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July-2019 Release Notes (v2019-06-29)

over 5 years ago by Ryan Fox Squire

🎆 Happy July Release! 🎆
Can you believe 2019 is halfway complete?

Breaking Changes in the July Release

Core Places and Brands

Enhancements - Core Places and Brands

  • Last month SG Places had 4,781,046 places. This month SG Places has 4,799,168 places (net +18,122 places) 📈
  • We've added net 205 new brands 🎊 including:
    • CITGO (citgo.com, SG_BRAND_7c5460a754eed20d94ec7348d148e8a4) with 3,483 places.
    • ConocoPhillips (conoco.com, SG_BRAND_a0ccd5fb65a3df0d5a340321693f0a16) with 2,013 places.
    • Country Financial (countryfinancial.com, SG_BRAND_4beb87afb75cdfcf) with 1,048 places.
    • Vans (vans.com, SG_BRAND_336d95866bf50e8249657647cb15b68c) with 440 places.
    • RediClinic (rediclinic.com, SG_BRAND_f12c449ad7996c8faa951a9736f7a08f) with 67 places.
    • Wahlburgers (wahlburgers.com, SG_BRAND_6e1fcfa2a22f0302) with 30 places.
    • and 199 more!! 📈
    • The brand_info file now has a total of 4,799 brands! 🙀

Bugs and Known Issues - Core Places and Brands

  • We reviewed our brands with a fine-tooth comb 🔎 and discovered (and fixed!) a number of bugs 🐛. Specifically these bugs involved over-labeling of POI for some brands. In other words, we were creating branded POI incorrectly at some locations. These fixes resulted in significant decreases in the total number of POI for those affected brands. The new count is correct, and for transparency we'd like to list some of these fixes as examples in no particular order.
    • Bank of America, (SG_BRAND_73971897e96ce01fa107640e730f905a). Net POI count change: -2478. Bug: Incorrectly listing ATMs as branches.
    • Wells Fargo, (SG_BRAND_d8326a9cc6413b12d8df3c617490e882). Net POI count change: -2702. Bug: Incorrectly listing ATMs as branches.
    • Advance Auto Parts, (SG_BRAND_f6690ed6fac1b97d75d2ea16f2eb0e6d). Net POI count change: -1273. Bug: Accidentally including POIs for child brand CARQUEST Auto Parts (SG_BRAND_ed5a1ef3e85b774022eb505cf6f184ee).
    • PNC Financial Services, (SG_BRAND_497acb260184e50118775402a5fd6e23). Net POI count change: -3835. Bug: Incorrectly listing ATMs as branches.
    • Fred Meyer, (SG_BRAND_605bde5ed94e94da51adbfe6cf14e0c4). Net POI count change: -1679. Bug: Incorrectly including other parent brand's POI, e.g. Kroger (SG_BRAND_1f852a23da4b7250)
    • Saturday's, (SG_BRAND_0bc54c51c1ad7108b45d1b446dece3ef). Net POI count change: -1318. Bug: Incorrectly including parent brand's POI
    • Pottery Barn Teen, (SG_BRAND_67db410f91aa5b8d). Net POI count change: -183. Bug: Incorrectly including parent brand's POI, e.g. Pottery Barn (SG_BRAND_d047c33f8493ecedcbb92c566094c59b)
    • Old Country Buffet, (SG_BRAND_a5b2a4e3c09e0829eda2bd41b8727808). Net POI count change: -55. Bug: Incorrectly including other parent brand's POI
    • Tumi, (SG_BRAND_e53a3d6e7f4c168854ae8f9f1a53df2a). Net POI count change: -462. Bug: Incorrectly including 3rd party distributors of the Tumi brand as Tumi stores.
    • U-Haul, (SG_BRAND_1b71ced68ecb91a8bc1fcc6fd3db7b7d). Net POI count change: -982. Bug: Incorrectly including 3rd party U-haul dealers.
    • Hanesbrands, (SG_BRAND_b25af76821d74697c7bf6f194a5ec6aa). Net POI count change: -100. Bug: Incorrectly including child brand's poi, Champion (SG_BRAND_dfb9369570afea1)
    • FleetPride, (SG_BRAND_3087255e4447487). Net POI count change: -160. Bug: Incorrectly including POI belonging to partners of FleetPride.
    • Security Finance, (SG_BRAND_9fe8449289467279c329982bb06d75c2). Net POI count change: -153. Bug: Incorrectly including POI of children brands.
    • Shoe Show Mega, (SG_BRAND_60ef405583046498133c783878be1020). Net POI count change: -725. Bug: Incorrectly including POI of children brands.
  • Bad SGPID Churn -- Bad sgpid churn are undesired failures to maintain consistent safegraph_place_ids (sgpids) between releases (see discussion in March 2019 release). We internally track and estimate our performance in this domain and share these numbers in our release notes for maximum transparency. In this release:
    • We dropped 46,963 sgpids (27,893 branded and 19,070 non-branded).
    • We added 65,085 sgpids (29,432 branded and 35,653 non-branded).
    • Some percent of these are true openings and closings; the remainder are bad sgpid churn. We are working on better metrics for distinguishing the two cases.
    • NB: These numbers have significantly improved over the last two releases. See our June Release numbers here.
  • Category Fill Rate We monitor category fill rate with 3 metrics: (1) category fill rate across the entire dataset, (2) category fill rate for branded POI, (3) category fill rate in the brand_info file (brand-level categories). We want all of these numbers to be 100%.
    • (1) All POI category fill rate. Last month 91%. This month 90%. 👎
    • (2) Branded POI category fill rate. Last month 100%. This month 100% 💯
    • (3) Brand-level category fill rate (brand_info file). Last month 100%. This month 100%. 💯

