Places

Places are searchable destinations in the Waze map. They are similar to the "Points of Interest" found in certain popular GPS devices.

Area Places appear as polygons in the Waze app. Too many of them can clutter the map, creating large gray zones that do not help Wazers orient themselves. Therefore, it is important to use area places only when they are distinctive and significant enough to orient drivers.

Point Places don't show in the Waze map. They can be used to help Wazers find the public places, especially when they are not already listed in the other destination search engines.

The table of Place categories and types, provides guidelines to help map editors decide between point and area places.

Place Details

Every Place, whether Point or Area, should have as much detail completed as possible. This includes a name, proper categorization, and full street address, city and state. If any Place does not have a City or Street, check the None checkbox.

General Tab

The General tab for a Place is where you complete all of the basic information: categories, name, description, gas brand, residential/public, country, state, city, street and house number.

Here is an example of a Gas Station Area with its details completed:

Place Details

Category

We choose about 120 categories based on what Waze users currently search for. We aimed to have them as wide as possible, and we understand there might be a lot of places without an exact suitable category. For these places, please use the categories that could contain the category they’re in.

• A Place can be assigned to multiple categories
• The Primary Category for a Place must be the first one you enter
• The Primary Category is displayed in a darker shade of blue than the others
• The Primary Category is used to determine whether to use a Point or Area for the Place

Name

The correct naming format is to Capitalize Each Word.
When naming Point Places which are contained within an Area Place in this way, it may be desirable to include the Area's name in the separate Point Place names. If this is desirable, name the Point Places with the specific name first, followed by the Area name, as such:

Point Specific Name Area General Name

For example, "Faculty of Agriculture UPM" or "Hush Puppies Mid Valley Megamall". There are two exceptions: airport Point Places, and emergency rooms.
Primary Name

• Must in the alphanumeric format.
• Must follow the actual name that show on their business signboard or the name that show on their official website.
• For the Gas Station the primary name must clearly indicate the brand of the gasoline a gas station sells.

Alternative Name

• The name that use/known by local.
• Any name that are not in the alphanumeric format (Example : 中文, بهاس جاوي , 日本の, 한국의)

Place Name Harmonization

For the place that have multiple outlet, please refer to place locator in the Place Name Harmonization page to verify it official name.

Brand

If you know what brand gasoline a gas station sells, you should select it as the Brand. Stations named after their brands, such as big companies like PETRONAS, Shell, Petron, Mobil, ESSO, are easy to identify the brand which should be selected. If the brand gasoline a gas station sells is new and isn't available in the drop down list, leave the field blank.
This field is only available for the Gas Station.

Description

BEWARE: Do not use the Description field for notes to other editors. This field is visible in the Waze app, and should only contain details pertinent to the Place itself.

Lock

Places considered fundamental to the functioning of the Waze app, such as Gas Stations, should be locked at least to Level 3 to prevent loss of data due to automatic acceptance of submissions from Trusted Users. Other complex, intricate, or crucial Places such as Police Stations, Fire Departments, Airports, Parks should also be considered for locking to prevent loss of data.

Note :-
Please lock all the moderated places at minimum Level 3.

Type

Public places can be turned into private places, but private places cannot be turned into public places. Use this to convert places mistakenly labeled as public into private. Private places only contain photos and an exact address, without all the other properties of a place.

Address

When all the detail below has been complete, click the Apply button. If no changes are to be made, click the Cancel button.

Street

• Use the Street Name that near to the place entrance.
• If the road does not have a name, the "None" check box should be selected and street name left blank.
• Only Street Name are allow. Do not include the house number and the name of residential area in the street field

House Number

• Definitions :-
  • The unique number given to each building on a street which forms part of that building's address
  • The street address numbers painted on a building (or an object such as a mailbox or post near the building), or painted on the curb of the street in front of the building.
  • House Number is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a postal address. The term describes the number of any building (residential or not) or vacant lot with a mailbox.
• Please do not confuse the house number with the phone number.
• Leave the House Number field blank if you don't know the place house number.

City
Use the name of the city that the place located

Country
Only Malaysia are allow in the Country field cause you are editing in Malaysia

More Info Tab

In the More Info tab is additional helpful information for the Place. Here you will add phone number, website, additional services, and hours of operation:

Place More Info

Services

Services help users decide if they should drive to a particular place. Here are descriptions of available services. Waze uses the same set of services for every place type. The service checkbox only has two states, 'yes' or 'no answered', thus there is no way to determine if a place either does not have a service or an editor hasn't added one yet.

