Germany – Country Specific Guidelines

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for rating within the German market. As such, these guidelines should be considered supplemental to the Global Guidelines for each mode.

Correct ratings will be the result of thorough Guidelines knowledge combined with efficient research, and good research is based on the use of official sources.

There are two main types of official sources which should be used for different components of the results: business sources and governmental sources. Important: if there are no official sources available, make sure to rate Relevance as if the POI exists and Data as Can’t Verify (GL 4.2).

Valid business sources are either websites or social media pages claimed by a business. These are very important sources for evaluation of POI results. They are used to verify:

The main governmental sources are the websites of:

Some trades, such as pharmacists or solicitors, can have websites with details on individual members. These can be used to verify POI existence if other sources are lacking, and only if the information is confirmed as recent.

Other commercial map sources can be used to evaluate missing closer results in case of Category queries (for example ‘restaurant’) but each needs to be individually verified as existing via their official websites or claimed social media pages. Other commercial map sources, or other non-official sources, should never be used to verify POI existence or details.

Generally, if the business name can still be recognized, the rating should be Partially Correct. If the business name can’t be recognized, the rating should be Incorrect.

When articles that are part of official business names are incorrect or missing, the name should be considered Partially Correct.

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Business results in Germany can sometimes include the name of the owner.

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Business results in Germany can also include part of the corporate name in the official business name.

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Queries with the alternative spelling ‘ss’ are considered a valid variation for the special character B. If the query contains the alternative spelling ‘ss’, a result that matches the query and contains B will be considered a match and should not be demoted.

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If a business name contains ‘ss’, we should not accept the spelling with ‘B’ and vice versa. Therefore, the rating should be Partially Correct.

One thing we see often in the German market is that (main) train stations are queried with a full address. This is not always easy to spot, but can be identified based on how the query looks. The example below lists “Magdeburg” in front of a fully formatted address, which indicates that the user is very likely looking for the train station. This is similar to the “Gary Danko” example in the Global Guidelines (10.6.1. Non-Chain Businesses). When there is an extra component in front of a full address, we need to investigate a bit further to see if the intent is a possible POI at or close to the queried address.

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The first step in determining Relevance is to determine if the suggestion is a match to the query. Umlauts can influence whether or not a suggestion can be considered a match.

Users will sometimes drop the Umlaut while they type for the sake of efficiency. If the query does not contain the Umlaut mark and our suggestion does, it is still a match after considering the location and prominence.

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If the Umlaut is included in the query string, consider suggestions that contain the Umlaut to be the most likely intent. Suggestions that do not contain the Umlaut should generally not be considered matches. Exceptions to this would be if there are no possible matching suggestions that contain the Umlaut or if including diacritics is a common misspelling.

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Consider possible common misspellings when deciding if a suggestion is a match based on the presence or absence of an Umlaut in the query string.

4.3 Postal Codes and (Sub-)Localities

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Localities

There are different result expectations for postal codes. We differentiate between localities with only a single postal code and ones with multiple ones. If the query is for a locality, which has only one postal code, we need to return the postal code in the result. If we do not show the locality with the correct postal code, the address accuracy should be rated Incorrect – Postal Code.

This also applies to smaller villages that share a postal code with other localities, but are independent. As long as the locality only has one postal code, it needs to be returned.

Sub-Localities

For sub-localities (e.g., Stadtteil, Gemeindeteil), we also require the postal code to be included in the result. We need to return the name of the sub-locality and the associated postal code with the larger locality. In some cases, settlements or areas are not listed on the postal website. These should be treated as sub-localities.

Results can have non-standard address components that are not part of the standard address format, like neighborhood, administrative district or region. To verify the correct format for an address, the official postal service of the test locale should be used as a reference.

If an extra address component that is not part of the standard address format is included in the result address and the address is still correct, consider that component as redundant and rate address accuracy Correct with formatting issue. A short comment describing the issue should be added to the rating.

A shown postal district should be considered to be a valid address component if the address is still correct

Use the Sub-Locality Checkbox when present to report issues regarding Sub-Localities. If the checkbox is not present, continue using “Country specific issue”.

State should be considered to be a mandatory non-standard address component for (sub- )locality results.

Generally, there is a lack of street level imagery available, especially in rural areas, to confirm the ground truth, so extra research steps might be needed.

Newspaper articles or published articles on city websites are a good way to confirm a step, as well as pictures of businesses (e.g., 360° imageries) around the questionable area. We can consider those valid sources and should provide a link to the source in the comment section.

There is no clear-cut U-turn rule in Germany, so evaluate the road using satellite imagery and street imagery if available.

In general, a U-turn is not allowed when there is no designated left-turn lane. The car would block cars coming up behind them and create an unsafe situation.

If it is a smaller street with lesser traffic and/or no designated lanes, evaluate the width of the road and if a U-turn could be performed in one turn. If this is not possible and the user would have to reverse half way through in order to perform the U-turn, check for forbidding signs and consider the U-turn unsafe.