Naver Blog geolocations connecting Naver Map results

One small aspect of Korean online life that I really like is the way Naver incorporates their blogging service into wider results. I've often found that the best, most reliable and easy to follow info is rarely on corporate or bulletin board type sites, but in a random person's personal Naver blog. So I appreciate that Naver Map results often highlights review results from Naver Blog instead of just promoting map reviews the way Google does. 

Map place reviews are fine for a quick gauge of how popular a place is (1 to 5 stars), but it's always in the corresponding blog posts where you find the most detailed information. Naver Blog results will include plenty of shots of actual menus, show where and how much nearby parking is, and usually show some nearby attractions or restaurants, with real pictures of dishes. I find this way more convenient than how Google Maps handles this supplementary info back home. 

Blog reviews added to map results

To illustrate what I mean, let's look at an example.

Let's look up one of the branches of Cry Cheese, a well known local burger joint that is pretty similar to the "In-N-Out" style you find in the western USA. 

크라이치즈버거 양재역점

https://map.naver.com/v5/entry/place/1320179295

Here's how the results look on Naver Map. All the basic info is there.

Naver Map search for Cry Cheese

But if you scroll down a bit, you can find corresponding Naver Blog posts that were geotagged at that location. 

Naver Map search including blog results

This is a handy feature that, sadly, most foreign blogging services have done away with. Blogger lets you geotag posts, but you can't really do much with it other than include a link in your post to that location's listing on Google Maps (this post right now is tagged that way). WordPress meanwhile has completely done away with the option for .com users to geotag posts.

That's too bad because, like with this example, a geotagged blog post can have that metadata utilized to pull in those posts in a map search like this, bringing both utility to the searcher and traffic to the blog. Win-win. 

We can see the same when searching Kakao Map:

https://place.map.kakao.com/539250139

Blog post reviews featured in map post locations

What you're seeing here are Naver blog posts and a few Tistory blog posts in the addition info for the Kakao Map location. Because they are public blog posts and include those geotags, any service can easily link to this valuable information. 

Blog review location tags


Because we don't see this much in foreign blogger services, here's a quick look at how these geotags work.

On Naver Blog, they can take three basic forms, depending on how you add the geotag. 

If you use the mobile app, you can tag the nearby location and it will be encoded in the post metadata. It gets displayed as a byline in the blog post as the place name or address with a link to the listing on Naver Map.

Sample geotag in byline

If you post on the desktop, you have two options. You search manually for the location you want to tag, and it appears as a kind of widget in the blog post itself, which you can put where ever you want in the post. 

Here's the smaller version:

Sample geotag block in-post


And here's the larger version that includes an interactive embedded map. I like this because it provides info at a glance, and for how easy it is to automatically include the blog post. To do the same on Blogger, you'd have to go to Google Maps, get the embed code, and paste the code into the code version of your blog post. Much less user friendly especially to people who just want to review a restaurant or amusement location and probably don't even know what an embed code is.

Sample geotag embedded map in-post

You can do this on Tistory, and it looks like this, though of course leads you to KakaoMap. 

Sample embedded KakaoMap block in-post

When searching places on KakaoMap, aside from the Tistory and Naver Blog results, you can also get Kakao Story results which must be geotagged in the app. A lot fewer results appear from there though, probably because simply don't use KakaoStory as much. 

KakaoStory post

But clicking through to its byline will show you what story posts are available, if any:

KakaoStory location

Location tagging blog posts

To add these to your posts, it works like this. I'll use Naver Blog as an example.

Just tap the 장소 (place) button to bring up a pop-up map where you can search. You'll have two options in the drop-down list at the top-left: 해외 (abroad) or 국내 (domestic). If you pick abroad, the tag will include an embedded Google Map because Naver Map does not provide any non-Korean mapping. Domestic will use Naver Map.  

Example of the auto-complete in Naver Blog's Google Map embedding. Works in English.


Location tag for Chicago USA in Naver Blog


Location tag for Cry Cheese in Naver Map embed on Naver Blog.


To get the small byline type tag, use the mobile editor and do the same:
Naver Blog mobile app insert page


Example of the location byline tag when composing a Naver Blog post

Final thoughts

I know this isn't some huge thing. But I like that Naver has attempted to not only make use of the large set of personal blog post data they have, but also to continually add little minor features to keep the Korean blogosphere active. The decline in blogging in the West has left everything walled off in Facebook private groups, Yelp posts that want you to log-in, etc. I'm glad that people can simply throw up their pictures on a personal blog post, add plenty of personal details, and others can make use of them. It feels like what the internet was back before SNS. This example of directly promoting blog post content in map searches helps to keep that ecosystem vibrant. 

They've also tried to include more focus on short form video to combat Instagram Reels type content, which I hope might actually work out since Reels are so ephemeral but a lot of these blog posts can have useful info for years. 


Of course it's not perfect, and anybody could geotag a place and write a nonsense review or provide bad information. But I have never found that to be the case in years of using Naver Blogs to research a location before arriving. The defamation laws probably ensure that doesn't happen much, and the portals can always verify the links back to these blogs are relevant by popularity and interaction (liking the posts, for example). 

It's just a small detail of why sometimes "our" way of doing things might not always be the best way. I like the 정 of building, creating, and relying on, blog posts. 

Sources for screenshots:


Tagged:
⛳ 8 Gangnam-daero 41-gil, Seocho 2(i)-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea

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