Norway – Country Specific Guidelines 

This document provides guidance for Maps Search and Autocomplete rating within the Norwegian market. These guidelines are supplemental to the global MS and AC 2.0 guidelines.

Use designated checkboxes only when these components are missing or incorrect. Adhere to global guidelines regarding redundant components and other formatting issues.

Below is a table of all mandatory address components for each result type in Maps Search (MS) and Autocomplete (AC).

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Vei and veg are alternate spellings for ‘way’ in Bokmål and Nynorsk respectively. The individual municipalities are the deciding authority on the preferred spelling for addresses. However, several municipalities still actively debate the use while others remain neutral. For the sake of rating we accept both spellings as correct and do not demote although this may change in the future.

Street types such as gate, vei, and plass should be written in lowercase. If the street type is returned with a capital letter, rate the address accuracy as correct with formatting issue.

Many addresses in Norway have a letter extension. This means that the street number is followed by a letter. Often this is because larger properties were divided and sold off, apartments were partitioned as separate properties although they are within the same structure, or ‘in-law’ units in the same house have a separate entrance. Sometimes individuals and businesses will use the letter extension and other times they will leave it off. To ensure the most accurate rating we use the official complete address and abide by the same guidelines as the post office. (https://www.kartverket.no/globalassets/matrikkel/adresse/norsk- adresseseminar/2017/dag-1-2017/2_8-wold-uoffisielle-gateadresser-2017.pdf).

How does this affect rating? There are a few different scenarios. Below are some examples to guide through rating these scenarios. For rating purposes, the street numbers with letter extensions are treated as street numbers and not unit numbers.

The global guidelines differentiate between stations and stops and state in section 5.17.2. Stops vs. Stations that “all stations are stops, but not all stops are stations”. While this is mostly true in Norway there is a slight difference regarding trains. Norway’s railway system classifies train stations as either togstasjon (train station) or holdeplass (stop). The difference is on the service level and whether or not the station is manned. Despite this difference, the overall general accepted term is togstasjon for all stops and stations along a train route. See BaneNor’s listing. (https://www.banenor.no/Jernbanen/Stasjonssok/). When rating the classification for

trains, apply the logic from the global guidelines section 6.3.4.1. Correct Classification, “Some classifications may seem slightly too specific or too general. As long as the classification is not misleading, consider it correct”.

A paper company is a company without operations that exists exclusively for a financial reason. In Norway these businesses are often created to manage the rental or sale of a particular property and the company name oftentimes is the same as the address of that property. Although these companies exist they do not serve a maps purpose and do not satisfy a maps intent because a user cannot visit this business. Often the official address associated with such paper companies will be a lawyer’s office or property management office.

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Housing co-operatives and condominiums are commonplace in Norway. Housing co-ops are owned by those who live in the co-operative and ownership gives them right to live there. The legal entity is known as a borettslag. Condominiums have a similar structure where the property is divided into several individually owned units and the common areas are jointly owned. The legal entity is known as a sameie or a eierseksjonssameie. These will often bear the same name as the property address and be registered at the same address. Most often these should be rated Bad because they are not a true maps intent and a user cannot visit this business.

Query String

Possible Suggestion

Explanation

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The Dano-Norwegian alphabet has three additional letters, Å, Æ, Ø (å, æ, ø). If the user makes the effort to type the additional letter the primary intent most likely includes that letter and results that don’t match are demoted. Occasionally users choose an alternate spelling, for example aa for å or oe for ø. The query string may also include a typo.

The general Search guidelines indicate to always use the map layer in the TryRating tool that is more generous towards the pin. However, there are cases where the pin is incorrect because the underlying basemap is incorrect.

In the below example the pin appears to fall correctly on the street in the vector image. Upon closer inspection we find that the train station parking lot is labeled with the street name. This is an error with the underlying data. The pin accuracy is rated Wrong.In the below example the pin appears to fall correctly on the street in the vector image. Upon closer inspection we find a driveway is incorrectly labeled with the street name. This is an error with the underlying data. The pin accuracy is rated Wrong.