Release Notes - FSQ OS Places
May 2025
Since previous release on 04/08
POI Data Changelog
- Total POI: 104,827,694
- Total Created: 145,750
- Total Refreshed: 6,325,741 (previously reported as Total Updated)
- Total Edited: 2,561,320 (new metric, compared to 514,314 total edits in previous release cycle)
- Total Closed: 190,519
Suggested Edits Volume
- Suggested Edits Created Since Last Release: 4,516,189
- Suggested Edits Resolved Since Last Release: 3,485,361
What's New
- In this release, we have operationalized 3 new models: Profanity Detection, Open/Closed Detection and GeoSummarization (which uses spatial signals to identify the correct lat/lng from a list of candidates). Each of these models are encapsulated as Agents in our system either proposing new edits to places or confirming existing edits. This is yet another example of how we ensure model outputs to be further corroborated by the human-in-the-loop workflows. This also sets the stage for us to provide more quality levers for our customers in the next release.
- Region standardization in Australia. We corrected the region attribute values for 172,355 POI to use the standard abbreviation for states and territories.
- Correction of Stacked POI. We assessed stacked POI’s (groups of POI sharing lat/lon values) through a contextual analysis based on category, foot traffic patterns, and address validity. We corrected the locations of the top 15% of highest quality POI within stacks that were identified as real and in the wrong location. We deleted the bottom 15% of lowest quality POI within stacks that were identified as not real.
- Geo-Coordinate Changes: 31,240
- Deletions: 32,347
- We have renamed the Changelog metric Total Updated to Total Refreshed to match the column name date_refreshed in the OS Places schema. This is the total POI that have either received edits or other engagement signals such as user check-ins, photos and tips.
- We have added a new Changelog metric Total Edited. This is the total number of Places within the dataset that received a change to an attribute. It includes any approved edits from first party users, our automated ingestion system, or our ML models.
April 2025
Since previous release on 03/06
POI Data Changelog
- Total POI: 104,747,660
- Total Created: 103,375
- Total Updated: 4,090,801
- Total Closed: 55,582
Suggested Edits Volume
- Suggested Edits Created Since Last Release: 1,425,450
- Suggested Edits Resolved Since Last Release: 927,602
What's New
- We tested a new workflow to make targeted improvements to our Places dataset with an experiment on a sample of 10k places in the Montreal region resulting in 1.5k new places added and 5.8k places updated, setting us up for more aggressive updates to our dataset in the forthcoming releases.
- We standardized the region attribute of 82,601 POI in Canada to the two-letter province abbreviation.
- We corrected the geocoordinate locations of 1,346 POI globally that did not match the intersecting country.
March 2025
Since previous release on 02/06
POI Data Changelog
- Total POI: 104,666,133
- Total Created: 74,475
- Total Updated: 3,481,713
- Total Closed: 32,174
Suggested Edits Volume
- Suggested Edits Created Since Last Release: 1,380,830
- Suggested Edits Resolved Since Last Release: 655,755
What's New
- We corrected the geocoordinate locations of 257,500 POI that had previous latitude, longitude values of NULL.
- We corrected the geocoordinate locations of 25,754 POI in the US where the region values did not match their previous latitude and longitude placement.
- We corrected the geocoordinate locations of 2,777 POI in Canada where the region values did not match their previous latitude and longitude placement.
- We corrected the country code for 5,921 POI globally that had previously been marked NULL.
February 2025
Since previous release on 01/10
POI Data Changelog
- Total POI: 104,635,092
- Total Created: 76,117
- Total Updated: 3,306,527
- Total Closed: 47,621
Suggested Edits Volume
- Suggested Edits Created Since Last Release: 2,169,441
- Suggested Edits Resolved Since Last Release: 601,218
What's New
- A new format PMTiles is available on S3:
- The latest version of OS Places will be available as vector tiles in PMTile format for efficient use in smart mapping and visualization applications.
- S3 location:
s3://fsq-os-places-us-east-1/release/vector-tiles/latest/
- Please preview the tiles using kepler.gl 3.1 map viewer
- Click on 'Tileset' Tab in the Add Data To Map dialog.
- Add the PMTiles URL to the 'Tileset URL' text box:
https://fsq-os-places-us-east-1.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/release/vector-tiles/latest/fsq-os-places.pmtiles
- Click on 'Add Tileset' to start exploring!
- The geoparquet release in S3 implements a more efficient sort based on geocoordinate partitioning. The result is more efficient spatial queries.
- We corrected the geocoordinate locations of 44,756 POI located in oceans by geocoding POI with full address, country codes and non-marine related categories.
- We removed 15,657 POI in the US with profanity in the name attribute. We used a two-pass approach: first identified problematic POIs through string matching against a profanity lexicon and NLI-based probability scoring, then evaluated flagged POIs for legitimacy by analyzing historical foot traffic patterns, address validity, and contact information completeness, with entries failing multiple criteria marked for removal.
- We removed 2,911 POI with null country code, completely null address parts and an absence of historical foot traffic.
January 2025
Since previous release on 12/04
POI Data Changelog
- Total POI: 104,588,312
- Total Created: 120,720
- Total Updated: 4,243,568
- Total Closed: 64,950
Suggested Edits Volume
- Suggested Edits Created Since Last Release: 4,527,740
- Suggested Edits Resolved Since Last Release: 4,204,336
What’s New
- A new column
placemaker_url
has been added.- This attribute contains a link to the POI’s review page in the PlaceMaker Tools application.
- Users can suggest edits to correct data quality issues or review pending edits.
- Example: https://foursquare.com/placemakers/review-place/5a187743ccad6b307315e6fe
- See documentation for more information.
- We filled 1,768,290 POI postcode values using contextual address mapping.
- We removed 27,584 POI that were located in oceans by isolating POI with missing address and a lack of first party data signals.
- We corrected 238 POI that were located in oceans with inverted latitude and longitude values.
- We corrected 33,321 POI in the US where region values did not match their latitude and longitude placement.
- The
date_refreshed
attribute indicates when we last received trustworthy confirmation about a place's details, either through trusted data sources or human interaction such as user edits and rich content submissions.- We've improved how we track this timestamp by updating it only when we receive external validation - whether from trusted sources, Swarm users contributing content, or Placemaker edits.
- We no longer update this timestamp for automated system changes, such as standardization updates or internal algorithm adjustments. As a result of this one-time adjustment, many places show older
date_refreshed
values compared to the previous release.
December 2024
Since previous release on 11/19
POI Data Changelog
- Total POI: 104,529,230
- Total Created: 21,889
- Total Refreshed: 200,561
- Total Closed: 27,691
What’s New
- New file formats available in the public S3 bucket
- Geoparquet format with Zstandard compression is now available with supported geometry columns
s3://fsq-os-places-us-east-1/release/dt=2024-12-03/places/parquet
- Geoparquet format with Zstandard compression is now available with supported geometry columns
- An offering is now available on HuggingFace
- An offering is now available on Snowflake
Updated 5 days ago