6 ms·

> After all, Apple Maps has 3x more users than Google Maps on the iPhone and Google Maps is definitely better. That's a pretty bold statement. When Apple Maps

by eridius 10y ago

> After all, Apple Maps has 3x more users than Google Maps on the iPhone and Google Maps is definitely better. That's a pretty bold statement. When Apple Maps first launched this was certainly true. But Apple Maps has improved significantly since then, to the point where whether Apple Maps or Google Maps is better depends on where you are and what data you're trying to find.

sgslo 10y ago
In San Antonio, Texas, last week, I used Apple Maps to search for 'two brothers bbq'. The actual name of the establishment is 'two bros bbq' or similar. Apple maps decided to give me results from Europe as the first few in the result set. Why in the world would I want directions to Europe while in Texas? Google maps, of course, picked it up on the first try. One other thing - while in navigation mode with Apple maps, try panning the map around, or even zooming. Let me know how that goes.
- drakenot 10y ago
  I think they announced that the panning/zooming issue is resolved with the Apple Maps in iOS10. So hopefully that will be one less annoyance.
  - asd 10y ago
    >I think they announced that the panning/zooming issue is resolved with the Apple Maps in iOS10. I wish this were the case. I'm running the iOS 10 beta on a 6S+ and gave Maps several seconds to load this area of upstate NY. http://i.imgur.com/wi7HRqe.jpg http://i.imgur.com/wi7HRqe.jpg The dark gray grid persists. Yea, it's the first beta, but I have mostly only noticed changes in the interface and not the actual map data.
    - glhaynes 10y ago
      I believe that's a different problem than was being discussed, which was that while driving directions are being shown on Maps on pre-iOS 10, it maddeningly only lets you pan/zoom a slight amount before snapping back to a zoomed-in, myopic-feeling view of your current location.
      - asd 10y ago
        Ah, I see now. Sorry about that. Yes, that problem is fixed. You can now zoom out and explore while directions are shown.
- oiojdfg999898 10y ago
  Piling on this, Apple maps is absolute shit in Japan. Google pretty much seamlessly operates between English (romaji alphabet) and Japanese names for the same place.
- addicted 10y ago
  I don't get how Apple Maps decides to show locations in other continents when it is unable to find a a match locally. And Apple's inability to do any sort of decent fuzzy matching is legion.
  - jolux 10y ago
    Apple Music can't resolve ampersands to and and vice versa. Disaster.
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      A wild guess - maybe someone else (Google) has some crucial patents on fuzzy matching? I know it's probably not the case, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was true...
- hrktb 10y ago
  While I understand your frustration, it made me think I need to give Apple Maps a new chance. Be it in search or in maps, google services are auto correcting so much stuff. You can be in France and search for 'Akita', and the first result will be some japanese restaurant that happen to have the keyword in the name, with the more reputable and perfect match half a screen below. Of course a lot of user might actually be looking for restaurants, but it's so frustrating this moment where you have to think "I really mean what I typed in this box" and going through the "what was the syntax to value more the keyword". And then as it detects your preferences the behavior changes and you are left wondering what's happening (like how do I explicitely ask for local search to be prioritized ?) It feels less and less like a tool and more like a pet engine you have to teach fetching the mail.
- kartD 10y ago
  Hardly a point, I've had GMaps do the same thing to me in India and the US and Apple found the place just fine. If we were comparing GMaps of 4-5 years then yes, it was far and away better, but now it seems to hae regressed and Apple maps has caught up for most use cases
  - AJ007 10y ago
    Anecdotally, both Google and Apple maps have fail points. Up until very recently I would always try to double check Google Map's pin of a location from another source because it would be flat out wrong at least 10% of the time. The more interesting thing to me now is seeing what OpenStreetMap and Mapbox are doing. Their combined trajectories may end up surpassing both Google and Apply. Mass produced drones along 3D scanning tools and improved 2D->3D imagery tech could provide for very comprehensive and open map data with all kinds of layers of usage far beyond geo coordinates, lanes, and street sign data.
- modfodder 10y ago
  When I look for places near my neighborhood in Greenpoint Brooklyn, Google Maps pulls up places in New Jersey about 30% of the time, even if I type in the exact name of the place several blocks away. I haven't been to NJ in years (and only a handful of times). And last time I was in Palo Alto using Google Maps to find a dry cleaners, it sent me on a 20 minute goose chase, and had me going in circles. On the third try of reentering the address (using copy/paste all three times, all 3 times the address was identical) it finally game me an accurate route. I still use Google Maps more than Apple maps mainly because of the subway/bus integration and because I've been using it for so long, but in my anecdotal experience Apple Maps isn't any worse than Google Maps and has been less irritating when it's wrong than Google (although I use Google more).
