Crowdsourcing

Hi all, after reading this thread we think it’d be a good thing to share with you our next steps on crowdsourcing the merchant database :

So far we’ve been asking you to type your suggestions into a tiny little textbox and we very well know that’s not enough. So we’re building a fully fledged Google Places search for you to actually find the exact place where the transaction happened (eventually that search will transparently incorporate other databases, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, Yelp, local providers based on location, etc.).

Unfortunately there are merchants that don’t even appear on Google Maps. For those we’re going to let you add them manually. Everything is now properly structured so if you are a data hardcore you can even give us the exact location :slight_smile:

This is just another step on the right direction. We know we still need to work but we think this will help us to close that gap and encourage you to send more corrections and get better data.

Please let us know what you think. Are we missing something? Do you usually send corrections to other platforms (Google Maps, etc.)?

Thanks!
Hugo

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As long as it’s easy to send corrections I would be more than happy to correct missing information.

I wouldn’t normally bother correcting something on the likes of Google as I believe it would be to much hastle. (It may not, but I just seem to think it will be so have never bothered!)

I’ve used Foursquare for years, regularly submitting corrections (and am a Superuser) so this looks good. Out of interest, why did you choose to integrate with Google first rather than Foursquare?

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@hugo This is great work! I notice that the original @StarbucksUK logo has been updated. Do a small number of pixels (the aesthetic) matter? Absolutely. I hope that this attention to detail continues to be part of the company’s DNA.

You mentioned ‘transparently incorporating other databases’ - does that mean these will not be separate search options like Citymapper? How will you dedupe the data and choose which entry to display?

Any plans to offer an ATM finder? Crowdsourcing location info + knowing how frequently ATM points are accessed could help to create a great tool.

You’re missing the point. The good thing of being a designer is that I don’t need to worry about that kind of thing :sunglasses:

Kidding aside, when I say “transparent” I mean that we’ll let you search the most relevant sources for your particular situation (based on category, location and even amount) to give you the most relevant results at the top of the list. If we find problems mixing sources consistently will follow CityMapper’s approach… I hope we can make it better though :slight_smile:

Regarding the ATM finder… even though we’d love to remove cash completely of our minds (it’s difficult to categorise, etc.) I promise you that we’ll think about it. Thanks for the suggestion!

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This looks great.

Did you consider using Open Street Map instead of Google Maps? If considering other sources perhaps consider that as well, as they have very good coverage in the UK.

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Re Foursquare/Swarm - does this mean that if I use Mondo when shopping I’ll eventually be able to check in as well?

Two projects from the Mondo hackathons do this:

Thanks James, I’m not a programmer so does the existence of these hacks mean that they will make their way into the Mondo app - or is it something I’ll need to learn how to build?

You’d need to set them up, but you can do so on Heroku with minimal/no programming.

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I’m really happy to submit updates. Plenty of retailers don’t claim their Google/Yelp etc. info and leave it as inaccurate, and particularly if I use the retailer often I’d like to see them properly listed in my transaction history. Even with infrequent uses I was happy to update a few retailers as I sat in the airport last week just to give myself something to do waiting for a delayed plane!