Primary Entry Point

February 2021

Introduction ..................................................................................................................2
Rating Options and De nitions ....................................................................................2
Conducting Research on Entry Points .........................................................................3
Main Entry Point Critical Issues ...................................................................................3
Primary Entry Point Rating Tolerances.........................................................................4
POIs within POIs ..........................................................................................................4
Rating Examples ..........................................................................................................5
Researching Imagery Clues .........................................................................................9
Release Notes ............................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Entry Points are the locations where maps services route a user when they request directions to a
POI. Entry points represent the location where a user would be told that they have arrived at a POI.

There are two types of Entry Points that can be displayed, Pedestrian Entry Points and Vehicular Entry
Points. This is because a POI may have separate entrances for pedestrians and vehicles.
• Pedestrian Entry Points - These may include the physical entrance to a POI or the POI itself in
cases of Walk-Up POIs (e.g. a subway station, ATMs), where no other vehicular entrance or
pedestrian drop-off is available.
• Vehicular Entry Points - Driving entry points include, but are not limited to, parking facilities/lots
and pedestrian drop-off zones that would lead the user to the POI.
• Pedestrian Drop-Off Zones are areas where a user may be safely and legally dropped off at
their destination. These may be indicated by signage, ramped curbing, painted curbs, or pull-
outs.

When evaluating a POI’s Primary Entry Points, you will be shown a single entry point, per POI. Your
rating should be based on the location of the main physical pedestrian entrance that is located
on the POI’s main storefront.
• Main Entrance - The physical, primary entrance to a business that a customer would be expected
to use. This will usually be located the POI’s main facade or storefront.
• Main Storefront or Facade - The principal building face of the POI. This will generally be indicated
by signage and/or display windows and is considered the main customer approach to the business.

Rating Options and Definitions

Rating Options Explanations
The entry point is located within 10 meters of the main entrance on a POI's main
storefront or facade.

Multiple Entrances and Buildings:

Correct
• If a POI has more than one main entrance on a single building, the pin can be within 10
meters of either main entrance
• If the POI has more than one building, the entry point should be located within 10
meters on the main building
The entry point is not located on the main facade, but is either:
Approximate - • within 10 meters of a secondary customer facing storefront with signage that
Acceptable represents the POI, or
• located in the parking lot, within 10 meters of the main entrance
The entry point is located on a facade that is not recognizable as relating to the POI.

The entry point is also Approximate - Unacceptable if it is located either:

Approximate -
• on a facade that is not marked or not customer-facing, or
Unacceptable
• on the property or the rooftop of the correct POI, but further than 10 meters from the
POI's main entrance, or
• in the POI’s parking lot, but further than 10 meters from the POI's main entrance

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 The entry point is located either:
• over the property or the rooftop of a different POI, or
Wrong
• in a shared parking lot (e.g. strip mall or shopping center), but further than 10 meters
from the front of the intended POI
The entry point location cannot be verified due to lack of online resources, including
Can't Verify
street-level and satellite imagery of the POI.

Conducting Research on Entry Points

Use street-level and satellite imagery to identify the POI’s main storefront and entrance.
Research is required to confirm the identity of a POI and the main storefront location.

To rate a Primary Entry Point, always use the best evidence available to determine the true position of
the POI’s main facade and entrances. In most cases, this will require a
combination of satellite views and street imagery. If the entrance locations
cannot be determined, rate Can't Verify.

A Primary Entry Point on the map must be located on the main facade of
the POI and within a reasonable distance of an actual entrance. As a
reference, the entry point in the rating tool is displayed as the center point
of a 10-meter circle. The final judgment for Primary Entry Points must be
conducted using the Standard map view and not with satellite imagery. As
an example, if the pin is located on a secondary facade for Standard map
view but falls on the primary facade according to satellite imagery, the rating should still be
conducted based on the pin’s location as shown in Standard map view.

