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Google Maps's Moat: How Far Ahead of Apple Maps is Google Maps? (justinobeirne.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Over the past year, we've been comparing Google Maps and Apple Maps in New York, San Francisco, and London -- but some of the biggest differences are outside of large cities. That's a comprehensive comparison. Google Maps, unlike Apple Maps, doesn't stop at outlining the routes. It offers contextual details such as depiction of buildings and other structures and vegetation. It has captured everything -- from dish antennae on top of buildings to golf courses. Furthermore, Google Maps also shows name of the neighbourhood, and has more distinguishable icons and colors. You can glance at a portion of the map on Google Maps and get a good picture of what's in that place. Apple Maps, on the other hand, looks empty. Like an unfurnished house.
Google maps was great... then they decide to take away features randomly that are extremely useful.
At least Apple Maps is consistent.
A man using Apple Maps walks into a bar, or a hotel, or possibly a church...
Apple's map database is downright horrendous. It's almost like they intentionally want to mislead drivers as a practical joke.
It thinks that the address for a farm I go to is in the next nearest town. Google getting their maps ready for self driving cars, but I feel there will be a load of wrong direction incidents when they are released.
> Google Maps, unlike Apple Maps, doesn't simply outline the routes. It offers insane details, including depicting buildings and other structures and vegetation. It has captured everything
Stop there, don't kick a man when he is down.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
"Apple Maps, on the other hand, looks empty. Like an unfurnished house."
But at least all the rooms are easily connected.
I use OpenStreetMap http://www.osm.org/ . It is kind of Wikipedia approach to mapping.
By the way, I use this web application to view Wikipedia articles on the OSM map: http://ausleuchtung.ch/geo_wik... . It works for all language versions of Wikipedia, and to view hotels, supermarkets, etc. this one: http://ausleuchtung.ch/travel_...
Apple's maps were only ever intended to act as an insurance policy if Steve Job's thermonuclear war with Google got Google Maps removed from the App Store. That happened for a short time, but now it's back and things have cooled significantly since 2012 on the patent war. Navigation is as much a minimum expectation of a smartphone now as email is. It was only ever developed at all to ensure there would always be maps available for the iPhone. In the event that Google removes Maps from the App Store, Apple will immediately make new, immediate, and significant investments in their program. Until then, they don't care.
Navigation Apple Maps can be invoked with your voice using Siri, without having to touch the device. Very useful in the car (and frustrating that it's limited to Apple Maps).
This is its biggest advantage over Google Maps (for iPhone users). And despite it solely being an artificial limitation, as we've seen with other historical instances of software bundling, it will prove to be very advantageous to Apple.
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Wherever you have four priests, you have a fifth.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
When I use my Android phone's navigation it shows me the name of the street that I need to turn on to next, the direction of the turn, and the distance to that turn. If it's a long way away I think it shows me a rough time to reach there at current speed, can't say for certain.
Besides, maps on the phone are not as complexly-filled-in as maps on the PC. And that's just fine with me.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
In German(y| cities), that is just one case of usage. And not even close to the most common.
Most here ride their bikes or use public transportation or find a bike, car, taxi, cargo taxi, etc.
And OpenStreetMap is by far the best for recrearional bike tours / hikes / exploration / etc.
We alao use it to find the exact location of a shop or doctor or nude beach or whatever all the time.
Which is basically what's left when you don't use it as a car route planner. All transport services (like trams/buses) have their own route planning.
(Just for perspective, for Americans: A normal public transport station has a train/bus every 5â"15 minutes during the day or weekend party night, and even on outskirts at night, you never go below 1 an hour. Our 3rd tier city quarter train stations are bigger that that of some of your cities (like Huston ^^). Thats why we use it so much. Which would make no sense in the US.)
A man was walking in the park with his wife. Suddenly he took his cap off, and his wife asked, "why?". He said, "According to Apple Maps, I am smack bang dang in the middle of First Presbyterian".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
When I move from point A to point B, II don't care if there are antennas on the roofs of the buildings prospecting the road you travel through, or if there is a dentist in the middle of my journey. I simply want a no-frills, clearly understandable map (that by the way in my case is displayed on the screen of a iPhone SE placed at about one meter from my eyes).
In our family we have a iPhone, a Windows 8 phone, and an Android tablet. The tablet through Google maps gives the most detailed description of the territory, but we never use it for getting directions, drawing the map with all the details clogs the 4-CPU tablet to the point it becomes a paperweight. Deciding who is the best map navigator between the iPhone and M$oft^H^H^H^H^H Nokia is difficult, I actually prefer the former, my wife the latter, but both work fine and draw circles around the Google navigator in terms of usability.
I've found google maps and Apple maps to be at two ends of the timing spectrum on giving directions:
Google: Turn left in 1 mile... Turn left in half a mile... turn left in 1/4 mile... Turn left in 500 feet... Turn left in 100 feet... Turn left
Apple: Turn left in 10 miles... Turn left at the intersection you are now already halfway through.
