“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
Benjamin Brewster
Local Guide Best Practice: Improve your reputation
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[This is one of a series of articles originally published on Local Guides Connect]
By submitting suggestions for edits, you build up a reputation in terms of certain types of edits and/or certain regions or countries. This is very important for the way the algorithms evaluating the suggested edits are taking your reputation into account: if your ‘trust level’ is high for specific factors, your suggestions will more easily be approved.
Let me illustrate this with some specific examples. When I came across a chain of discount supermarkets that is operational is several countries, and noticed that quite a few of them had an incorrect category (either ‘grocery store’ or ‘supermarket’ in general) I obviously had the unstoppable urge to Continue reading
Song of the day: Allez Allez – Allez Allez
In the early 1980’s there was a spectacular wave of interesting Belgian bands. This was not obvious to me at the time, as I (born on the mid 60’s) was just discovering music, so I figured this abundance was the default situation. Only in retrospect did I realize how exceptional the era was.
Such a bold statement of course begs for some proof to back it up, so here’s a very nice example: Allez Allez (which happens to be both the name of the band and the song).
Local Guide Best Practice: Create on mobile / Complete on desktop
[This is one of a series of articles originally published on Local Guides Connect]
There are basically two different ways of adding/editing information on Google Maps: in the mobile app on your phone or in the browser on your computer (a.k.a the desktop version – although it’s frequently used on laptops too). Both have their pros and cons, but in one particular case I find it most convenient to use a combination of the two.
Picture by Skitterphoto on Pixabay – so: not my gear
Adding a new place is typically done in the mobile app, when you are walking around in a city or area and come across a point of interest (POI) that is not yet showing up on the map. And although technically you can perfectly Continue reading
Quote of the day #109
“Knowledge is hard, opinions are easy.”
Alicja Gescinska
Just asking… #8 – Conflicting German laws
As you might or might not know, in Germany it is illegal to stretch your arm into a certain forward and slightly upward position (for those who have no idea what I am talking about: Google the terms “Germany” and “1930s”). Another set of laws regulate the way you need to behave when taking part in traffic on public roads. One of those rules makes it mandatory for cyclists, for example at crossroads, to indicate which direction they want to go by stretching out their arm in the direction they are heading. No problem so far.
But please take a close look at the crossroad in this picture.
When cycling back from the office I have to go straight ahead (where the pedestrian is crossing the road), but as you can see from the traffic sign, that is not a simple continuation of the direction I am travelling, but rather a change of direction. So I need to indicate this by stretching my arm in that direction. But would that then not be a violation of the other law? Just asking…
Local Guide Best Practice: Find the right category
[This is one of a series of articles originally published on Local Guides Connect]
I did not intend to publish this tip, as it was something which also happened to me, and I felt really silly when I figured out what the solution was. But a few days ago there was a question on the forum from someone facing exactly the same problem. So I will confess to it after all.
When you add a new point of interest, one of the mandatory fields is ‘category’. You can’t submit the information unless you add something in that field. And obviously you want to add the best fitting category. But the problem seems to be that the list you get presented to choose from is quite short and only contains some general categories (Restaurant, School, Bank, etc). Some very basic things like ‘Hair salon’ or ‘Accountant’ are simply not listed!
This was an easy one – and in the “default” list: bank
If you’re at this point, you have made the invalid assumption that the categories in that list are the only ones you can choose from. You should really only look at them as a kind of frequently used categories that are shown as examples. In reality you can access almost 4.000 different categories (or 3.000 in most other languages). The only thing you need to do is start typing the name of what you are looking for. In the hair salon example, typing ‘hair’ will certainly show you the category you are looking for. Yes, it is that easy.
The original article can be found here
Disclaimer: the practices described here as best practice are my personal interpretation, and I don’t claim any level of official endorsement.