Valet service The place has valet parking whereby drivers can valet their car, leaving it with an attendant who will park it for them. These services could be free or fee-based.

Drive-through The place has a drive-through window, which serves food or other items via window that allows the driver not to leave their vehicle. Restaurants, banks, and pharmacies often have drive-through windows.

Wi-Fi The place has free Wi-Fi available for customers. Wi-Fi can be completely open, or accessible with a password that the place operator supplies the user.

Restrooms The place has public restrooms where customers can use a toilet.

Accepts credit cards The place accepts any type of credit card for payment of goods or services. At this time Waze does not differentiate between credit card types.

Reservations The place accepts reservations, i.e. a reserved time for dining in the place.

Outdoor seating The place allows diners to eat outside, weather permitting. Outdoor seating may be on the curb, sidewalk, or in a fenced in area on the premises.

Air conditioning The place has air conditioning, to cool and dehydrate the air when the ambient temperature considered to be warm or hot. This may be possible to infer by looking for air conditioning condensers or chillers on roofs or near buildings on aerial photography within the Waze Map Editor.

Parking for customers The place has parking for customers where they can leave their car, which could be free or for a fee, where the customer parks their own car and walks to the place.

Deliveries At this time this service is unclear. It could mean that the place either accepts deliveries, e.g. from UPS or FedEx, or makes deliveries of food or products to the customer, within a certain range.

Phone

The phone number format are as shown on the table below.

WazeMy Phone No. Format	Example
ZZZ-XXX YYYY	012-345 6789
ZZ-XXXX YYYY	03-1234 5678
ZZ-XXX YYYY	03-123 4567
1-XXX-XX-XXXX	1-800-88-1234 / 1-300-88-1234

Opening Hours

The Opening hours section allows editor to add or delete the hours of operation for Places, including unique times for each day of the week. The hours submitted in the editor may not overlap, or a save error will occur.

Opening Hours

Photos Tab

Any photos which drivers have added to a Place will appear in the Photos tab. In WME, we can only review and delete photos. Photos can only be uploaded from the Waze app. Click on a picture to view a larger version.

Place Photos

Deleting a Place photo

Take great care to make a well thought-out decision to delete a photo. Once a photo is deleted, it cannot be recovered. Delete only if the photo really is unclear, not helpful and/or inappropriate.

Any improper or inappropriate photos should be removed. Hover the mouse over a picture in the Place Photos tab, and click the X which appears at the top right of the photo.

Place Updates Request (Moderation)

The Places updates layer will display Places with update request(s) pending. When an untrusted driver submits a new Place or an update to an existing Place, these go into a type of moderation status. The Place Update Request (PUR) marker shown to the left display to let you know, similar to an Update Request, the location of a pending Place update.

Area with update marker

• The Place update request markers will only appear if you have the "Place updates" layer enabled.
• Point Places with pending updates will display with the icon even when the "Place updates" layer is disabled.
• With the Place updates layer enabled, an Area Place will display with an update request marker at its center.

New Place

When you click on the Place update request marker, you will be presented with a panel which details the updates the Wazer has submitted. The exact content of the panel will differ depending on the type and amount of information input by the end user using the Waze app.

• When you click on any Place which has a pending update, the following message will appear in the left tabs area of the editor screen. Clicking on it will display the update details just the same as clicking on the Place update marker.

Very long full Place update

Accept or reject?

The job of the Waze editor is to accept or reject Place Updates Request sent by users from the Waze app. The general guideline to use to determine whether to Accept the update is,

"Is all the information provided in the update request correct and according to WazeMy Place guideline?"

A Place update, if the user completes ALL the information, can be extremely long (expand thumbnail to the right).

If some of the data is incorrect, or the photo include in the update request is improper and unhelpful to drivers, the editor must direct reject the Place Update Request and re-create the Place with all the correct information (if the Place Update Request is a newly added place).

WazeMy editor only can accept the Place Update Request with all the information provided in the request are correct and according to WazeMy Place guideline.

Determining Acceptable Photos

Defining exactly what is an acceptable photo is difficult because the huge variation in destinations. In general terms, the pictures of Places should be such that a driver could use the picture to help determine exactly which destination is the correct one. The system will try to show the arriving user the most relevant photo from their direction of arrival, time of day, etc.

