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When there is a lack of resources, it can be difficult to determine whether a POI or business does, in fact, exist. A thorough look for sources is, thus, necessary.

In a first step, look for official sources:

•Is there an official webpage? If the result is for the branch of a chain business, see if the official webpage has a store locator that returns this specific branch.
•Are there any other claimed social media pages? (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) If the POI is closed, this could also have been announced in a social media post. Another indicator that a business no longer exists can be an inactive social media page (last post is older than 6 months).
•Is there an up-to-date street view available? If there is, it can sometimes be seen that the shop windows are empty or that the sign on the store front has been removed.
•Are there any pages run by postal authorities? Can you find any government property registers?

Second, look for unofficial sources. If there is a lack of official sources, look for three unofficial sources that could confirm the existence of a POI. Within Austria such pages could be:

•newspaper articles or magazine publications
•claimed Yelp pages and TripAdvisor: look at when the last review on the POI was written.

Keep in mind that information on data aggregators or from spammy directory pages is considered unreliable and should not be taken into consideration!

Use the ‘Business/POI is closed or does not exist’-checkbox only when there is clear evidence that the POI/business no longer operates and leave a link to the source in the comment.

If there is a general lack of sources, assume that the POI/business could exist and rate Name, Address and Pin Accuracy as Can’t Verify. The Relevance should be rated as though existent and not demoted for potential non-existence

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