Philippine Places Policy
- Introduction
This will serve as a guide for Waze Philippines on how to edit places and what should be approved and rejected for Place Update submissions.
EDITING PLACES
New Places
The first thing to do when adding a new place is to make sure the location is correct. Then make sure the contemplated place will not be a duplicate of another place on the WME, be it an Area Place or a Point Place. Next, determine whether it should be an Area Place or Point Place (see guidelines for place type), then choose the appropriate category (see place categories). Once you've added a place you must then add all the pertinent details. At the minimum you should put the Name and Address. Unnamed places are useless for navigation and are not searchable on the app. As for place addresses, remember to remove the DPWH RNS number from the street name, and make sure the house number is purely numeric (letters will not be accepted). If an Area Place will cover beyond a city's/municipality's boundary or will cover more than one city/municipality, mark the city address as none. For bodies of water like creeks, rivers, lakes, sea, etc. mark the city address as none, this is so that their area will not be added to the city tile.
The main differences for these are:
- Area Places - These are primarily POI locators but also serve another function on the Waze map. They serve as navigation aids and cues. So if a landmark serves as a navigation cue and is more than 50m on it's X or Y coordinates, you can add it. If it is smaller than 50m, consider adding a Point Place. Compounds and buildings fall into this place type.
- Point Places - These are the main POI locators for establishments that you want to add on the map. Adding these makes these places searchable on the Waze app. If there is already an Area Place, do not add a Point Place and vice versa. Establishments inside a building or compound fall into this place type.
- Special note for places:
- Gas Stations - Gas stations should always be mapped as Area Places. When adding these and X or Y coordinates are not long enough, consider adding a small spike on one of the sides so that it goes over 50m in length so that it gets displayed on the client app.
- Parking Lots - All parking lots should be mapped as Area Places. Once added to the WME, Parking Lots categories cannot be changed so be very careful about using this category or approving PURs using this category.
Refer to the Places Policy for more details on what can be added.
HANDLING PLACE UPDATE REQUESTS
Reviewing New Places
Approve
- New places that are legitimate POIs. Confirm if it is a real place.
- New places marked as Residence/Home WITH Address (Street number and Street)
- Correct capitalization and spelling of Place Name
Reject
- Places that are actually roads
- Duplicate places
- Incorrect capitalization and spelling
- Incorrect information
- If the new area contains more information or detail than the existing area, copy these information over to the old place and then reject the new place submission.
Pictures
Before taking a picture and submitting (approving for us editors) it, put yourself in the shoes of someone who will be going to that place and does not know where to go or look. The picture should be something that will make it easier for anyone to find that place.
Every user (trusted or not) can become blacklisted and banned from adding places once they have tried adding a certain amount of places or updates which have been rejected. We also track places that have been flagged and removed - if we see a pattern where a certain user created many of these, he might be blacklisted.
Approve
- Clear image of entrance/facade
- Clear image of building or structure
- Images including a signage / billboard of the establishment displaying its name &/or address
- House or residence images set to private viewing
Reject
- House or residence images set to public viewing
- Obstructed view or taken while inside a vehicle
- Images with faces
- Dark images
- Blurred images
- Images with clear plate number of vehicles
- Interior images of buildings
- Images showing incorrect place
- Pornographic images
Updates on Places' Information
The general guideline to use to determine whether to Accept the update is,
Adding place addresses
When adding the address of a place, add the number if you know it or add the street name. DO NOT add the RNS route numbers, just the official street names.
"Is the majority of information provided in the update correct?"
A Place update, if the user completes ALL the information, can be extremely long
Even if some of the data is incorrect, or the photo included in the update improper and unhelpful to drivers, the editor can still remove the photo or update/delete the incorrect information after accepting the update. It is better, faster, and more honest to accept the good information from the driver, and fix the problems, rather than rejecting the entire update and filling in the info yourself.
Approve
- Correct information
Reject
- Wrong information
- Wrong capitalization
- Converting to Residence/Home if the place is not a house
- If it is a private residence but does not contain a street number and street name