Product Update

In November, the Product team continued our work on a future project which explores new ways to discover the Atlas. We hope to have more to share soon. In the meantime, please enjoy the places update below and happy holidays!

Places Update

• Places Created: 430
• Places Published: 206
• User Edits: 435
• Photos Added: 3,018

November has been a busy month again for the Places team. Here are a few of our favorites published last month.

There’s the Jokes Phone, an old payphone in Washington, D.C. that’s been retrofitted to provide jokes, fun facts, and more to anyone who dials a number (submitted by sandy7814). We’re always delighted to add interesting toilets to the Atlas, and this month we got two great ones: the Highest Toilet in Arizona (submitted by WhiskeyBristles) and the TOTO Museum in Japan (submitted by KTG).

We also added a few unique cemeteries to this month. At the Mountaineers' Cemetery in Switzerland, burial is reserved for people who died in climbing accidents (submitted by mikewalker). And at the Metaforkirkegården in Denmark, burial is reserved for the most overused, clichéd expressions (submitted by Johan SWE).

New stubs added in November include a couple of champion cow graves in Northern California, a tiny lunar rover hidden in a bas-relief mural in Poland, and a remote survey marker at Cameron Corner, the point where three states meet in Australia. We would love to see more photos and stories about these places if you have them!

Product Update

In October, the Product team met up for a team retreat in Los Angeles. At the meet-up and this month, we've spent the majority of our time working on a future project that will be a new way to explore our Atlas. We've been conducting user research via surveys and interviews and integrating long-standing initiatives into this work. For example, we are reviewing feedback about closed places and map icons and using this is as an opportunity to improve. The shape of this project may change over time as we release it to internal testing and continue to learn. We'll release more info about this project as soon as we can!

Places Update

October Stats

• Submissions: 475
• Places Published: 186
• User Edits: 362
• Photos Added: 3,122

The Places team saw a slightly lower number of submissions in October, at an average of 119 per week. We saw a ton of great new stuff this past month, and have been working on it while we continue reviewing the outstanding submissions from earlier in the year.

October is basically playoffs season at Atlas Obscura, and Halloween is our big game. We added a ton of spooky, scary, pumpkin-y places to the Atlas this past month. There’s the World's Largest Pumpkin Water Tower in Ohio (submitted by forssa) and the final resting place of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, in an English graveyard (submitted by Zoomer1971). We also added the Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, the world’s very first deck of tarot cards, which can be found on display at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy (submitted by Max Cortesi).

There were also quite a few less spooky additions during October, including the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station in Banff (submitted by K H), and Dulcería de Celaya, an Art Noveau candy shop in Mexico City that has been in business since 1874 (submitted by Skuttel).

October’s newly-added stubs included Rathaus Paternoster, a unique style of elevator in Vienna that does not stop, and Kotepokouri Rano Kau, the crater of an extinct volcano on the island of Rapa Nui. We would love to see more photos and stories about these places if you’ve been to any of them!

Product Update

Hi everyone, welcome back to the monthly product blog updates after being on hiatus. This year, the product team’s efforts have been focused on our initiative to modernize, redesign and re-architect our site as well present our content in new ways with our brand partners.

In the beginning of the year we relaunched the homepage with a new design, better performance and a focus on surfacing our recent popular, and staff-curated Articles, Destinations and Places. In the spring we worked on development and content for our partnership with Delta where curated AO content is now available on Delta planes.

We also built out infrastructure for a new type of content we call Hubs which allow us to collect and curate editorial and brand content on themes such as Summer of Wonder or AO Loves Halloween and special hubs for Travel Nevada and Visit California. Over the summer, we relaunched our new trips site -- Atlas Obscura Adventures -- coinciding with our partnership with Intrepid.

Moving forward we are continuing work on our re-architecture which will make our site more modern, faster, and more accessible across the board. So far, we’ve completed our Destination guides and the homepage and intend to tackle Articles and Places next. The re-architecture also gives us an opportunity to make design improvements and add features along the way. Finally, the product team is also spending a considerable amount of time investigating how we might make it possible for the community to interact with the Atlas in new and exciting ways. Thanks for reading and more to come!

Places Update

September Stats

• Submissions: 593
• Places Published: 202
• User Edits: 2,645
• Photos Added: 4,189

This year has been the busiest summer ever for the Places team, with 600 submissions in June, 683 in July, and a record-breaking 724 in August. Things slowed down slightly in September with 593 submissions—an average of 138 new Places submitted per week.