Take great care to make a well thought-out decision to delete a photo. Once a photo is deleted, it cannot be recovered. Delete only if the photo really is unclear, not helpful and/or inappropriate.

The following are meant as guidelines both for the editor and for users taking pictures. Photos should:

• Show the exterior of the Place and NOT the INTERIOR.
• Be clear (not blurry, through rain-covered/dirty windows, not from moving vehicles/trains, etc)
• Be well lit (not dark without lighting at night).
• Help differentiate the Place location from nearby Places.

Photos could include images of, but not necessarily limited to:

• ENTRANCES which have signage so that Wazers can identify the place
• Image of the front/side of Place (angled) to exemplify the correct building
• Include Street side signage of the Place
• Daylight images
• Night or evening images, as long as the image is clear and helps the driver identify the Place

Photos should not show :

• People's faces - any photo with a fully identifiable face should be removed, or rejected.
• Car license plates - any photo with a fully identifiable license plate should be removed, or rejected.
• Anything which allows a viewer to tie a person to a specific location will be rejected.
• Any pornographic content, nudity, sexual content or simulation, etc.
• Floor, sky, speedometer, selfie and anything that is not related to the place.
• The place photo that is upside down or slanting to one side.

Examples of Good and Bad Place Photos

Good	Bad

Duplicate Places

When a user submits an update for a Place, but does not, or cannot, choose an existing Place in the app, it will show in the Waze Map Editor as a New Place. It could also happen that two users report a new Place at the same moment which results in two New Places.

At this time, there is no "merge updates" or "merge Places" functionality in the editor. You may have to manually copy new/updated information from the Place update to the existing Place. You cannot copy/move photos.

When you find a Place update which would duplicate an existing Place

1. Copy updated valuable information from the newly created Place to the previously-existing Place
2. Reject the Place Update Request
3. Save

If two New Place updates which are for the same place, please approve the Place Update Request which

• Contains more than just a photo, and
• Provides useful, updated information
• Mo mistake in the place update request

If the criteria cannot be met the WazeMy guideline, then Reject the Place Update Request.

Place Update FAQs

Who can moderate places?

Users with Level 2 and higher can moderate within their editing areas.

What requires moderation?

• For new places: every new place which is created by a level 1 editor which is untrusted requires an approval by a level 2+ editor.
• For place updates: every update which is done for a place which is locked above the user’s level will require a moderation by a sufficiently ranked user.
• Flagged (Reported Problem): all flags (for potentially problematic images or places) need to be moderated by a level 2+ editor.

What is a trusted user?

Once some contributions by the same user have been reviewed positively by a moderator, we consider that user trusted. They can now add new places directly without any moderation. Updates to existing places are still pending a review if these places are locked.

What kind of places should we approve?

Almost anything which represents a real place should probably be approved. If a Wazer would ever make benefit from knowing that this place exists, it’s worth it. Exceptions are places which include private user information, inappropriate content, or otherwise irrelevant.

If found even 1 mistake in the details of a place , you must reject it and then re-create it accordingly.

What kind of photos should we approve?

Any photo which helps the user understand what this place is like is great. Outside pictures are even better, and we have a system that will try to show the arriving user the most relevant photo from his direction of arrival, time of day, etc. Inappropriate pictures or pictures which are not related to the place should be rejected.

Please remember - rejecting both places and photos will prevent the reporting user from getting points and might even get them blocked.

Can I partially reject an update?

Currently not. If a suggestion is only partially correct, it is recommended to reject it, save, and then re-create/edit the place.

Can I move a photo from one Place to another?

No. This function is not available in the editor

Can I move or merge any data from a duplicate Place update to an existing Place?

No. You will have to manually copy over updated information.

Can a user become blocked from adding new places?

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.

Who gets the points for the new places created after an approval?

Users do not get points for pending places and updates - only when a moderator approved the suggestion the user gets the points for his contribution. The moderation action itself (either a rejection or an approval) grants the moderating user with an edit point.

Do we get points for creating places from the client?

We grant the exact same number of points for the same edit whether it’s done from the client or the web editor.

Advertisers

Some places can belong to one of Waze’s advertising partners. These places will be locked for community editing for the duration of the campaign, but editors can still suggest edits - the Waze ad operations team will review and consider all suggestions to these locked places.

