A point of interest (POI) is a dedicated geographic entity such as a milestone, an institute, a heritage site, or a corporate office. Points of interest are the base for most of the data supporting location-based applications. The most prevalent POI categories, for example, are housing locations, eateries, fuel pumps, parking spaces, tourist attractions, etc. POIs can be both permanent like Heritage sites/monuments and temporary like shops, restaurants that are movable in nature. They are demonstrated on online maps and are provided to users of location-based mobile applications.

Point of interest (POI) or POI Mapping is referred to as a data set that is a quick, easy and accurate way to populate the mapping project with important places of feature/buildings/ landmarks. POI data supports a range of application including digital mapping enhanced routing products and validation of databases. POI also is known as a feature of interest data supports a range of application including digital mapping, enhanced routing products and validation of private databases. POI mapping is very useful and efficient in digital map creation because it gives detail route information with a picture of the target site. It acts as a tool in the navigation system.

Digital maps for current GPS devices usually include a simple range of POIs for the map area. On the other hand,there are websites that concentrate on the collection, authentication, management and dissemination of POIs which end-users can load on their devices to replace or add-on the existing POIs. Although, some of these websites are universal, and will collect and classify POI for any interest, others are more specific in a particular category (such as speed cameras) or GPS devices. End-users also have the capability to create their own custom POI collections. Saleable POI collections, especially those that craft with digital maps, or that are traded on a subscription basis are generally secured by copyrights. However, there are several websites from which royalty-free POI collections can be obtained easily.

POI Mapping can be advantageous in several ways –

• We can use POI as our destination. For example, if you are traveling to an unfamiliar route you can use POI as your destination.
• Through this navigation system becomes easier.
• POI Mapping makes a unique database for government and Non-government asset with exact geometric location which includes civilians facility & estates of State.
• By the help of this, we get an idea about no. of Government assets & Non-Government asset with their Name, location, and picture.
• POI is a combination of spatial and non-spatial data i.e. capturing picture & collation of attributes of a related asset like name & address.
• Tap on point of interest and change the legend option.
• It provides information about a number of assets with digital photographs in a single click.
• It also generates statistics of data.
• It takes very less time to find any specific place in an unknown route by a layman.

Points of interest form the basis of content for a growing number of mobile and social media applications. Local search applications or systems depend on these points of interest (POIs) in a city user’s topographical context that can be easily understood to generate relevant results. POIs allows us to improve systems and make them dynamic that reflect the services and places people to use in the future.