We added a ton of new exciting Places to the Atlas this past month, including a massive underground chasm in France (submitted by Milena Fernig), a statue made of more than 20,000 beetle carapaces in Japan (submitted by Fred Cherrygarden), and a museum filled with thousands of rescued cat figurines in Wisconsin (submitted by benslowey6).

Other favorite places include the phantasmagoric tomb of Belgian artist-scientist Étienne-Gaspard Robertson (submitted by bag208), which is decorated with a horde of skeletons and demons in bas-relief. There’s also the Shoemaker’s Pear Tree in Falsterbo, Sweden, where a troll might repair your shoes in exchange for a bowl of porridge (submitted by niklaswibom).

September’s newly-added stubs include the site where the first V2 rocket fell on London during World War II, the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum, and the seashell-covered Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Guernsey. We would love to see more photos and stories about these places if you’ve been to any of them!

Product Update

Android Update

In January we released the following features on Android:

• added search by location (used to be just search by place)
• improved list creation with a refined naming flow to help new lists save as expected
• refined redirects so logged out users are prompted to sign up/in if they try to take an action that requires an account
• highlighted what creating an account allows users to do on the sign up screen
• added more places to the "Try Exploring" list
• ensured the get directions link properly opens Google maps to navigate to places
• made necessary technical updates, addressed crash reports, and set up better login troubleshooting capabilities
• reduced app size by over 67%

Web Update

We’ve released a couple small improvements for closed Places on the website including:

• Moving the Closed announcement banner higher up on the Place page
• Showing a “Permanently Closed” badge on Place cards around the site and on the Apple maps only (we are in the process of transitioning the google maps on the website to Apple maps).

We're also pushing forward with re-architecting our site to a more modern stack. Soon we hope to announce some improvements to more dynamic content being displayed on the homepage as well as surfacing user profiles on the site to highlight the community. As we continue this re-architecture project, we will make small and big improvements along the way to Articles, Places, and Profiles for example -- so thanks to everyone who have shared and continue to share ideas on our Nolt Feedback Board.

Places Update

• Submissions: 474
• Places Published: 115
• User Edits: 1,778
• Photos Added: 3,350

The Places team had a busy start to 2023! We saw an uptick in submissions in the first few weeks of January, with an average of 119 submissions per week. We’re working on reviewing and editing those submissions, as well as catching up on some from 2022 that are still awaiting edits.

In January, we added a few more animal cemeteries to the Atlas: a graveyard in North Carolina where a tobacco farmer laid his horses and mules to rest between 1930 and 1946 (submitted by dczippy), and the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., where gravestones mark the burial places of a number of beloved rats (submitted by Sydney Rose).

Other favorite Places include a nearly four-meter-tall potato monument that looms over Biesiekierz, Poland (submitted by calf), and the Tiny Bread Box of Vernon, Vermont, a microbakery that fills up with fresh pastries and sourdough every Saturday morning (submitted by gjarvis86).

We also added some new stubs to the Atlas. If you have any photos or stories to add to the entries for the Pettit Memorial Chapel or Chianti Sculpture Park, the Places team would love to see them.

Product Update

December is light on updates due to the holidays and vacations, but we did partner with editorial to release a collection of our best holiday content called Holidays with a Twist. We plan to continue work on hubs like this to provide a better experience for browsing themed, topical and sponsored content. We've also been continuing to upgrade our front-end with a more modern stack, and transition more maps to Apple maps which will improve map experience on web.

On the Android app, we fixed filters for "Been There" and "Want To Go"on the map. We also added a "Place closed" label on the Android app for easily identifiying places that are permanently closed. This label existed already on our website and iOS app. As always, thanks to our community members for reporting issues and suggestions.

Places Update

• Submissions: 389
• Places Published: 93
• User Edits: 1,414
• Photos Added: 2,487

In December, we saw an average of 82 submissions per week. Our publishing schedule continued to be on the slower side while we continued working on changes to our workflow, as well as taking some much-needed time off for the holidays.

Looking back at the Places we published in December, some of our favorites include Kaspar the Savoy Cat, a black cat that’s actually meant to ward off bad luck (submitted by SEANETTA), and the striking Bamboo Bridges of Luang Prabang (submitted by joshuacarlon). We also loved learning why potatoes are left on the grave of Frederick the Great (submitted by CoolCrab), and the Dance-O-Mat, a washing machine turned jukebox in New Zealand (submitted by kenzierae22).

We also bid a sad farewell to Berlin’s AquaDom, after the massive floating aquarium burst on December 16.