What is the Residential setting? Private and public places

Our main goal in this project is to improve the data our users can get about public places. Since adding places is fun and can be even somewhat addictive, we figured our users might want to add private places (their home, for instance) as well. We want to provide an outlet for that, so that we can avoid having private places wrongly listed as public.

Private places will not be searchable, and we will not expose the identity of whoever created them or attached pictures to them. We will be using the pictures and exact locations to improve our house numbers database and show photos to people driving explicitly to that address.

Private / public
Public places can be turned into private places, but private places cannot be turned into public places. Use this to convert places mistakenly labeled as public into private. Private places only contain photos and an exact address, without all the other properties of a place.

Why my Places Update Request been rejected ?

Place Update Request	Why rejected ?
	This is a road segment not a place Primary name all lowercase
	Wrong category. (This place category should under Residence) Visible license plate Primary name all lowercase. (Places Residence not require name)
	Didn't use the official name of the place. The photo didn't provide a clear image for a driver to identify the place.
	Please don't simply change the nature feature to other places, this may endanger the the Wazer that not familiar with that area. Invalid primary name.
	Phone No. wrongly insert at the House Number field. The photo didn't help Wazer clearly identify the place.
	Upside down photo

When to use Area or Point

Here is the Malaysia guidance on selecting Area or Point for Places in the Waze Map Editor.

The Primary Category for a Place is used to determine whether to use a Point or Area.

