New Member - Great site!! Question

First of all, Timmor, welcome to the Factory, the best GPS/POI site on the Web. Lots of knowledgeable folks here.

Second of all, not enough businesses provide GPS-usable information. One that does, however, is Sheetz. Sheetz is a large chain of gas stations in the East and Midwest. Take a look at their site - their GPS stuff is terrific.

Again, welcome.

Welcome to the site.

The problem with using geocoders is that they "guestimate" the coordinates. Let's say you have a city street with addresses that range from 1000 to 2000. If you input 1500, the geocoders will usually place the coordinates half way down the street. But as we all know addresses aren't evenly spaced. Or worse is when the street doesn't use the entire range of addresses.

That's why the built in POIs are usually inaccurate, because they are created using geocoders. Whereas a lot of the POIs on this site use the actual gps coordinates.

Welcome to the site Timmor. Your observations are right on target. One of the problems our custon POIs encounter is maintenance. Members extract information to build their files but need assistance from people like you to keep them up to date.

As large as the Olive Garden chain is, it is next to impossible to tell when new locations are built or others closed. So if you would provide the information on your missing location I'm certain it would be added to the file in short order.

That makes sense, especially if I need the GPS to take me to the front door.

But what if I'm driving down the Interstate looking for a favored place to eat or sleep? I don't mind if I'm a few hundred feet off because most businesses have pretty good signage once you get close.

Maybe I'm just more tolerant to "being close" since I'm an old guy who is used to flying by the back of my jeans

Thank You, I'll drive by the local location and then post it.

Admittedly I'm new to this stuff but I guess I'm surprised why every chain type of business doesn't provide and "official" poi of their locations.

BTW.. Are there any POIs for Golf Courses in New Mexico? My son lives in Albuquerque and I get down there 2-3 time a year. Thanks!

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/29395
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/16046

Welcome to the great group that keep this forum alive and kicking.

It would be a good thing for business, and patronage if businesses put the coordinance of their front door, right on their website, business cards, even phonebooks (while they last). The coordinance is more accurate than an address. The address lot of times can be off from yards, to miles.

You will need to send a note to Miss Poi since there is no contact tab for P38nut.
http://www.poi-factory.com/user/12710

p38nut has a discussion thread for the Olive Garden POI: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/3010. Post your corrections there.

You don't need to actually drive to a location to get its lat/long. If you're not already, get familiar with Google Earth. With GE, you can find your Olive Garden or any other point of interest and get its latitude and longitude down to six decimal places.

Here is a GE tutorial that might help
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30395

It may not help you, but Tim Horton's coffee shop chain in Canada has access to a POI file of all their locations.

Thanks, Yes I am familiar with Google Earth. For the local Olive Garden I'll just do a drive by.

There seems to be some disagreement on how accurate the "conversion" tools are. Is Google Earth any better?

I'm still amazed that businesses that have many locations (franchises) don't create and maintain a POI file of their locations. Has there ever been an effort to reach out to this community of businesses?

BTW, how does On-Star do it? I assume they have made their own set of locations but it is pretty impressive (my wife's car has it).

I find GE to be right on the money. I use it quite a bit.

AND - welcome to the site. What a great place to find answers to all your questions.

Try http://itouchmap.com/ as their site shows coordin. in various formats....

And welcome.

Welcome aboard!

Yes, creating a POI from a list of addresses is easy, but as previously mentioned the accuracy of those programs is not 100 percent accurate by any means. Maintaining the additions and deletions is a headache. User input with updates is greatly recommended and appreciated.

As an example, I just added another Remote ATM to the BofA file tonight. The address was correct for the strip mall, but the ATM was actually next to the street behind the stores. If you went strictly by the address to get the L/L, you might never find it by driving to it.

BTW all, the Bank of America ATM listings for Florida is almost finished. What a nightmare that is. The BofA site does not always say that there is a Drive-up ATM, even though it is plainly visible in Google Steet view. So I have to try to verify every one. The best indicator (if the ATM cannot be "seen") is that the heaviest oil slick is usually at the ATM!

All the other states have been pretty good about the ATM listing. If it says "In Lobby" then it's inside the foyer of the bank, a mall or an enclosed Remote. If it says "Drive-up" then that's what it is (not always with the drive-up window). If it says none of the above, then it's an outside walk-up. BUT NOT IN FLORIDA! Oh well, that's the way it goes.

Enjoy the site. There are lots of people here willing to help, if asked.

welcome to a great place and a whole lot of help when needed.
mike

welcome to a great place and a whole lot of help when needed.
mike

Enjoy the site.

His firts days in this Fantastic community, and he ALREADY gets to send a note to Miss POI ?

I'm dead jealous of that newbie - I'll wish him a warm welcome all the same, but I'm still jealous !

Miss POI, when are you visiting our holiday place in Southern France ? There's loads of POIs to build out here, it's a real jungle, y'know ?

Oh - and De Niro will be here in May, for the Film Festival in Cannes. I'll get you to meet him if you want ?

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What I wouldn't do to get a reaction from our Miss POI, the envy of the whole WWW community ! I'll try and send some thanks as well - http://locaspera.free.fr/tools/thanks.htm ....

I might need to make a new award for biggest flirt.

There are quite a few of you that would be in the running.

Miss POI

Age, a beloved wife, three granddaughters and a very demanding German Shep puppy (going on six months old) all those reasons for not running in the sense you were implying. Oh - and the beloved wife comes before ANY and ALL reasons

"Charmer" is an adjective I'll accept in its graceful form, though.

And think for a second, why are you getting such attention and so many kind or "flattering" comments? Could it be for the simple reason that you actually deserve them ?

I'm a poor judge, I'll therefore let you reach any conclusions

With my kindest, sunniest greetings and regards, from Southern France