This month’s stubs include Cinemateca Portuguesa in Portugal, the Abandoned Radar Station of Lefkada in Greece, and the Silo de Calzada de Calatrava in Spain. We would love to see more photos and information on these entries, if you’ve been to any of them!

Product Update

This month, we've added maps back to our destination guides, using the Apple platform instead of Google. We will continue to use Google on our mobile apps, but this switch for atlasobscura.com will be more cost-effective and open up possibilities for map features and improvements moving forward.

We also launched a hub called In Search of Sanctuary for our brand partner, Lincoln and are working on another editorial collection for the holidays this month. Some other small changes we made include revamping our newsletters and online courses pages.

Places Update

• Submissions: 398
• Places Published: 139
• User Edits: 1,507
• Photos Added: 2,266

In November, we saw an average of 87 submissions per week. Our publishing schedule has been a bit slower than in previous months while we continue to work on changes to our internal processes that will improve the submission process.

Some of our favorite new Places added this month include Physics of the Sun, a massive and visually striking solar oven in Uzbekistan (submitted by Raffaelpeteler), and a relic from the Library of Congress: Martin Waldseemüller’s world map, created in 1507, was the first to use the name “America” for a continent in the Western Hemisphere (submitted by dczippy). We also loved Sneglehuset, a beautiful home in a Danish fishing town created as a labor of love over more than 25 years (submitted by Opdewierd).

We also added a few more stubs to the Atlas this month. If you’ve been to the Foxfire Museum or the Brewarrina Fish Traps and have more photos or information to add to these entries, the Places team would love to see it!

Product Update

This month the mobile app team worked on fixing various sign up issues as well as addressing the issue where Place cards on the Android app were using the incorrect version of the thumbnail image.

The web team launched a halloween series page for our editorial team and have been working on improving our destination guides as well as research and development on a new map experience.

Places Update

• Submissions: 450
• Places Published: 162
• User Edits: 1,846
• Photos Added: 2,709

In October, we saw an average of 101 submissions per week. The Places team is hard at work editing all the great places that have been submitted over the last few busy months.

Some of our favorite places published this month include Eldheimar (submitted by dczippy) an Icelandic museum that remembers the 1973 volcanic eruption on the island of Heimaey, and Winchester Cathedral’s Great West Window (submitted by AdOYo), which was shattered and put back together in a beautiful stained-glass mosaic.

Of course, it wouldn’t be October without a little something spooky. The William Westerfeld House is a mansion in San Francisco's Alamo Square that is rumored to have hosted satanic rituals and other occult practices. In Mexico, it’s not uncommon to find houses built for aluxes, imp-like spirits from Maya mythology (submitted by linkogecko).

We’re still working on updated submission guidelines and hope to have more information on that process in the coming months. Thank you all for continuing to share these wonderful stories with us!

Product Update

Mobile Apps

For Android, we'll soon be releasing:

• The ability to log in and out using multiple authentication methods (for example, Google and username/password)
• An update to display username in helpful places (for example, when creating a new account and logging in)

Website

• We've updated your profile "Places Edited" statistic. Previously it was showing the total number of edits you've made, even if multiple were on the same place. Now it shows the number of places you've edited.
• When you are browsing a Place entry that has a related article or video, you can now see that content on the Place page in the left rail under "Related Stories". See Svalbard Seed Bank as an example! We hope this helps the community discover even more content on our site related to what they are reading.
• We've added our courses to our search result suggestions to help the community discover opportunities to learn more about what they searching for.
• Finally, we've been working on a re-architecture of the front end of our Destination Guides which is going to be released shortly. The new version will be faster and set us up to more easily make further design and feature changes to those pages. Note that the map will no longer be on the Destination Guides as we are also re-evaluating our mapping provider. Once we finish the evaluation, we will post an update on whether the maps will return to the Destination Guides or evolve into a different map experience on the site. For now, we encourage the community to use our mobile apps to browse places in specific regions in map form.

Places Update

• Submissions: 483
• Places Published: 136
• User Edits: 2,025
• Photos Added: 2,695

In September, we had an average of 126 submissions per week. That’s still a pretty high volume of submissions, but not quite the record-breaking numbers that we had in July and August.

Some of our favorite submissions published in August include this roadside sentry box in Wales, submitted by katielou106. It’s one of the few remaining relics of a program that helped motorists in need long before cell phones the world at our fingertips. In Florida, Pat Cassels took us to a strip mall that houses the Bob Ross Art Workshop, a gallery where you can find the largest collection of works created by The Joy of Painting host. And in Lithuania’s Lake Galvė, we loved the stunning Trakai Island Castle, submitted by StepYoshi.