Both are really annoying in their own way, and a happy medium needs to be found. However, I give Google the win on this because I don't miss turns when Google maps is directing.
I'm a long time Google Apps on iPhone user. Mainly because I can facetime family members with iPhones/Pads and also use Hangouts for those with Android. However, I'm forced to use Apple Maps in the car because Apple Car doesn't allow you to run Google Maps for the in-dash integration.
Argh. What a pain in the ass. Atleast in v11, Apple introduced lane specific directions, and yes Apple maps is much more improved than previous versions, but it still seems way behind Google Maps.
I'd much rather use Waze of GoogleMaps than Apple maps in my car, ugh walled garden...
Well, if you've ever made any maps with GIS, you'd know that maps aren't just any old artifacts; they're *tools* that support specific *tasks*. Driving from 123 Sesame St to 456 Maple is only one of many possible things you can do with a map. There's deciding whether a park you haven't visited would be a good place to take your toddler. If you've ever done this, you know that you use multiple kinds of details in that particular task. Is the park bordered by busy roads? Does it have a fence? Are there nearby businesses that might have a bathroom?
I use Google Maps to scout new fishing spots -- I'm looking for places where there is access to a likely looking stream, but not so obvious that there will be someone there already. You can do similar kinds of screening for locating places you might want to visit when you're thinking about opening a business. For these kinds of things you need multiple layers of detail, and those layers have to be visually organized.
Maps are like pocket knives. You can whittle with a Swiss Army knife, but it's not as good as a purpose-made whittling knife. Adding details layers to maps is like adding blades to a Swiss Army knife; sure it becomes more versatile, but at some point it becomes more awkward to use for certain tasks. The difference is with maps you can use graphic design to emphasize certain features and de-emphasize others. This reduces visual clutter, and makes it easier to use -- sometimes even when the de-emphasized features are needed for a particular tasks. Tasks proceed in steps and each step needs different information. You use high contrast for details that the user scans for, and low visual contrast is acceptable for steps where he's focused on one spot.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
You could just look at a map before you leave, like people did for thousands of years.
I don't respond to AC's.
*Irish priests, m'lad.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Well, if you're going to have a map of Ladd, Illinois, it would behoove you to clearly mark Rip's Tavern, home of the best fried chicken in the state.
You really don't want to have hangry folks wandering about, desperately looking for their fried chicken fix. Google knows better than that...
I can't really comment since the article looked to me like a "sorry, Firefox has crashed" message. I caught a brief glimpse of blinking maps before the crash, but two attempts led to two crashes so I guess they don't want the article to be read on an Android tablet. Fortunately for me I feel absolutely no sense of loss from not being able to read it and proceed happily along with the rest of my life. Incidentally, I have both apple and android phones and have not had any trouble with either of them giving me navigation to any destinations I've needed to get to. As far as I'm concerned that's all that matters, so I don't suppose the article is whining about anything important.
My subdivision was built 7 years age. Two years ago it showed up on Apple Maps, but is stilll missing from Google Maps. The funny thing is that street view for the area is up to date, but wonâ(TM)t let you navigate into the street, just look down it. I did notify Google but nothing happened. Havenâ(TM)t seen us appear on a car GPS yet either. This is in rural British Columbia.
Looking at the examples, Apple Maps may look a bit emptier because they do not have building shapes.
But what if you are driving? If you are driving, emptier is better. In fact that is one of the things I've liked about Apple Maps since launch, is that when driving it's a MUCH easier map to look at compared to Google Maps. It shows you important things, not meaningless trivia like which houses have bay windows.
I don't see what the complete building shapes really do for you in a residential area unless you are a shed thief. So why have them always clutter the map? In a city it's a bit more useful, but there Apple does have building shapes as well. True they do not have fan shapes on the roof that you will never see and cannot access... wait WHY does Google even show that? Just because they can?
Meanwhile you claim Google Maps has some kind of moat, when it doesn't even offer in-station transit directions like Apple Maps does. You know, something people might actually need to know instead of how many fans are on the roof of a building?
The moat seems rather the other way. Apple is way ahead in making a more readable map, and ahead now in giving directions.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
> but they will literally sell that information to anyone willing to pay.
Quite the opposite. Older companies that acquired data used to sell it, and some still do. One thing. That has made Google so successful is that they are careful to keep the data to themselves. It's their golden goose. They sell ADS that are targeted using the data. That way they can keep selling ads to the same companies for years, rather than selling data once. They never sell the data because then it could be passed around and that would reduce their competitive advantage.
The other day I was trying to get somewhere in a large hospital complex and I noticed Google had a map of each floor of the building. I could seIect which floor I wanted a map of. I see new features like that being added; I haven't noticed features being removed.
The article describes how awesome Google Maps is because it's showing you fans on top of a skyscraper.
On a roof you will never see, and cannot access.
So please, do tell us all why that extra detail is useful in any way, or will be ever before the end of time.