- nikanj 10y ago
  I have seen the opposite happen quite often: small mom-and-pop place doesn't want to pay Google, so they can only be found with Apple maps. Google maps makes money by squeezing business owners, Apple maps makes money by selling more iPhones.
  - Oletros 10y ago
    Are you saying that Google doesn't list a place in the maps if they don't pay? Do you have any source for that? Thanks
honkhonkpants 10y ago
Yeah, for example Google Maps is good for people who are actually looking for something while Apple Maps is perfect for those who don't care what's on the map. I kid, but only sort of. Apple Maps has serious data freshness problems. For years they listed businesses in a building that had long-since been demolished. Looking around in my Oakland neighborhood, Apple Maps is missing two new streets. Google has an indoor map of the BART station, Apple doesn't. Etc.
draw_down 10y ago
I wish he was wrong but Google's is definitely better. It's ridiculous the shit Apple's app gets wrong, still. Search for Swedish food and get sent to Sweden.
addicted 10y ago
If you leave the US, Google Maps is orders of magnitude better. If you commute anyway other than by car, Google Maps is orders of magnitude better. So basically, Apple is slightly competitive if you are driving a car within the US, but even there it's probably a lot worse in the aggregate. And Flyover is not even close to being as useful as Street View.
- cageface 10y ago
  This applies to Apple's stuff in general. If you live in the US and mostly interact with Americans it works well. If you live elsewhere or communicate with people outside the US then Maps, iMessage, and the stock Apple keyboard will find their way to your junk folder.
  - ghshephard 10y ago
    That's not entirely true - even though 99% of the people I work with outside the US (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Kolkata, Mexico) use Whatsapp, there is a tendency to start comms off with SMS before moving over to Whatsapp (no idea why). So - in the event (about 20% of the time, astonishingly enough - but it could be bias for the people I work with) the person talking to me has an iPhone we start off with iMessage. And of course, the other 80% of the time it's SMS coming through iMessage. So, iMessage has it's place initiating conversations. After that it's a [pick your regional chat app that isn't iMessage] . I'm stunned at the number of people who use Apple Maps in Singapore. Google Maps is much better here - but about 50-70% of the people I know who have an iPhone just use the Map App that is installed on it. Kills me. I don't know any english speakers with an iPhone who have changed out their keyboard - I've played with the others, but perhaps it's a foreign language thing?
    - cageface 10y ago
      iPhone stock keyboard is horrible for foreign languages, and just flat out doesn't offer auto suggest for a lot of them. And since their third party keyboard API is still very buggy after two major iOS releases you really don't have any good alternatives. My experience is mostly focused on SE Asia but nobody here sends an SMS if they can help it at all. They're fairly expensive, especially given that monthly 3g plans are as cheap as $3. Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber own messaging here.
asd 10y ago
>... whether Apple Maps or Google Maps is better depends on where you are and what data you're trying to find. I've given Apple Maps several chances to delight me since 2012 and have submitted multiple bug reports and feature requests. While the product has improved significantly, it needs a few years of development to match the current offerings from Google. The inaccuracies in the search results for local businesses/parks/points of interest is unacceptable and should be a priority for the Maps team if Apple has any intention of feeding data into a device that will take humans from point A -⇒ B -⇒ C. Also, not being able to create waypoints/multi-leg routes is simply unacceptable in 2016. For most Apple Maps users, I suspect it takes only one shitty search result page for them to give up and use Google Maps. There are some deep, systemic issues that Apple needs to address: 1) The accuracy and freshness of their data 2) The ability to return fast, intelligent search results from their data 3) Siri's ability to understand user intention when being asked for location data and directions I'm rooting for Apple, I really am - It just seems that they are having a rough time catching the tailwinds of Google.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
inglondon 10y ago
I spent a couple days in Idaho this week and went on a few hikes. Google Maps had all the trails accurately mapped while Apple Maps was just a blank space with no information whatsoever. I don't know if it's a personal preference by now but I've also tried to use Apple Maps in cities around the US and Europe but always end up reverting to Google Maps because of their interface and search functions.
capkutay 10y ago
Apple can't even keep up with streets in major US cities. For instance, Long Bridge st in San Francisco does not exist according to Apple maps despite appearing in Google maps and open street maps.

