Dear superpages.com:

[camwyn]

Thank you for giving me the address of a yarn store walking distance from my office. 55 East 52nd Street is easily reached from here.

However.

Please have a word with the people you hired to link your listings with Yahoo Maps or Expedia Maps or whatever. I clicked on your site's 'gimme driving directions' link. Said link failed to pass its zip code to the map database and there are two 55 East 52nd Streets available in the New York City area. The one in Brooklyn comes first alphabetically. Walking to Brooklyn from this office is not an option.

Pass the damn zip code next time. Thank you.

Comments

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

Dear Ms. Camwyn,

Thank you for letting us know about this issue with one of our entries. We will be glad to take care of it. What is the name of the yarn store, and I will personally pass the request on to the New York region Internet Consultant responsible for that client.

Ebony14

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

Betcha didn't expect a Superpages.com QA guy to be reading your LJ. :)

[camwyn]

Glerp. No, I did not.

Okay, the store is Stitches East, The Complete Knit and Needlepoint Shop. Their address is 55 East 52nd Street, New York, NY 10022. Their phone is (212) 421-0112. When I click on the option for 'show me this location on a map', the star appears in the correct place, very clearly the island of Manhattan. The problem only arises when I click 'driving directions', at which point I am routed to

Destination
New York, NY
55 E 52nd St
Brooklyn, NY 11203.

This despite the listing clearly saying zip code 10022. Everything else about Stitches East's listing looks fine to me so far as I can tell.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Hon,

Always, always, always use www.kivera.com for this kind of stuff. I used to work there. The geocoding engine is much more robust than Yahoo Maps, Mapsquest, and Expedia, because Kivera is the only geocoding engine that combines *two* worldwide geo databases - I'll save you the long technical explanation. Let's just say Kivera's map generator and service finding options are the best I've ever come across. Ditch Expedia and Yahoo - they are working off of databases that are between 3-6 years old.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

I'm telling her to use www.kivera.com - best I've ever used, much more reliable than any other geocoding engine.

[camwyn]

I wasn't going to Yahoo or Mapquest. I was clicking on a link within the online phone directory's web site, which apparently uses Yahoo (although I could be wrong).

Side note: your suggestions re Frank's Sims personality seem to have vanished...? Tell you what, rather than clog up your journal, I'll email you the details of how the personality system works.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

I'll pass it on. FYI: I believe that we use MapPoint these days, although it will depend on when that site was constructed.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

I'll keep that in mind, if we decide to change our mapping engine. Not sure if they'll consult me, though; I'm just a QA guy.

[camwyn]

Ok, good to know.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

The engine is incredibly robust. The company has been in Location Based Services for a long time, and their benchmark testing and QA process is incredible. I've never seen any LBS engine remotely as good as theirs. :-) Look at their client list - impressive.

Happened with another listing, too.

[camwyn]

Sovereign Yarn Co Llc
1375 Broadway, New York, NY 10018
(212) 302-0400
map | driving directions | save

I click Driving Directions. I get:

Start
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Destination
New York, NY
1375 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY 11221


Which is NOT what I wanted. Thank you.

[camwyn]

Also, the people at Sovereign Yarn Co. LLC were a bit surprised to hear they were listed under 'retail' in Superpages, as they sell to the clothing industry and other providers. They're not really what you'd call open to the public, according to the lady I spoke with. (I asked about buying needles. She was very surprised.)