Parent	Category	Type	Comments
Car Services	Car Wash	Point
Car Services	Charging Station		Currently only PETRONAS station have Charging Station, no need to create area/point place for it, just include "(EV)" in the Gas Station Primary Name
Car Services	Garage / Automotive Shop	Point
Car Services	Gas Station	Area	Many gas stations also have convenience stores and ATMs. Remember to use "Gas Station" as the primary category and the add any others which are relevant. Name the Gas Station as shown on their official website (Name of the Gas Station must clearly indicated it brand).
Transportation	Airport	Area
Transportation	Bridge	Area	Use only to represent a named road bridge with local or navigational significance. This should be an official/locally-used name, preferably signed at each approach. Bridge without name are not require to be mapped.
Transportation	Bus Station	Point
Transportation	Ferry Pier	Area
Transportation	Junction / Interchange	NONE
Transportation	Seaport / Marina / Harbor	Area
Transportation	Subway Station	Point	Malaysia didn't have Subway Station
Transportation	Taxi Station	Point
Transportation	Train Station	Point	Include LRT Station, Monorail Station, ETS & KTM Station
Transportation	Tunnel	Area
Professional and Public	Cemetery	Area
Professional and Public	City Hall	Point	Include Local Authority
Professional and Public	College / University	Area Point	For the building inside the College/University
Professional and Public	Conventions / Event Center	Area Point	Main Conventions/Event Center (PICC, PWTC, Dewan Suria) Other such as hall in the village/residential area
Professional and Public	Courthouse	Point
Professional and Public	Doctor / Clinic	Point
Professional and Public	Embassy / Consulate	Area
Professional and Public	Factory / Industrial	Point	May be Area if Landmark
Professional and Public	Fire Department	Area
Professional and Public	Government	Point	Include Government Department that have it own building May be Area if Landmark
Professional and Public	Hospital / Urgent Care	Area
Professional and Public	Information Point	Point	Station Radio & Television
Professional and Public	Kindergarten	Point
Professional and Public	Library	Point
Professional and Public	Military	Point
Professional and Public	Offices	Point	May be Area if Landmark
Professional and Public	Organization or Association	Point
Professional and Public	Police Station	Area
Professional and Public	Prison / Correctional Facility	Area
Professional and Public	Post Office	Point
Professional and Public	Religious Center	Area Point	For Main Worship Center such as Mosque/Church/Temple For other such as Surau/Chapel/Small Temple
Professional and Public	School	Area
Shopping and Services	Arts & Crafts	Point
Shopping and Services	ATM	Point
Shopping and Services	Bank / Financial	Point
Shopping and Services	Bookstore	Point
Shopping and Services	Car Dealership	Point
Shopping and Services	Car Rental	Point
Shopping and Services	Convenience Store	Point
Shopping and Services	Currency Exchange	Point
Shopping and Services	Department Store	Point
Shopping and Services	Electronics	Point
Shopping and Services	Fashion and Clothing	Point
Shopping and Services	Flowers	Point
Shopping and Services	Furniture / Home Store	Point
Shopping and Services	Gifts	Point
Shopping and Services	Gym / Fitness	Point
Shopping and Services	Hardware Store	Point
Shopping and Services	Jewelry	Point
Shopping and Services	Laundry / Dry Cleaning	Point
Shopping and Services	Market	Point
Shopping and Services	Music Store	Point
Shopping and Services	Personal Care	Point
Shopping and Services	Pet Store / Veterinarian	Point
Shopping and Services	Pharmacy	Point
Shopping and Services	Photography	Point
Shopping and Services	Shopping Center	Area	Point for the shoplot inside premise
Shopping and Services	Sporting Goods	Point
Shopping and Services	Supermarket / Grocery	Area / Point
Shopping and Services	Swimming Pool	Point
Shopping and Services	Toy Store	Point
Shopping and Services	Travel Agency	Point
Food and Drink	Bakery	Point
Food and Drink	Bar	Point
Food and Drink	Coffee shop	Point	Food Stalls, Roadside Stalls, Burger Stalls, Moving Food Stall and any place that didn't have permanent building structure are NOT ALLOWED to map.
Food and Drink	Dessert	Point
Food and Drink	Fast Food	Point
Food and Drink	Food Court	Point	Food Stalls, Roadside Stalls, Burger Stalls, Moving Food Stall and any place that didn't have permanent building structure are NOT ALLOWED to map.
Food and Drink	Ice Cream	Point	Food Stalls, Roadside Stalls, Burger Stalls, Moving Food Stall and any place that didn't have permanent building structure are NOT ALLOWED to map.
Food and Drink	Restaurant	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Art Gallery	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Casino	Point	May be Area if Landmark
Culture & Entertainment	Club	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Game Club	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Movie Theater	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Museum	Area
Culture & Entertainment	Music Venue	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Performing Arts Venue	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Racing Track	Area
Culture & Entertainment	Stadium / Arena	Area
Culture & Entertainment	Theme Park	Area
Culture & Entertainment	Theater	Point
Culture & Entertainment	Tourist Attraction / Historic Site	Point	May be Area if Landmark
Culture & Entertainment	Zoo / Aquarium	Area
Other		Point	Village / Housing Area / Condominium / Longhouse Create the point at the right places, such as the main entrance
Other	Construction Site	Area	Not necessary to be mapped.
Lodging	Bed & Breakfast	Point	In Malaysia known as Guest House / Rest House
Lodging	Camping / Trailer Park	Point
Lodging	Cottage / Cabin	Point
Lodging	Hostel	Point
Lodging	Hotel	Point
Outdoors	Beach	Area	Beach resort area
Outdoors	Golf Course	Area
Outdoors	Park	Area	Park in residential areas is not recommended to be mapped. The park that recommended are as Taman Tasik Titiwangsa
Outdoors	Playground	Area	Playground in residential areas is not recommended
Outdoors	Plaza	Point
Outdoors	Promenade	Point
Outdoors	Scenic Lookout / Viewpoint	Point
Outdoors	Ski Area	NONE	Malaysia do not have Ski Area
Outdoors	Sports Court	Point
Natural Features	Farm	NONE	Farms, fishing ponds, fish ponds are not required to be mapped
Natural Features	Forest / Grove	Area	Only for the National Park and Reserve Forest
Natural Features	Island	Area	Not Allowed. Only for specific purposes and have permission from senior editor.
Natural Features	River / Stream	Area	Only provide the name of the river/stream. Other information leave it empty.
Natural Features	Sea / Lake / Pool	Area	If the water area itself is visually obvious to drivers on nearby roads. Not require for the water area that have very small area
Natural Features	Canal	Area
Natural Features	Swamp / Marsh	Area
Natural Features	Dam	Area
Parking Lot		Area	Since the new feature of Parking Lot haven't fully release yet, for the existing Parking Lot in Point type, please remain it first until further notice from WazeMY Local Champs.

Landmarks

Any Place that functions as a landmark may be represented as an Area Place even if the table above indicates otherwise. A landmark Place is defined as a named, architecturally unique location, locally well known for its uncommon height or iconic exterior appearance, easily visible to and recognizable by passing drivers, that is visually and obviously unlike its immediate surroundings.
Landmarks are not to be confused with local references. A local reference is a location used for orientation by those who frequently pass near it. Every landmark is a local reference, but not every local reference is a landmark. For example, Petronas Twin Tower is a landmark, while an ordinary tire shop with a big, brightly colored sign is a local reference.