A Burning Question

I recently learned that I did a bad thing while trying to get information about Shell gas stations. The information was available to everyone logging onto the site, but I over used it. I even learned that there are names for people like me doing this type of thing. Many of the POI files on POI-Factory are small and/or local and not difficult to gather information regarding them. I think that other files are created with assistance by whatever company they are for because they are happy to get the word out about where they are. Others obviously do not want you to know where they are.

I also think that I have been frowned upon and possibly given the cold shoulder because I have openly stated that I am re-working the Shell Gas Station file. Please let me explain.

I live ½ mile from a Shell gas station. The address is 13666 W US 84, Newton, AL 36352. The address is slightly off when viewed by Google Earth (or Maps). The coordinates in the POI Factory file (31.308618,-85.606229) place the station 5.9 miles off from the actual location among several houses in the middle of nowhere. Coordinates that will place you in the driveway of the station are (31.242309,-85.614273). Based on that misinformation, I did a look up to see how many stations were listed for Dothan, AL. None of the 8 stations around Dothan were listed, and the only other one that was close was listed for Midland City, AL. This piqued my interest and I found out that there were many more that wasn’t listed or the information should be modified and updated. I sent an update to ScottK, but received no answer and no updates have been made to the file since 11/14/2008 to my knowledge. I therefore decided to try to make the file as clean as possible, primarily for my own use as a Shell credit card holder.

Findings: Original file claims 3667 locations in all 50 states. I have been able to identify a total of 412 stations in Alabama (this includes those AL locations in the original file). Of those, I have verified 285 by Google Earth. 127 stations I can’t verify (see a picture) or locate on anything I use.

I have been able to identify a total of 959 stations in Florida (before being blocked). There are probably many more, but of that total, I verified 543 (Google camera). I could not locate or verify 75 and I still had 341 to be looked up.

To put this into perspective, there are approx 1,371 stations in Alabama and Florida combined. That only leaves approx 2300 stations for the other 48 states (California and Texas probably have that many, if not more).

MY BURNING QUESTION: If what I did (spidering, boting, crawling) was wrong, HOW did the original file get created? I am pretty sure that it was not pieced together one station at a time from submissions by individual people. I am also pretty sure that Shell Oil Company did not supply the information.

ADDENDUM: Garmin 2009 and 2010 maps do not show the original station above and only shows 5 of the 8 stations in Dothan, AL. Where does Garmin get their information for their POI’s? I know that the units aren’t smart enough to identify every type of business encountered while driving happily down the road. Everyone talks about the maps being over a year old and not up to date. I can prove that the same applies to at least one of the files on POI-Factory.

Curt