by eridius 10y ago

sgslo 10y ago

In San Antonio, Texas, last week, I used Apple Maps to search for 'two brothers bbq'. The actual name of the establishment is 'two bros bbq' or similar. Apple maps decided to give me results from Europe as the first few in the result set. Why in the world would I want directions to Europe while in Texas? Google maps, of course, picked it up on the first try. One other thing - while in navigation mode with Apple maps, try panning the map around, or even zooming. Let me know how that goes.

drakenot 10y ago
I think they announced that the panning/zooming issue is resolved with the Apple Maps in iOS10. So hopefully that will be one less annoyance.
- asd 10y ago
  >I think they announced that the panning/zooming issue is resolved with the Apple Maps in iOS10. I wish this were the case. I'm running the iOS 10 beta on a 6S+ and gave Maps several seconds to load this area of upstate NY. http://i.imgur.com/wi7HRqe.jpg http://i.imgur.com/wi7HRqe.jpg The dark gray grid persists. Yea, it's the first beta, but I have mostly only noticed changes in the interface and not the actual map data.
  - glhaynes 10y ago
    I believe that's a different problem than was being discussed, which was that while driving directions are being shown on Maps on pre-iOS 10, it maddeningly only lets you pan/zoom a slight amount before snapping back to a zoomed-in, myopic-feeling view of your current location.
    - asd 10y ago
      Ah, I see now. Sorry about that. Yes, that problem is fixed. You can now zoom out and explore while directions are shown.
oiojdfg999898 10y ago
Piling on this, Apple maps is absolute shit in Japan. Google pretty much seamlessly operates between English (romaji alphabet) and Japanese names for the same place.
addicted 10y ago
I don't get how Apple Maps decides to show locations in other continents when it is unable to find a a match locally. And Apple's inability to do any sort of decent fuzzy matching is legion.
- jolux 10y ago
  Apple Music can't resolve ampersands to and and vice versa. Disaster.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    A wild guess - maybe someone else (Google) has some crucial patents on fuzzy matching? I know it's probably not the case, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was true...
hrktb 10y ago
While I understand your frustration, it made me think I need to give Apple Maps a new chance. Be it in search or in maps, google services are auto correcting so much stuff. You can be in France and search for 'Akita', and the first result will be some japanese restaurant that happen to have the keyword in the name, with the more reputable and perfect match half a screen below. Of course a lot of user might actually be looking for restaurants, but it's so frustrating this moment where you have to think "I really mean what I typed in this box" and going through the "what was the syntax to value more the keyword". And then as it detects your preferences the behavior changes and you are left wondering what's happening (like how do I explicitely ask for local search to be prioritized ?) It feels less and less like a tool and more like a pet engine you have to teach fetching the mail.
kartD 10y ago
Hardly a point, I've had GMaps do the same thing to me in India and the US and Apple found the place just fine. If we were comparing GMaps of 4-5 years then yes, it was far and away better, but now it seems to hae regressed and Apple maps has caught up for most use cases
- AJ007 10y ago
  Anecdotally, both Google and Apple maps have fail points. Up until very recently I would always try to double check Google Map's pin of a location from another source because it would be flat out wrong at least 10% of the time. The more interesting thing to me now is seeing what OpenStreetMap and Mapbox are doing. Their combined trajectories may end up surpassing both Google and Apply. Mass produced drones along 3D scanning tools and improved 2D->3D imagery tech could provide for very comprehensive and open map data with all kinds of layers of usage far beyond geo coordinates, lanes, and street sign data.
modfodder 10y ago
When I look for places near my neighborhood in Greenpoint Brooklyn, Google Maps pulls up places in New Jersey about 30% of the time, even if I type in the exact name of the place several blocks away. I haven't been to NJ in years (and only a handful of times). And last time I was in Palo Alto using Google Maps to find a dry cleaners, it sent me on a 20 minute goose chase, and had me going in circles. On the third try of reentering the address (using copy/paste all three times, all 3 times the address was identical) it finally game me an accurate route. I still use Google Maps more than Apple maps mainly because of the subway/bus integration and because I've been using it for so long, but in my anecdotal experience Apple Maps isn't any worse than Google Maps and has been less irritating when it's wrong than Google (although I use Google more).
nikanj 10y ago
I have seen the opposite happen quite often: small mom-and-pop place doesn't want to pay Google, so they can only be found with Apple maps. Google maps makes money by squeezing business owners, Apple maps makes money by selling more iPhones.
- Oletros 10y ago
  Are you saying that Google doesn't list a place in the maps if they don't pay? Do you have any source for that? Thanks

