Residential business POI's
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16 years
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Hello all:
In using my Garmin 885T I was noticing the large number of buisness POIs in residential areas. It seems to me not many people would want them to show up in a search of nearby businesses. For instance, if I am looking for automotive parts, I do not want to go to the residence of someone who runs an internet auto parts company from his home.
I emailed Navteq and asked about excluding residential POI's from their maps. I was informed by the Navteq person that their business listings originate from Dun and Bradstreet and the final use of the POIs is up to the GPS manufacturer.
I then emailed Garmin with that info from Navteq. The Garmin person informed me that they use the information as supplied by Navteq.
It seems to me that it would be easy to include a byte in the POI file that would convey if a business is at a residence or not. It would certainly save going through a number of useless business listings.
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Hence the need for POI Factory.
Whenever I'm forced to use a built in POI I always call the location first to confirm the actual address.
Perhaps, it has value
Hello all:
It seems to me that it would be easy to include a byte in the POI file that would convey if a business is at a residence or not. It would certainly save going through a number of useless business listings.
If there was a phone number for an internet business, the owner might like a call. I have been to places looking for auto parts which had to be order.
Given that the business file originates with D&B,perhaps the central question is how would Navteq be certain that the area in which the business was located was "residential". Many residential areas are ringed by commercial zoning.
Then there are the businesses that provide a "service" from their residence - like tax preparation.
Upon inspection, the answer is far from straightforward.
How to differentiate residential businesses
Given that the business file originates with D&B,perhaps the central question is how would Navteq be certain that the area in which the business was located was "residential". Many residential areas are ringed by commercial zoning.
Upon inspection, the answer is far from straightforward.
What I would like to see is when a person registers a business with D&B that a field is provided for "is this your residence, Yes/No" that would allow that information to pass from D&B to Navteq, to Garmin. Then a menu choice in the GPS would allow "View residential businesses, Yes/No".
In reality though, I do not expect any of these companies to implement such a change.
How to differentiate residential businesses
[quote=steveinco
What I would like to see is when a person registers a business with D&B that a field is provided for "is this your residence, Yes/No" that would allow that information to pass from D&B to Navteq, to Garmin. Then a menu choice in the GPS would allow "View residential businesses, Yes/No".
In reality though, I do not expect any of these companies to implement such a change.
Years of being in Information Technology have made me continue on.
This can serve as an example of how difficult it is to design a database that will stand the test of time. A "residential" field in the D&B database would add some value - the question is how much. The number of employees might be a good proxy for a one person business that might also be in a residential area. However, what about one person businesses that are in commercial areas?
My understanding of why you posed the question in the first place is that you wanted to be able to differentiate businesses that "stock" merchandise rather than "order and ship". I recently had occasion to visit a house of a person who sold orthotics. This person had a whole basement full of merchandise. Since it was a residential area - indeed a gated community - a good source of custom fitted orthotics might have been overlooked.
I personally think that the trend is toward people setting up home-based businesses. If the apparent trend in this direction continues, now the other side of fields in a database comes up. How and when does the field "residential" get updated? Who has responsibility for the update of the field? This leads to the question of how current the information is.
If one was looking for a particular purveyor of merchandise and looked in the Yellow Pages (or googled the business, would one be able to tell if the business were a "residential" one? I use a plumber and an exterminator who both work out of their home. Of course, in these cases, all I want is the phone number as I do not visit them - they visit me.