4 ms·

Kind of unfair but any thread about Maps turns into piling on the product rather than actually talking about the issue at hand. I thought Apple maps is actually

Kind of unfair but any thread about Maps turns into piling on the product rather than actually talking about the issue at hand. I thought Apple maps is actually quite good now. What would it take for that impression to go away?

moojd 8y ago
Anecdotally, it still can't navigate to my old apartment in ATL (a complex that has been there for decades.) There are also lots of rural areas I visit that Google Maps has no problem finding that Apple Maps cannot locate. There has yet to be a time that Google Maps failed to get me within a couple of lots of my destination while Apple Maps has been off by more than a mile multiple times.
- optimuspaul 8y ago
  I was in Seattle a few weeks ago and Google Maps consistently had me 2 blocks north of my actual location, but Apple maps had me within 100 feet. I thought it was super interesting, but I didn't think too much about it at the time.
- alasdair_ 8y ago
  Rather irritatingly, my house address seems to lead people to a random location two miles away when entered into google maps but the house next door works perfectly. It makes using Uber or any other google maps-based app particularly irritating and as-yes there is no fix after almost a year of reports. Open Street Maps works perfectly well, as does apple.
- Posibyte 8y ago
  In my small town, we have a long street that's just a strip of restaurants. Google and Bing get it right, Apple Maps lists the entire mile-long strip as KFC's. If you select one, it's the same KFC. Been that way since launch. And not a huge deal, we're a tiny town, but it's just humorous and weird when others don't have that issue.
  - yalogin 8y ago
    Ha may I know which town this is?
optimuspaul 8y ago
I agree. In a fair comparison it is as good as the alternatives for the most part. I don't know what it would take for the collective opinion to change, probably the same thing that it would take to change the collective opinions about Microsoft or Apple or Obama. Change is hard.
ProfessorLayton 8y ago
I don't think it's unfair, the product is better than it used to be, but still quite bad compared to google's. - One can't even search "Point A to Point B" and get a result. - When driving, it always seems to lag behind me, barely giving any time to make a turn. It has been years and they have plenty of resources to be competitive. The whole product just feels like it was designed by someone who is driven to work on a tech bus.
- optimuspaul 8y ago
  > The whole product just feels like it was designed by someone who is driven to work on a tech bus. That's funny because you could say that about google, bing, or apple maps. And Probably true for at least 2 of those.
rock_hard 8y ago
It’s like Google vs Bing...Google simply has the bigger brand which it has (rightfully) earned over a long time! For a new incumbent to surpass it takes more than being just as good
craftyguy 8y ago
> What would it take for that impression to go away? Reliability?
badlucklottery 8y ago
>I thought Apple maps is actually quite good now. It's pretty good in most places and straight up terrible in others. Google maps tends to have higher lows even though there definitely are cases when Apple's highs are actually higher. But you have to remember: users are using this for going to new places. They don't know they're getting the lowest of the low quality results until it's too late. After a few times getting burned, most people just give up on it which means their most recent impression of it is probably post-failure where-the-fuck-am-I panic. >What would it take for that impression to go away? Raise those lows up. I almost think it'd be better for it actually give up and say "I don't know" instead of possibly routing users incorrectly. Users will still think it sucks but they won't be stressed out about the sucky-ness and might be willing to try it again later. From my experience, Siri is a good example of this. It's probably the worst "assistant" out there but it's pretty good about knowing when to give up so users can just Google something.

moojd 8y ago

Anecdotally, it still can't navigate to my old apartment in ATL (a complex that has been there for decades.) There are also lots of rural areas I visit that Google Maps has no problem finding that Apple Maps cannot locate. There has yet to be a time that Google Maps failed to get me within a couple of lots of my destination while Apple Maps has been off by more than a mile multiple times.

optimuspaul 8y ago
I was in Seattle a few weeks ago and Google Maps consistently had me 2 blocks north of my actual location, but Apple maps had me within 100 feet. I thought it was super interesting, but I didn't think too much about it at the time.
alasdair_ 8y ago
Rather irritatingly, my house address seems to lead people to a random location two miles away when entered into google maps but the house next door works perfectly. It makes using Uber or any other google maps-based app particularly irritating and as-yes there is no fix after almost a year of reports. Open Street Maps works perfectly well, as does apple.
Posibyte 8y ago
In my small town, we have a long street that's just a strip of restaurants. Google and Bing get it right, Apple Maps lists the entire mile-long strip as KFC's. If you select one, it's the same KFC. Been that way since launch. And not a huge deal, we're a tiny town, but it's just humorous and weird when others don't have that issue.
- yalogin 8y ago
  Ha may I know which town this is?

optimuspaul 8y ago

I agree. In a fair comparison it is as good as the alternatives for the most part. I don't know what it would take for the collective opinion to change, probably the same thing that it would take to change the collective opinions about Microsoft or Apple or Obama. Change is hard.

ProfessorLayton 8y ago

I don't think it's unfair, the product is better than it used to be, but still quite bad compared to google's. - One can't even search "Point A to Point B" and get a result. - When driving, it always seems to lag behind me, barely giving any time to make a turn. It has been years and they have plenty of resources to be competitive. The whole product just feels like it was designed by someone who is driven to work on a tech bus.

optimuspaul 8y ago
> The whole product just feels like it was designed by someone who is driven to work on a tech bus. That's funny because you could say that about google, bing, or apple maps. And Probably true for at least 2 of those.

rock_hard 8y ago

It’s like Google vs Bing...Google simply has the bigger brand which it has (rightfully) earned over a long time! For a new incumbent to surpass it takes more than being just as good

craftyguy 8y ago

> What would it take for that impression to go away? Reliability?

badlucklottery 8y ago

>I thought Apple maps is actually quite good now. It's pretty good in most places and straight up terrible in others. Google maps tends to have higher lows even though there definitely are cases when Apple's highs are actually higher. But you have to remember: users are using this for going to new places. They don't know they're getting the lowest of the low quality results until it's too late. After a few times getting burned, most people just give up on it which means their most recent impression of it is probably post-failure where-the-fuck-am-I panic. >What would it take for that impression to go away? Raise those lows up. I almost think it'd be better for it actually give up and say "I don't know" instead of possibly routing users incorrectly. Users will still think it sucks but they won't be stressed out about the sucky-ness and might be willing to try it again later. From my experience, Siri is a good example of this. It's probably the worst "assistant" out there but it's pretty good about knowing when to give up so users can just Google something.