4 ms·

FWIW for Berlin, Apple Maps draws the transport lines and stations far better and nicer. Google draws the lines very imprecisely and doesn't show you tram lines

by ino 11y ago

FWIW for Berlin, Apple Maps draws the transport lines and stations far better and nicer. Google draws the lines very imprecisely and doesn't show you tram lines, for example.

kuschku 11y ago
In my city, Google Maps has NO transit, NO satellite images since 2004, NO map data since 2010. Here maps has satellite and transit, and Apple Maps even has full 3D buildings. Following is a set of complaints I compiled last year when a Google employee asked me on reddit to post them more detail about my maps complaints. The usability of any Google product outside the US is a total disaster, and it’s a wonder how Google is able to keep any market share with their quality of service. NONE of this has been addressed since we started complaining in 2005 (!), except for one thing: that connection between two streets, which is closed with a fence, has been marked as closed. So now we have less people standing there trying to get through. > https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3559928,10.0734304,18z https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3559928,10.0734304,18z > http://imgur.com/a/DyRBT http://imgur.com/a/DyRBT > The map data on top is from the municipality, the map data on bottom from Google. > As you see, the street "Beim Bauernhaus" is completely missing, the "Kellerkate" is missing half the street, the connection between "Beim Bauernhaus" and "Kellerkate" is missing, the "Kl. Koppel" is missing parts of the street. > You currently have data from 2010 for this specific area. > The data you currently have access to from GeoBasis-DE is this: http://i.imgur.com/67TQeP8.png http://i.imgur.com/67TQeP8.png > At least the connection between Steinberg and Nienbrügger Weg is now marked as service path, until recently it was marked as street and people tried to get through there (there’s a fence making that impossible). > I won’t get too much into satellite data either, because yours is from 2004, too: > https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3530178,10.0703569,529m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3530178,10.0703569,529m/data... > https://www.here.com/?map=54.35308,10.07028,17,satellite https://www.here.com/?map=54.35308,10.07028,17,satellite > And the unavailability of Public Transit data for busses, etc. on Google Maps – which is available on Here.com – makes it unlikely that I, as a student using public transit all the time – am going to switch back.
- level3 11y ago
  Conversely, Apple Maps still has no transit in Tokyo, rendering it completely unusable in one of the iPhone's largest markets. So don't extrapolate your city to the rest of the world.
  - Bud 11y ago
    Conversely, Google Maps is lame for transit everywhere in the world, whereas at least Apple Maps is making rapid progress here.
    - lhl 11y ago
      I visited a dozen+ countries in 4 continents last year - GMaps did a pretty decent (often great) job with public transit. In the cases where there was no/bad data, it usually had more to do with the transit authorities being jackasses than anything in Google's control (Melbourne in particular stuck out as being just terrible).
      - terinjokes 11y ago
        After neither GMaps nor CityMapper having transit for Melbourne I just gave up and stood at the stop. :(
        lhl 11y ago
        Yeah, I couldn't believe how bad it was, especially since Sydney has been fine for years. Apparently the root of this was their transit agency's longtime refusal to open up their data: http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/melbourne-public-transport-tram-train-bus-users-stranded-with-unusable-data-20140310-34hxv.html http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/melbourne-pub... Some data was finally released last April (promised as part of an election reform campaign), but as of October there were still GMaps integration issues: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-google-pointing-fingers-over-public-transport-fail-20151021-gkexuj.html http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-g... I was involved in a lot of (too many) geo/transit/open data conversations in the late 2000s, and sadly, this kind of short-sighted/nonsensical thinking was all too common, and I'm sure persists in many of the places where people lay the blame on GMaps, when it's actually due to stonewalling bureaucrats.

by ino 11y ago

FWIW for Berlin, Apple Maps draws the transport lines and stations far better and nicer. Google draws the lines very imprecisely and doesn't show you tram lines, for example.

kuschku 11y ago

In my city, Google Maps has NO transit, NO satellite images since 2004, NO map data since 2010. Here maps has satellite and transit, and Apple Maps even has full 3D buildings. Following is a set of complaints I compiled last year when a Google employee asked me on reddit to post them more detail about my maps complaints. The usability of any Google product outside the US is a total disaster, and it’s a wonder how Google is able to keep any market share with their quality of service. NONE of this has been addressed since we started complaining in 2005 (!), except for one thing: that connection between two streets, which is closed with a fence, has been marked as closed. So now we have less people standing there trying to get through. > https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3559928,10.0734304,18z https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3559928,10.0734304,18z > http://imgur.com/a/DyRBT http://imgur.com/a/DyRBT > The map data on top is from the municipality, the map data on bottom from Google. > As you see, the street "Beim Bauernhaus" is completely missing, the "Kellerkate" is missing half the street, the connection between "Beim Bauernhaus" and "Kellerkate" is missing, the "Kl. Koppel" is missing parts of the street. > You currently have data from 2010 for this specific area. > The data you currently have access to from GeoBasis-DE is this: http://i.imgur.com/67TQeP8.png http://i.imgur.com/67TQeP8.png > At least the connection between Steinberg and Nienbrügger Weg is now marked as service path, until recently it was marked as street and people tried to get through there (there’s a fence making that impossible). > I won’t get too much into satellite data either, because yours is from 2004, too: > https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3530178,10.0703569,529m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3530178,10.0703569,529m/data... > https://www.here.com/?map=54.35308,10.07028,17,satellite https://www.here.com/?map=54.35308,10.07028,17,satellite > And the unavailability of Public Transit data for busses, etc. on Google Maps – which is available on Here.com – makes it unlikely that I, as a student using public transit all the time – am going to switch back.

level3 11y ago
Conversely, Apple Maps still has no transit in Tokyo, rendering it completely unusable in one of the iPhone's largest markets. So don't extrapolate your city to the rest of the world.
- Bud 11y ago
  Conversely, Google Maps is lame for transit everywhere in the world, whereas at least Apple Maps is making rapid progress here.
  - lhl 11y ago
    I visited a dozen+ countries in 4 continents last year - GMaps did a pretty decent (often great) job with public transit. In the cases where there was no/bad data, it usually had more to do with the transit authorities being jackasses than anything in Google's control (Melbourne in particular stuck out as being just terrible).
    - terinjokes 11y ago
      After neither GMaps nor CityMapper having transit for Melbourne I just gave up and stood at the stop. :(
      - lhl 11y ago
        Yeah, I couldn't believe how bad it was, especially since Sydney has been fine for years. Apparently the root of this was their transit agency's longtime refusal to open up their data: http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/melbourne-public-transport-tram-train-bus-users-stranded-with-unusable-data-20140310-34hxv.html http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/melbourne-pub... Some data was finally released last April (promised as part of an election reform campaign), but as of October there were still GMaps integration issues: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-government-google-pointing-fingers-over-public-transport-fail-20151021-gkexuj.html http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/victorian-g... I was involved in a lot of (too many) geo/transit/open data conversations in the late 2000s, and sadly, this kind of short-sighted/nonsensical thinking was all too common, and I'm sure persists in many of the places where people lay the blame on GMaps, when it's actually due to stonewalling bureaucrats.