honkhonkpants 10y ago

Yeah, for example Google Maps is good for people who are actually looking for something while Apple Maps is perfect for those who don't care what's on the map. I kid, but only sort of. Apple Maps has serious data freshness problems. For years they listed businesses in a building that had long-since been demolished. Looking around in my Oakland neighborhood, Apple Maps is missing two new streets. Google has an indoor map of the BART station, Apple doesn't. Etc.

draw_down 10y ago

I wish he was wrong but Google's is definitely better. It's ridiculous the shit Apple's app gets wrong, still. Search for Swedish food and get sent to Sweden.

addicted 10y ago

If you leave the US, Google Maps is orders of magnitude better. If you commute anyway other than by car, Google Maps is orders of magnitude better. So basically, Apple is slightly competitive if you are driving a car within the US, but even there it's probably a lot worse in the aggregate. And Flyover is not even close to being as useful as Street View.

cageface 10y ago
This applies to Apple's stuff in general. If you live in the US and mostly interact with Americans it works well. If you live elsewhere or communicate with people outside the US then Maps, iMessage, and the stock Apple keyboard will find their way to your junk folder.
- ghshephard 10y ago
  That's not entirely true - even though 99% of the people I work with outside the US (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Kolkata, Mexico) use Whatsapp, there is a tendency to start comms off with SMS before moving over to Whatsapp (no idea why). So - in the event (about 20% of the time, astonishingly enough - but it could be bias for the people I work with) the person talking to me has an iPhone we start off with iMessage. And of course, the other 80% of the time it's SMS coming through iMessage. So, iMessage has it's place initiating conversations. After that it's a [pick your regional chat app that isn't iMessage] . I'm stunned at the number of people who use Apple Maps in Singapore. Google Maps is much better here - but about 50-70% of the people I know who have an iPhone just use the Map App that is installed on it. Kills me. I don't know any english speakers with an iPhone who have changed out their keyboard - I've played with the others, but perhaps it's a foreign language thing?
  - cageface 10y ago
    iPhone stock keyboard is horrible for foreign languages, and just flat out doesn't offer auto suggest for a lot of them. And since their third party keyboard API is still very buggy after two major iOS releases you really don't have any good alternatives. My experience is mostly focused on SE Asia but nobody here sends an SMS if they can help it at all. They're fairly expensive, especially given that monthly 3g plans are as cheap as $3. Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber own messaging here.

asd 10y ago

>... whether Apple Maps or Google Maps is better depends on where you are and what data you're trying to find. I've given Apple Maps several chances to delight me since 2012 and have submitted multiple bug reports and feature requests. While the product has improved significantly, it needs a few years of development to match the current offerings from Google. The inaccuracies in the search results for local businesses/parks/points of interest is unacceptable and should be a priority for the Maps team if Apple has any intention of feeding data into a device that will take humans from point A -⇒ B -⇒ C. Also, not being able to create waypoints/multi-leg routes is simply unacceptable in 2016. For most Apple Maps users, I suspect it takes only one shitty search result page for them to give up and use Google Maps. There are some deep, systemic issues that Apple needs to address: 1) The accuracy and freshness of their data 2) The ability to return fast, intelligent search results from their data 3) Siri's ability to understand user intention when being asked for location data and directions I'm rooting for Apple, I really am - It just seems that they are having a rough time catching the tailwinds of Google.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

inglondon 10y ago

I spent a couple days in Idaho this week and went on a few hikes. Google Maps had all the trails accurately mapped while Apple Maps was just a blank space with no information whatsoever. I don't know if it's a personal preference by now but I've also tried to use Apple Maps in cities around the US and Europe but always end up reverting to Google Maps because of their interface and search functions.

capkutay 10y ago

Apple can't even keep up with streets in major US cities. For instance, Long Bridge st in San Francisco does not exist according to Apple maps despite appearing in Google maps and open street maps.