On my unit, the points of interest are shown as little icons on the map as I drive by. (A gas pump for gas stations, knife and fork for restaurants, etc.) It's configurable as to which ones get shown on the realtime map, so you can choose the amount of clutter. If I touch one of the icons, it brings up name and the details of that point of interest.

I can also search for points of interest by category (gas stations, restaurants), or I can have it list all points of interest nearby. I can also have it list all points of interest at upcoming freeway offramps.

I'm assuming most of these GPS units handle all of that in a similar way.