True position of the Entry Point is… Distance from center of Inner Circle is…
Within the inner circle Less than 5 meters away
Within the outer circle 5 to 10 meters away
Outside of the outer circle Farther than 10 meters away

Main Entry Point Critical Issues

The following items are considered critical issues. If any of these critical problems are present, stop
and rate the Main Entry Point as Wrong.
1. Primary Entry Point is on the wrong side of the street.
2. Primary Entry Point is on the wrong building/area, or in a place that would lead the user to the
wrong POI.
3. Primary Entry Point has an access restriction. This may include, but is not limited to, cases
where access to a POI is restricted by signage that indicates that public entry is prohibited.
4. Primary Entry Point is placed on an "Exit Only" entrance to the POI and is not within 10 meters
of a marked entrance to the POI.

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Primary Entry Point Rating Tolerances
Sometimes entry point circles may barely touch or overlap a true POI entrance, making it difficult to
determine an accurate rating. Additional factors that may make entry points difficult to determine
include the quality or magnification of the satellite view and/or obstructed satellite views.

As general rules:
• If an entry point ring at least touches a POI entry, the entry point should be rated according to
the innermost ring that touches the POI entry.
• Use street imagery, whenever necessary, to confirm any Primary Entry Point that is visually
obstructed in Satellite View.

POIs within POIs

POIs within POIs occur when a Child POI is contained within, or controlled by, a Parent POI. For more
detailed information, please refer to Section 6.3 of POI Evaluation guidelines.

Satellite and street imagery should be used to verify that any displayed Entry Points exist and are
unobstructed. For POIs Within POIs, we must look at whether or not the Child POI’s facade is visible
to a user before they enter the Parent POI.

• If a Child POI’s facade is not visible from the outside, the Child POI’s Entry Point is likely located
on a facade that is not directly recognizable as relating to the Child POI.
• For example, a Child POI that is located inside a mall but has a Main Entry Point pin on the
mall’s main entrance would be considered Approximate - Unacceptable. Users would likely
associate an Entry Point on a mall’s entrance with the Parent POI but not intuitively relate the
mall entrance with the Child POI.
• If the Child POI’s facade is visible from the outside, then the Main Entry Point for the Child POI
should be located on the primary outdoor entrance that directly leads customers to the Child POI
itself. Child POIs that are contained within malls but have outdoor entrances are treated like any
other single rooftop POIs.

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Rating Examples

POI Name
and Entry
Satellite View with Entry Point Rating Explanation
Point Lat/
Lng

Online street-level
Olympus imagery shows that
Caffe & the entry point is
Bakery located within 10
Correct
meters of the main
37.394502, entrance on the POI's
-122.078404 main storefront, so it
is Correct.

Online street-level
Mobil imagery shows that
the entry point is
33.67368209 located within 10
Correct
3, meters of the main
-84.0242525 entrance on the POI's
939 main storefront, so it
is Correct.

Online street-level
imagery shows that
the entry point is
located within 10
meters of a
customer-facing side
The Garrett -
entrance with
Pizza &
signage that
Sandwiches Approximate -
represents the POI,
Acceptable
so this entry point is
37.291384,
Approximate -
-121.932817
Acceptable.

Note: The main

entrance is on the
facade that is facing
south.

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 Online street-level
imagery confirms
that, while the pin is
Domino’s in the parking lot of
Pizza the POI and not on
Approximate -
the facade, it is also
Acceptable
33.665492,- within the 10 meters
84.027041 of the main entrance.
This entry point is
Approximate -
Acceptable.

Online street-level
imagery shows that
the pin appears to be
Animal
located on the exit.
Hospital in
While this an exit and
Fairfield
not an entrance, the
Approximate -
facade is for
38.27251284 Acceptable
customers and has
54,
signage that
-122.035062
represents the POI,
4492
so this entry point is
Approximate -
Acceptable.

In this example, the

building only
represents one
IKEA - Palo building, IKEA. Since
Alto the entry point lands
Approximate -
in the parking lot of
Unacceptable
37.461778, the POI and more
-122.138472 than 10 meters from
the main entrance, it
is Approximate -
Unacceptable.

