows 2 in town, we now have 4. But with custom POI's it now show all the locations. And that's just here in town, one of my favorite places to stop at.

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Nuvi-3760 *** Magellan-5045

It was metioned about

It was metioned about specific places and I have to agree with this.

Being a service tech, I like the ability to call up a Home Depot or Lowes to get that whatever little thing that I just found to be bad. I don't have to wonder if the built in POI will have it - I just go to the custom.

The same holds true with food - easily find a chain (McD or whatever) if it was downloaded into the custom POI. And as was said, there are some people who like specific hotels and this certainly would be beneficial.

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It's a good thing that there's GPS systems or I would be ... always lost!

Here's what I do.....

I travel around a fair amount throughout a 6 state area plus some travel beyond that. I create POIs for all of the offices I have to visit. Since these visits often include overnight stays and places to eat, I create POIs for recommended hotels and restaurants. I can also add information such as phone numbers, notes, and photos to help me while I'm there. Looking at the Garmin POIs, their list contains all hotels and all restaurants....rather than looking at that lengthy list, I focus on my own shorter lists. The result is many POI groupings of a few records each.

Because I prefer the better product.

As others have noted, there's quite a number of reasons to go for custom POIs rather than "what's in the box" (no matter your POI-able GPS device of choice):

a) If you use a specific chain (say, you've got a rewards card through a certain brand), you may want a POI with that specific brand/chain rather than a general POI for hotels, etc.

b) As amazing as it sounds, custom POIs on POI-Factory in particular tend to not only be more accurate but are updated rather more frequently than the POIs that are "in the box" from GPS manufacturers.

I can mention a few other reasons to use a custom POI set:

c) "In the box" POIs don't cover everything and you may want a specific set for specific attractions that GPS manufacturers don't include. (For example, I don't know of an "out of the box" POI set that includes, say, a list of national parks or National Recreation Areas. I can get that list here.)

d) "In the box" POIs tend not to include quirky or specialised interest sets for travel.

In my case, I do keep a special POI for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and for "fair trade" coffeehouses--the latter of which I've shared with POI-Factory; I also have downloaded the microbreweries POI list because that *is* one of the things I tend to find of interest. I also like the fact I can pick up things like the RideToEat lists to see new restaurants I might want to check out on a trip.

e) "In the box" POIs don't account for regional interests.

One of the things I love about POI-Factory in particular is that there are multiple "metro area" projects where you can get specialised POIs for things of regional interest. (For example, I do travel to Chicago rather frequently, and I like that I can pick up a POI of (say) all the Giordano's in the area.)

(And to Chicago natives--not about to start a pizza holy war between Giordano's and Gino's; in this case, I can order cook-at-home Giordano's to take home as "care packages". grin)

All in all, I find the POIs here to be (to be blunt) rather more useful than the default sets in standalone GPS's or GPS programs.