New Mexico/Places/Main

Adding and Adjusting Area and Point Places

Places are landmarks that can be added to the map via the editor (WME) or via the application on user devices. Global guidance and detail on Places is located here. Additional information and guidance for New Mexico is as follows:

Quick Definitions

Point Places are not shown on the client display. Recent conversations with Waze staff have indicated these will not likely be displayed on the client any time soon. Point Places have a single location, a point.

Area Places are shown on the client display when they are of sufficient size. Very small Area Places are not displayed. Area Places have a polygon shape and an adjustable destination point. The name is displayed on the client map in the middle of a shaded area. There are many categories to pick from such as gas station, park, school, etc.

Places can be added via the client application, and are actually encouraged by the Waze app. These may wait approval or automatically be approved via relatively complex rules.

When to use Area Places

Area Places should are encouraged to add content to the Waze client map because (a) they add interesting and valuable content that provides context for navigation for Wazers, and (b) because Wazers can scroll to a point on the map, touch where they want to go, and tell Waze to take them there. Without Area Places neither of these things are possible. Area Places also come up in Point of Interest (POI) searches.

Those items that are "landmarks" for travelers should be put on the map. This may include historic locations, larger and more frequently traveled to shopping areas, stores, etc., and locally important navigational points that would be relevant when guidance is given such as "if you reach the drugs store, you've gone too far" or "turn left at the Eat At Joes restaurant."

We should avoid having irrelevant and small Area Places. Small Area Places will not display on the map. See National Guidance on Area Places for details.

Notice that Area Places may have locally important context that should override national guidance.

When to use Point Places

Use point places when the item you're noting should not display on the client display but show up in POI searches. Point Places are useful for marking specific locations in a larger Area Places, such as where to park and other special locations. For instance, Point Places are useful for noting the location of individual stores in a shopping plaza when an Area Place marks the whole or a large part of the shopping plaza.