In addition to our regular editing duties, the Places team is working on some changes to the submission process. We’re hoping to improve our communication around submission status and create more detailed guidelines about what we look for in AO Place entries. We’ll have more to share on that process in the coming weeks.

Product Update

Mobile Apps

In August, the focus was on Android. We fixed a few issues such as crashes on low-memory devices, various interface issues as reported by our community members in Discord (thank you!) including: the "New Places" list getting cut off from the bottom navbar and one of the issues causing images not to load in search results.

We also added Facebook login, the "My Passport" feature to the profile, curated lists, Android 13 support, and various performance improvements.

Website

• We've added the random place button on mobile and on place pages to help people discover more places.
• We've been working on a big re-architecture of our front-end page by page, the new re-architecture will make pages faster with small design improvements along the way.

Places Update

• Submissions: 569
• Places Published: 124
• User Edits: 2,276
• Photos Added: 3,745

We’ve had another busy month, with an average of 128 submissions a week in August.

Some of our favorite new Places published in August include Volcán de Tajogaite, the newest volcano on the Canary Islands, submitted by CoolCrab, and the Chelyabinsk Meteorite, submitted by Zborik. We also loved the Michigan gift shop that is home to a 500-pound “Man-Killing Clam” (as far as we know, the clam has never actually killed a human being), submitted by elvenking42.

Special thanks to all our community members for all their Place submissions, bug reports, and feature suggestions!

Product Update

Mobile App

This month we've finished and released the first version of our Android app! Download it on the the Google Play Store.

Website

On July 21, we closed down our community forums, read the announcement for more information. As a team, we are looking forward to exploring ways to highlight and connect the community moving forward.

Places Update

• Submissions: 603
• Places Published: 132
• User Edits: 2,253
• Photos Added: 3,335

July marked one of the busiest months for Place submissions on record, with an average of 138 Places added each week.

With temperatures reaching record-breaking highs all over the world, going underground seems increasingly appealing. Luckily, we added some incredible subterranean sites in July. France’s Lac Souterrain de Saint-Léonard is the largest underground lake in Europe, shared by julianfkeller99. In Kosovo, Max Cortesi took us to Gadime Cave, a deep cavern dripping with stalactites and stalagmites made of marble. If you’re more into special collections than speleothems, you might like this entry from lampbane about the escape hatch in Bryant Park that leads down into the New York Public Library’s underground stacks.

We’re living vicariously through our contributors’ travels, and that includes taking in unusual sights from train stations and airports. In Vilnius, Lithuania, the train station features a 15-foot tall statue of Tony Soprano in his robe and boxers, shared by Zborik. And in Terminal A of the Houston airport, a cow dressed in astronaut gear welcomes visitors to Space City, shared by Fred Cherrygarden.

Thanks to everyone who shared these wonderful Places with us. We're excited to see what August holds!

Hello to the Atlas Obscura community! Welcome to the product blog where we will be providing regular updates on what our teams have been working on and how the community has contributed to the Atlas.

Product Update

Mobile App

This month we released a new home screen and explore experience for the iOS app, including a prominently featured Place of the Day.

We've also been building our Android app (coming soon 🎉).

Website

This month we released an update to our place submission banner. You'll now see the publication date once your place submission is approved and scheduled for publication.

We've also been going through the feedback board, prioritizing items "Under Consideration" in our backlog, and building a new site for Atlas Obscura Trips (coming soon 🎉).

Places Update

• Submissions: 314
• Places Published: 126
• User Edits: 1,646
• Photos Added: 2,672

June was a busy month for the Places team, with an average of 74 submissions a week. We published new Places from every continent except Antarctica.

This month marks the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, which feels like a fitting season for all the Places we’ve seen in hot, dry climates. Max Cortesi shared a number of sites in Saudi Arabia including the Lion Tombs of Dadan, a pair of cliffside burial niches marked by carvings that date back to the fifth century B.C.

In the western U.S., we explored quite a few historical sites. Some were recent, like this navigational aid from the early days of airmail from slgwv, and some were much older, like the Mt. Irish petroglyphs from CoolCrab. Mike Walker took us even further back in geological history with the striking red stone of New Mexico’s Walatowa Slot Canyon.

We also learned about Virginia’s Barter Theater from sandra1, where patrons were able to exchange produce and livestock for a ticket during the Great Depression. There are even more exciting Places coming up in July. Stay tuned for another update next month!