Geometry

Enhancements - Geometry

  • New Column is_synthetic. Last month we asked if users wanted more visibility on precise polygons and the answer was yes. We've added a new column called is_synthetic to help users understand the nature of the polygon_wkt. If you have sensitive visualization use cases, or other reasons that you want to exclude non-precise polygons, this column is your new best friend. 🌞
Column NameDescriptionTypeExample
is_syntheticIf true then this is not a precise building footprint polygon, but instead is an inferred polygon from an accurate centroid, category-based radius, and heuristics like avoiding overlap with roads.Booleanfalse
  • Last month 19% of our branded POI had a parent_safegraph_place_id. This month that number is up to 26%. 📈 This increase reflects our ongoing efforts to fully map the correct parent-child spatial relationships among our POI. We don't expect that number to ever be 100% (because many POI do not have a spatial parent). Reminder: If a POI is inside another POI (like a tenant inside a mall) then the mall is the spatial parent and parent_saferaph_place_id for that tenant. 👪

Bugs and Known Issues - Geometry

  • Centroid-Radius Polygons -- As discussed in March 2019 release notes. We internally track centroid-radius polygons vs precise polygons and strive for 100% precise polygons. You can now measure this yourself using the new is_synthetic column. This release, we've increased to 93.3% precise polygons! 📈 Here is how we are tracking on that metric over recent releases: Centroid-Radius Polygon Tracking.

Bonus Productivity:

  • Please enjoy these fun, informative hackathon projects that our teams made this past month:
    • How many locations?. Have a quick question about how many POI of a brand are in your state? This is for you.
    • TopPlacesMaps.com Ever wonder what is the most common full-service restaurant in North Dakota? Check out these fun and interesting map visualizations. 

Also check out these new ways to get SafeGraph data: 
  * Are you an Esri or ArcGIS user? Check out [SafeGraph Places in the Esri Marketplace](https://marketplace.arcgis.com/listing.html?id=3425348e4bee4059af2b353e52df43c2).
  * Need some extra data on other SafeGraph products? Check out the [SafeGraph Data Bar.](https://shop.safegraph.com/) 
  * Or just drop us a line! Your data needs are our data delights!