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Another great article from this blog! Last year's article from the same author [1] about Goggle Maps' use of photogrammetry and other building scanning techiqu

Another great article from this blog! Last year's article from the same author [1] about Goggle Maps' use of photogrammetry and other building scanning techiques was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting HN submissions ever (its comment section[2] is also worth a read). [1] https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15965653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15965653

saagarjha 8y ago
He's written multiple articles about maps, even before that one: https://www.justinobeirne.com https://www.justinobeirne.com. He's very good at spotting details in maps–IIRC he worked on Apple's maps team before, so this isn't particularly surprising.
- NelsonMinar 8y ago
  He wrote many more excellent articles before he worked at Apple, all posted to https://www.41latitude.com/ https://www.41latitude.com/ Sadly he took them down, disappeared into the memory hole the way so many Apple employee's work has a way of doing. I'm glad he's out and writing in public again.
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    Well, they are CC 3.0, so I guess I can't feel guilty about sharing these 3 archives that I found: https://archive.is/Fnw4W https://archive.is/Fnw4W https://archive.is/AHmEF https://archive.is/AHmEF https://archive.is/WpOCJ https://archive.is/WpOCJ
- sumedh 8y ago
  > he worked on Apple's maps team before For some reason I thought he is some random guy just passionate about maps, I was actually looking for donate me buttons on the site because I love reading his articles whenever they are posted to HN.
  - astrange 8y ago
    Only a former employee could be so relentlessly negative about the product. Notice he's never ended his articles saying anything nice about it? Nobody else would know what to look for.
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      I didn't find the article to be "relentlessly negative" at all. It seemed pretty neutral, in fact.
      - LeoNatan25 8y ago
        Leave it to fanboys to see “relentless negativism” in legitimate criticism.
        astrange 8y ago
        Indeed, his criticism might be the reason for the major revamp in the first place, according to other news stories. Quote from paywall: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/09/07/eddy-cue-the-information https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/09/07/eddy-cue-the-in... Complaining gets results. I'm a total believer in negativity. You could say I'm positive about it. What I mean by "relentless" is that this article in the OP covers the changes in detail for the first half, but the second is the same content as his last piece: https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat and quite like the one before that: https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-apple-maps https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-appl... But while this one has a lot of specific speculation, the Google article is about how cool they are, links to PR and basically says "look at all those buildings, they must have done it with computers". I suspect someone who worked at Google wouldn't have said that.
    - max7777 8y ago
      Did we read the same article? "...it’s a dramatically different map from before, with a staggering amount of vegetation detail" "...what’s really remarkable about this new vegetation detail it how deep it all goes—all the way down to the strips of grass and vegetation between roads" "...some of these upgraded buildings are spectacularly detailed" "...Apple is filling its map with so many of them that Google now looks empty in comparison" "...Apple hasn’t just closed the gap with Google—but has, in many ways, exceeded it"
lvs 8y ago
Just to be clear, as far as I can tell from Google, the author actually works for Apple [1] on Apple Maps, at least at some point. So this blog may serve as an advertisement of his own work, despite the fact that it seems to be written in the voice of an observer. "Justin O'Beirne designed and led the development of Apple’s cartography effort, and is the author of Maps for the Masses, an upcoming book about digital cartography." [2] [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-o-beirne https://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-o-beirne [2] https://qz.com/author/justinobeirne/ https://qz.com/author/justinobeirne/
- freeflight 8y ago
  "led the development" pretty much implies he's not working there anymore. Reading the article it's also pretty clear he doesn't have any insider-insights, particularly with the speculation about building shapes and how Apple supposedly outsourced that, as a manual task, to a couple of thousand Indians. I doubt an Apple insider would be too keen on speculations like that because if it turns out to be true it would be kind of bonkers.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
wsgeorge 8y ago
Yes, I was thinking about this blog post yesterday, wondering how I could find it. Perhaps my favourite read of the year.

saagarjha 8y ago

He's written multiple articles about maps, even before that one: https://www.justinobeirne.com https://www.justinobeirne.com. He's very good at spotting details in maps–IIRC he worked on Apple's maps team before, so this isn't particularly surprising.

NelsonMinar 8y ago
He wrote many more excellent articles before he worked at Apple, all posted to https://www.41latitude.com/ https://www.41latitude.com/ Sadly he took them down, disappeared into the memory hole the way so many Apple employee's work has a way of doing. I'm glad he's out and writing in public again.
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  Well, they are CC 3.0, so I guess I can't feel guilty about sharing these 3 archives that I found: https://archive.is/Fnw4W https://archive.is/Fnw4W https://archive.is/AHmEF https://archive.is/AHmEF https://archive.is/WpOCJ https://archive.is/WpOCJ
sumedh 8y ago
> he worked on Apple's maps team before For some reason I thought he is some random guy just passionate about maps, I was actually looking for donate me buttons on the site because I love reading his articles whenever they are posted to HN.
- astrange 8y ago
  Only a former employee could be so relentlessly negative about the product. Notice he's never ended his articles saying anything nice about it? Nobody else would know what to look for.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    I didn't find the article to be "relentlessly negative" at all. It seemed pretty neutral, in fact.
    - LeoNatan25 8y ago
      Leave it to fanboys to see “relentless negativism” in legitimate criticism.
      - astrange 8y ago
        Indeed, his criticism might be the reason for the major revamp in the first place, according to other news stories. Quote from paywall: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/09/07/eddy-cue-the-information https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/09/07/eddy-cue-the-in... Complaining gets results. I'm a total believer in negativity. You could say I'm positive about it. What I mean by "relentless" is that this article in the OP covers the changes in detail for the first half, but the second is the same content as his last piece: https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat and quite like the one before that: https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-apple-maps https://www.justinobeirne.com/a-year-of-google-maps-and-appl... But while this one has a lot of specific speculation, the Google article is about how cool they are, links to PR and basically says "look at all those buildings, they must have done it with computers". I suspect someone who worked at Google wouldn't have said that.
  - max7777 8y ago
    Did we read the same article? "...it’s a dramatically different map from before, with a staggering amount of vegetation detail" "...what’s really remarkable about this new vegetation detail it how deep it all goes—all the way down to the strips of grass and vegetation between roads" "...some of these upgraded buildings are spectacularly detailed" "...Apple is filling its map with so many of them that Google now looks empty in comparison" "...Apple hasn’t just closed the gap with Google—but has, in many ways, exceeded it"

lvs 8y ago

Just to be clear, as far as I can tell from Google, the author actually works for Apple [1] on Apple Maps, at least at some point. So this blog may serve as an advertisement of his own work, despite the fact that it seems to be written in the voice of an observer. "Justin O'Beirne designed and led the development of Apple’s cartography effort, and is the author of Maps for the Masses, an upcoming book about digital cartography." [2] [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-o-beirne https://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-o-beirne [2] https://qz.com/author/justinobeirne/ https://qz.com/author/justinobeirne/

freeflight 8y ago
"led the development" pretty much implies he's not working there anymore. Reading the article it's also pretty clear he doesn't have any insider-insights, particularly with the speculation about building shapes and how Apple supposedly outsourced that, as a manual task, to a couple of thousand Indians. I doubt an Apple insider would be too keen on speculations like that because if it turns out to be true it would be kind of bonkers.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

wsgeorge 8y ago

Yes, I was thinking about this blog post yesterday, wondering how I could find it. Perhaps my favourite read of the year.