5 ms·
I’ve found that these sorts of annotations are a lot better in the US than in other industrialized countries. In foreign countries, points of interest in Google
by MontyCarloHall 4y ago
I’ve found that these sorts of annotations are a lot better in the US than in other industrialized countries. In foreign countries, points of interest in Google Maps are often missing basic info like opening hours or even telephone numbers. Often times the actual location is misplaced on the map.
When it comes specifically to restaurant menus in the US, most seem to be manually transcribed by the restaurant staff. The items and prices are correct (but often out of date), and food descriptions faithfully reproduce non-native spelling/grammar mistakes. In addition, I almost always see user-uploaded photos of the menus.
This does not point to a difference in Google’s automatic parsers or in the level of Google-generated content; it seems that US users contribute to map and PoI content a lot more.
I wonder why this is. My guess is that there are far fewer staff members at Google curating crowdsourced content outside of the US, which makes non-American users much less likely to contribute, since their contributions will appear much more slowly, if at all. I’ve contributed my own corrections to PoI data in the US (e.g. opening hours updates) and seen it reflected on the map in a few days. This probably wouldn’t happen elsewhere in the world.
- ramchip 4y agoIn Japan Tabelog is a lot more popular than Google Maps for restaurant reviews, photos, etc. I think it caters better to the local market.
- yeputons 4y ago> points of interest in Google Maps are often missing basic info like opening hours or even telephone numbers. To be fair, sometimes neither of these exist. A place in some parts of the EU may be open whenever the owner feels like it. You can't even approximate opening hours and holidays unless you actually ask the person over the counter when they're actually open.
- elijaht 4y agoTangential but Google will call restaurants with their automated assistant to verify hours
- notahacker 4y agoI imagine this often gets treated with the same disdain I treat Google's emails asking me if my family's structural engineering business is open on Christmas Day. (Funnily enough, no human has ever asked this!)
- hunter2_ 4y ago> it seems that US users contribute to map and PoI content a lot more. I can't point to an example or cite a source (as this is just a guess), but maybe US users unknowingly contribute via Google Photos doing OCR (and other analysis) and combining it into Maps data, while Google is more careful about running AI against every photo taken by EU users (and using it to help in ways that go beyond exclusively the UX of the photographer) for data privacy compliance reasons?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ohgodplsno 4y agoIt's not just Google Maps. Google gives absolutely zero shits about any country that is not the US. Actions for Google doesn't let you make custom intents if it's not in en-US. The Pixel for the longest time released US-only/US-first. Features are always locked and only available for the US.
- easrng 4y agoThere are also features they release India-first.
- makeitdouble 4y agoYour guess is probably right. Outside of curation, I think Maps lacks polish from non-US devs, and that results in weirdly unconvenient maps for a lot of cities, leading to people using it and contributing less to it. For instance train station mapping (where are the entries/exits) is a feature available in some local map services and is a big quality of life improvement in europe or SEA cities, but never made it to Google Maps. Same for the lack of multi-story building mapping, where there’s only a single shop for a single address, which can still work out for shopping malls (they have their own site), but is crazy for densely packed neighborhoods. Looking for restaurants in Paris or Tokyo through Google Maps is just frustrating.
- lozenge 4y agoIf I get public transport directions in Tokyo using Google it advises on exits, best train boarding position, and fares. In London none of these are available. Admittedly, I think the first two are deliberate, but surely London can provide fare data. Another bias I've noticed is US sites "collapsing" opening hours as if there is no siesta, ie opening hours are just displayed as 10am-11pm.