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 This entry point is
located in a shopping
center but street
imagery reveals that
the pin location
actually falls on a Red
Robin. The actual
location of Chico's is
within the mall itself.
Chico’s
While the pin is on
Approximate -
the entrance of the
28.068471, Unacceptable
Red Robin (which is
-82.5765172
considered a
separate POI from
Chico), the 10 meter
radius of the pin
appears to overlap
the main entrance of
the Parent POI, so
this should be rated
Approximate -
Unacceptable.

Online street-level
imagery shows that
the entry point pin is
located on a wall
without entrances.
Crown Palace Though the wall has
signage, it’s not
40.31498278 Approximate - customer-facing
72, Unacceptable because customers
-74.2481054 cannot interact with
417 the facade. Since this
pin is still located on
the correct POI, this
should be rated
Approximate -
Unacceptable.

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 This entry point is
located in the parking
Star Nails lot of a strip mall, but
it is not in front of,
Wrong
37.350617, and within 10 meters
-121.962757 of, Star Nails, so it
should be
rated Wrong.

This pin is located on

the south side of this
mall but the official
mall website
confirms that the POI
is located inside the
northern end of the
mall instead.

T-Mobile The pin appears to

fall over the property
Wrong
37.726416, of another POI, the
-122.477244 parent POI in this
case, so this should
be Wrong.

Note: The pin was

not placed on the
parent POI’s main
entrance so this is
not Approximate -
Unacceptable.

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Researching Imagery Clues
Image quality or obstructions from satellite imagery might make it difficult to reconcile what you see
in street imagery with what you seen in the overhead view. This is especially the case with buildings,
such as malls, where a single rooftop may contain multiple POIs.

In order to confirm that the pin is located close to the entrance, use street imagery to identify
surrounding features that can serve as points of reference visible in satellite imagery. Some general
clues to look for include:

• Rooftop properties such as changes in the awning, visible delineations between building units,
number of dormers/roof windows.
• Road properties such as traffic markings, parking spaces, curbs.

POI Name
and Entry
Satellite View with Entry Point Rating Explanation
Point Lat/
Lng

Online street-level
imagery shows that the
POI's entrance is
St Lucie
directly perpendicular
Bakery
with the first disabled
parking space from the
27.2703033
Correct east. Though the pin is
422,
located closer to the
-80.298232
2nd space from the
8635
east, the entrance is
within the 10 meter ring
so the Entry Point is
Correct.

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 Due to the heavy
shadow cover in satellite
imagery, it is difficult to
identify where the
entrance of this POI is
located. Online street-
level imagery shows that
this entrance is almost
The Best directly perpendicular to
Italian Pizza the "ONLY" road
marking. This is a useful
40.8157132 point of reference since
509, Correct
an imaginary straight
-73.9171915 line can be drawn from
544 the road marking to the
facade of the building
despite the shadows
seen in satellite imagery.
The entrance appears to
be located within the 10
meters of the main
entrance on the POI's
main storefront, so it is
Correct.

The pin is located on the

pedestrian path of the
mall. Though street-
level imagery is very
limited here, satellite
imagery shows that the
parking lot to the north
is actually connected to
the mall. Street-level
Jos. A Bank imagery from the north
shows that the main
41.4899882 Approximate - entrance for Jos. A Bank
51, Unacceptable appears to be under the
-71.315895 second window from the
0194 right.

Since the pin is on the

property or the rooftop
of the correct POI, but
further than 10 meters
from the POI's main
entrance, this is
Approximate -
Unacceptable.

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Release Notes
Date Changes
February 17, 2021 • Added a note stating that map view should be used over satellite imagery for
final Primary Entry Point pin ratings.
• Added the following examples:
• Animal Hospital in Fairfield (Approximate - Acceptable)
• Crown Palace (Approximate - Unacceptable)

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