POI Purpose

 

Newbie here and I like the idea of POI's. I am curious as to their real purpose. I guess my question would be if I'm driving around town using my Nuvi 650 and decide I'd like to stop at a local McDonalds. I could ask the Nuvi to show me the way to closest McDonalds or...(?) if I had some McDonalds POI loaded, then if I happen to be coming close to one, the icon would appear on my screen. Is that bascially what's happenning? Not loading the POI wouldn't keep the Nuvi from taking me there...?

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What people tend to find is that the POI database that it built in to the GPS unit may not be as up to date as they might like. Or there may be types of locations that aren't in the database at all. So people create Custom POIs.

In addition, you can set proximity and speed alerts for Custom POIs as well as have Custom Icons and Custom Alerts. You can't do these things with the built in POIs.

Also, for most units, you have to be zoomed in closer to see the built in POIs on the map screen compared to the Custom POIs.

But with either, once it's in the GPS unit, you can navigate to the location.

Custom POI's

many custom POI files are for locations/attractions that are either not present or incomplete in the built in POI's.

Simple as it is -- you just add more to what is in there...

There... I said it in the subject, but basically you just expand the database with your custom objects (Points of Interest.)

For example I have all my fiends' houses, my workplace, some important for me destination points.

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The only things you regret in life are the chances you never take.

POI Purpose

Also, on my Nuvi 260, you can categorize custom POI's but you can't categorize Favorites. So if have a lot of favorites, they're all together in the root of Favorites and harder to find. I have fat fingers so i dont like typing on the non qwert keyboard for searches. I'd rather go to the category and scroll to it if i can.

POI saved my butt

In my haste yesterday to get to the airport 140 miles away in snow, I reserved a hotel online, and dashed out the door. As I got close to the airport, I found that the said hotel wasn't on Garmin map database.

The POI I had completed less than a week ago had the up-to-date information. I avoided getting lost in a snowstorm.

I also noticed that the Starbucks POI file is a lot more up-to-date than the one in Garmin database.

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nüvi 750 & 760

More options

I think the original question was about POIs in general, correct? Yes, if you want to find a particular place to go, pull it up and route to the nearest one. Its only one way to get to a location using the GPS. You can also get there by address, or by map coordinates. The POI is simply an easy way to find where you want to go without needing to have the address or coordinates.

Then there are custom POIs, which is mostly what this site is about. The GPSr is just another tool for getting around. While I can pull up the built in data base for a lot of things, other things just aren't there. For example, we're planning a trip to Glacier National Park. There are dozens of places in the park, trail heads, scenic overlooks, and waterfalls to name a few, that simply are not in the list of built in POIs. So I've been building an extensive database of POIs for the park.

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Chuck - Nuvi 200, Nuvi 255W

Custom POIs

I create POIs based on what makes more sense and find useful rather than POIs that was provided but I could careless of. I don't download all the POIs on this site for the sake of having custom POIs. I only download POIs that I think I would find useful.
As previously mentioned, some of the built in POIs are outdated. I have been guided by the Nuvi to a loading dock of a building in Phoenix, AZ when I was looking for a fuel stop. I'm not going to create a custom POI for fuel stops, since there are so many fuel stops. I don't need the Dunkin Donut POIs, since I won't be eating donuts most of the time, others may like donuts or the coffee. But I've created NJ-restaurant POIs, 'coz I live in NJ, and like to have a list of restaurants when I need it. I have included the cuisine and the phone, so that I can make reservations if I have to and know what kind of food that I feel like having.
Custom POIs are created based on individual preference and are just being shared to everybody.

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nuvi 2460LMT