4 ms·

I was using Apple Maps a few weeks ago, and wanted to get something to eat. I saw a place called “Shake Shack” and decided to go there. Not only did it not exis

I was using Apple Maps a few weeks ago, and wanted to get something to eat. I saw a place called “Shake Shack” and decided to go there. Not only did it not exist, I checked online, there has never been a Shake Shack in my town, there’s only a handful in my country. How Apple Maps got that wrong, I honestly don’t know. Where did the data come from, and why is it that incorrect? I reported it, and it’s since been removed, but I can’t do that for everything in my town, and there’s so much missing; I can’t report that, or edit the map like you can on OpenStreetMap. Honestly, why does Apple Maps exist? Either it needs to be like Google Maps (and just work), or be like OpenStreetMap and let Apple fans edit the map and get more involved. I gave them a lot of patience and understanding years ago (mapping the world is hardly an easy task), but my patience has run out. It’s been a shit show from day one and I honestly don’t see that changing anytime soon.

lostlogin 9y ago
I reported a pharmacy that was supposedly in my neighbours garden. On about the 3rd or 4th report (over a year) it was removed.
mark-r 9y ago
Google's not infallible either. I was looking at a map and noticed that it labelled a restaurant called OPH in Chanhassen, MN. The Original Pancake House is one of my favorite restaurants and is sometimes abbreviated OPH, so I was intrigued. Going to the street view you can see that it's a purely residential area with a park and a pool and no restaurant in sight. Try it for yourself.
- exikyut 9y ago
  I just tried it and ended up being sent here: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@44.8508646,-93.4259796,3a,15y,185.01h,89.76t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRXSIyrG8g5dZOuuYtfLAYA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DRXSIyrG8g5dZOuuYtfLAYA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D119.91807%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en https://www.google.com.au/maps/@44.8508646,-93.4259796,3a,15... Back out of Street View and you'll see I've landed at Prairie Center Dr, Eden Prairie, MN. Is this right? What's interesting is that if I type "oph chanha" Maps autocompletes "OPH Summerfield Drive, Chanhassen, MN, USA" but then if I hit Enter, it thinks for a fraction of a second then just stops dead. If I hit Enter again it comes up with no results. Interesting glitch! I did the autocomplete test in incognito to get non-cookie/history-polluted results.
  - marksomnian 9y ago
    Probably an autocomplete cache not being purged properly. There are only two problems in computer science...
  - mark-r 9y ago
    The Summerfield Drive address is the one I noticed that is wrong. I have no idea how they determined there was a restaurant at that location.
m_mueller 9y ago
It seems they wanted to be Google Maps but failed. You raise a very interesting point with OpenStreetMap - just like WebKit, Apple could just have put some of their billions into boosting that effort, I agree that this would have been way more productive, especially given how engaged smartphone users are with their maps.
- robin_reala 9y ago
  They did (partially) use OpenStreetMap at the start of their mapping efforts: https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/ https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/ . No idea what their current involvement is though.
  - Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
    Apple have people working on OSM; they're just secretive about it as they are with most things.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Not sure what you are saying with the comparison to Webkit. As Webkit only became what it is because someone actually took Apple to task over the Khtml (K as in KDE, used to power their Konqueror browser) engine license. And even then the first response from Apple was a plain source dump with zero documentation on the changes they have made, that made it basically impossible to roll the changes back into Khtml. Would not surprise me that this was one of the reasons Apple went to work purging GPL licensed code from their offerings.
heed 9y ago
Apple Maps still struggles with POI accuracy, and speed of map data updates, but it's much better than it was since launch.

lostlogin 9y ago

I reported a pharmacy that was supposedly in my neighbours garden. On about the 3rd or 4th report (over a year) it was removed.

mark-r 9y ago

Google's not infallible either. I was looking at a map and noticed that it labelled a restaurant called OPH in Chanhassen, MN. The Original Pancake House is one of my favorite restaurants and is sometimes abbreviated OPH, so I was intrigued. Going to the street view you can see that it's a purely residential area with a park and a pool and no restaurant in sight. Try it for yourself.

exikyut 9y ago
I just tried it and ended up being sent here: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@44.8508646,-93.4259796,3a,15y,185.01h,89.76t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRXSIyrG8g5dZOuuYtfLAYA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DRXSIyrG8g5dZOuuYtfLAYA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D119.91807%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en https://www.google.com.au/maps/@44.8508646,-93.4259796,3a,15... Back out of Street View and you'll see I've landed at Prairie Center Dr, Eden Prairie, MN. Is this right? What's interesting is that if I type "oph chanha" Maps autocompletes "OPH Summerfield Drive, Chanhassen, MN, USA" but then if I hit Enter, it thinks for a fraction of a second then just stops dead. If I hit Enter again it comes up with no results. Interesting glitch! I did the autocomplete test in incognito to get non-cookie/history-polluted results.
- marksomnian 9y ago
  Probably an autocomplete cache not being purged properly. There are only two problems in computer science...
- mark-r 9y ago
  The Summerfield Drive address is the one I noticed that is wrong. I have no idea how they determined there was a restaurant at that location.

m_mueller 9y ago

It seems they wanted to be Google Maps but failed. You raise a very interesting point with OpenStreetMap - just like WebKit, Apple could just have put some of their billions into boosting that effort, I agree that this would have been way more productive, especially given how engaged smartphone users are with their maps.

robin_reala 9y ago
They did (partially) use OpenStreetMap at the start of their mapping efforts: https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/ https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/ . No idea what their current involvement is though.
- Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
  Apple have people working on OSM; they're just secretive about it as they are with most things.
digi_owl 9y ago
Not sure what you are saying with the comparison to Webkit. As Webkit only became what it is because someone actually took Apple to task over the Khtml (K as in KDE, used to power their Konqueror browser) engine license. And even then the first response from Apple was a plain source dump with zero documentation on the changes they have made, that made it basically impossible to roll the changes back into Khtml. Would not surprise me that this was one of the reasons Apple went to work purging GPL licensed code from their offerings.

heed 9y ago

Apple Maps still struggles with POI accuracy, and speed of map data updates, but it's much better than it was since launch.