Same goes for sheds in the back of a house I'm driving in front of. It's just more visual detail my mind has to decide does not matter, so why even show it?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Having never used either one, I can't specifically comment on their differences. However, I'll remind people that the purpose of maps for navigation is not to see all of that detail at all. It is specifically to focus on the navigation required, by removing all of that added information.
I simply want to know which turns to make. I don't want my map to show me all of the great things that I'm passing -- I've chosen to pass on all of them to reach my destination. Same word for a reason.
Even more importantly, reviewing a simple map is easily committed to memory. Six turns, glanced once, remembered for the day. I can look at a map in my driveway, and then not need it anymore. It's called learning.
But give me all of that detail, and now I'll need to glance at the map every minute for a day of driving. That's insane.
Tell me like I'm six.
I was in Hawaii recently, we use both Apple Maps and Google Maps while driving around. Google Maps will send you down some weird route to save you a few minutes. Some regular streets that were so small I had to move to the side to let cars going the opposite way pass. Apple Maps would recommend staying on the major streets. But Apple Maps suck when it came to finding a business in a business complex. Both Google Maps and Apple Maps will tell you to make left turns or U turns at intersections that don’t allow U turns or unsafe to make a left turn. At least on iOS, I have both options to use Apple Maps or Google Maps.
Everything tries to kill in Australia. Apple is just trying to fit in. I mean, even on the nice beaches there are warning signs about crocodiles. I already have to worry about the sharks and now I have to worry about crocodiles too.
That's a comprehensive comparison. Google Maps, unlike Apple Maps, doesn't stop at outlining the routes. It offers contextual details such as depiction of buildings and other structures and vegetation. It has captured everything -- from dish antennae on top of buildings to golf courses. Furthermore, Google Maps also shows name of the neighbourhood, and has more distinguishable icons and colors. You can glance at a portion of the map on Google Maps and get a good picture of what's in that place. Apple Maps, on the other hand, looks empty. Like an unfurnished house.
How the hell is that a "comprehensive" comparison? All the entire article does is focus on how pretty the maps are.
I care that the app can get me to my destination. I care that the app can warn me about traffic congestion and help me route around that. I want an accurate list of businesses in the area I happen to be viewing. I do *not* care that the map has a well rendered maple tree or 2.5d buildings. It looks cool, sure, but it's still just fluff.
So which maps app handles the genuinely *important* stuff better?
Open goggle maps on android device and 75% of the screen is covered with overlays, bars, buttons etc. Didnt used to be this way. No easy way to disable all this fluff.
- Gronk!
Perhaps my post was too strongly worded, in response to a very strongly worded claim. GGP said "they will literally sell that information to anyone willing to pay". That person may have been thinking of other companies whose products are indeed lists of names, addresses, and various information about the people. You can buy a list of people who are into hunting, a list of people who supported Ron Paul, etc. You'll find various lists available on the order forms from these companies.
You will find no such order form anywhere on Google's site. You sure will find adwords, though! Their TOC / privacy policy *allows* them to share information with partners, but that's not what they generally do. They will show ads for "anyone willing to pay", they will not, generally "will literally sell that information to anyone willing to pay", though if they have your consent, they could do so by the terms of the privacy policy.
Google Maps is basically in an entire other category when compared to everything else, for good or bad.
Perhaps I'm wrong on this, but it's just how I face it.
You don't need to be a Google fan, Apple hater or whatever to realize this.
Apple has not invested as much time and money on mapping, nor have any other initiatives like HERE maps, etc.
To put it more simply, Apple Maps is just a service or an app from Apple for navigation. Google Maps represents an entire business division of Alphabet or something that encompases a whole ton of other stuff... it's a behemoth by itself.
One can argue that it's unecessary for things like navigation, which sure, could be.
But I think it's accurate to say that no other mapping company has invested as much time, money or hired as many people and has such a large community backing to form the platform.
Starting with the fact that Google Maps is not a single entity, but intrinsically tied to Google Earth, Waze, Street View and a whole metric ton of 3rd party applications. Google acquired several other companies and technologies to tie into the service, whether people notice it or not.
Apple Maps gets their info from TomTom... and that's basically it. It's at best competing with platforms like MapQuest (which also uses TomTom's data), Bing Maps and HERE Maps.
Google Maps have some insane stuff like a Moon map, Mars map, underwater street view, Google Sky... they have hired satellites to update imagery, hired people on bikes, horses, camels, on foot, etc to take imagery of unaccessible areas, they have images inside some businesses, museums and whatnot. Whatever Apple maps or any other map services produce is only a fraction of what Google Maps does.
That's not to say it's the best one for your particular needs, nor the one that will more accurately represent your area. But it is what it is.
Everything tries to kill in Australia. Apple is just trying to fit in. I mean, even on the nice beaches there are warning signs about crocodiles. I already have to worry about the sharks and now I have to worry about crocodiles too.
Australia has ocean-going crocodiles? Goes along with the supersonic flying spiders and venomous drop bears I suppose.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Yup. The crocodiles surfs between islands in the Pacific. Didn’t know it either until we went to Australia.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r...