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>I wish they were explaining why they moved away from Mapbox and OSM in general! Because it sucks. Isn’t that obvious? There’s no point in having a feature tha

>I wish they were explaining why they moved away from Mapbox and OSM in general! Because it sucks. Isn’t that obvious? There’s no point in having a feature that nobody uses. I switched to DDG a few months ago and this has always been the one weakness. This is really good news IMO. Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. You can argue all day that of course it’s still a commercial company. But I’d rather compromise and hitch my wagon to the folks that are outwardly explicitly drawing out their commitment to privacy, whose incentives I understand and trust.

kuschku 8y ago
In many places (e.g. many parts of Germany) Google and Apple maps are far inferior compared to OSM and Mapbox specifically. I tried finding an address recently on Google Maps, and just couldn’t find it, only to discover that that street was added 4 years ago, so ofc Google (with data from 2011) didn’t have it. OSM had it.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  Yes, OSM can give truly excellent results for certain areas. And truly awful results for others.
  - Brakenshire 8y ago
    The same for Apple Maps, except any improvements that go there fall into another closed silo.
  - xenadu02 8y ago
    This applies to all of the mapping providers. It takes a truly massive ground game to get really good map data for the entire world. Many players are working on this and I'm sure many will continue to work on it. A map that was garbage for your area three months ago might be great today.
eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
I’m also happy to see this move, but I tried to give Apple Maps another chance recently and it’s significantly behind Google. I didn’t even last a day. Especially if you’re trying to find things around your area, which is probably 99% of my usage. No surprise the blog post highlights how easy to use this integration is...in Cupertino.
sngz 8y ago
ive been using it for a few months now. its not as good as google maps but definitely doesn't suck. and certainly is better than apple maps.
- aphextron 8y ago
  >ive been using it for a few months now. its not as good as google maps but definitely doesn't suck. and certainly is better than apple maps. I've also found the mapping aspects to be ok, but the search results are truly abysmal in comparison to Apple Maps. Point-to-point direction finding is of course a solved, commoditized technical problem this point. But the real special sauce is in combining that with real time traffic info and highly relevant local search results, which Apple does far better than any open source offering I've seen.
latexr 8y ago
> Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. Not in Portugal, or most places in Europe where I’ve tried it. They are so far behind it’s not even funny.
- garmaine 8y ago
  Or most of east Asia. It won’t even find what you’re looking for most of the time, let alone give sensible directions.
t0astbread 8y ago
You're forgetting one detail that I think should be emphasized here: OSM is about free knowledge (as in freedom). You can use, modify and share OSM data however you want. Apple on the other hand is hoarding its information. You can only access it through their products in the ways they intended. They control everything (as always). I do believe it when Apple says they're respecting their users' privacy, just like I believe it when DDG says that. But I am disappointed when I see how these companies neglect freedom and how so few of their users care about it.
- briandear 8y ago
  > You can use, modify and share OSM data however you want. You are still free to do that with OSM. Not sure what that has to do with DDG. Just because they don't want to use OSM, doesn't change any of your rights to using OSM. > Apple on the other hand is hoarding its information. You are free to requisition a fleet of mapping vehicles, drones and satellites and gather your own maps information and share it with whomever you want. If Apple is the one paying a ton of money to create their information, I'm not sure why it's surprising that they want to use that information in their products. You don't have a right to Apple's mapping data any more than you have a right to Colonel Sanders's chicken recipe -- however, nothing is stopping you from making your own chicken recipe and sharing it with whomever you want. You could even start a community around sharing chicken recipes. That some people don't care about chicken recipe secrecy doesn't harm your rights to enjoy chicken with recipes created and shared by you or your friends. Some of us actually just want to buy some fried chicken and not worry about the provenance of the recipe. We have more important priorities (for us) than the openness of a private company's chicken preparation secrets. We just want good tasting chicken. Many of us aren't chicken enthusiasts, spending our time lamenting the secrecy of the Colonel's chicken choices. What it really sounds like the source of your complaint is that if DDG doesn't continue to use OSM, then perhaps OSM will suffer for it. If that's the real origin of your disdain for this decision, then perhaps OSM isn't as valuable in the marketplace of ideas as people might think it is. However, if this actually doesn't affect OSM (I don't think it does,) then that means that DDG can use whatever they want and the OSM folks can happily share to their heart's content.
  - 8y ago
nvr219 8y ago
> Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. Reporting from Washington, DC: nope.
arendtio 8y ago
Well, the map quality depends on the region. So I could easily argue that OSM has much better quality than Google Maps, looking at Hamburg, Germany for example. I know that the quality is not everywhere as good as there, but the quality varies for the other Map products too. So if it 'sucks' or the other thing 'sucks' greatly depends on where you currently are.
Mindwipe 8y ago
> Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. In California maybe. Everywhere else? Not even close.
- sbuk 8y ago
  In my experience, Apple maps are on a par with Google Maps in London. Google never get my address location right, despite numerous reports to them. Apple does.
- jrnichols 8y ago
  i'm in north Texas and into Oklahoma a lot, and Apple Maps has been fantastic here. I haven't had Google Maps installed on my iPhone in years.

kuschku 8y ago

In many places (e.g. many parts of Germany) Google and Apple maps are far inferior compared to OSM and Mapbox specifically. I tried finding an address recently on Google Maps, and just couldn’t find it, only to discover that that street was added 4 years ago, so ofc Google (with data from 2011) didn’t have it. OSM had it.

JohnFen 8y ago
Yes, OSM can give truly excellent results for certain areas. And truly awful results for others.
- Brakenshire 8y ago
  The same for Apple Maps, except any improvements that go there fall into another closed silo.
- xenadu02 8y ago
  This applies to all of the mapping providers. It takes a truly massive ground game to get really good map data for the entire world. Many players are working on this and I'm sure many will continue to work on it. A map that was garbage for your area three months ago might be great today.

eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago

I’m also happy to see this move, but I tried to give Apple Maps another chance recently and it’s significantly behind Google. I didn’t even last a day. Especially if you’re trying to find things around your area, which is probably 99% of my usage. No surprise the blog post highlights how easy to use this integration is...in Cupertino.

sngz 8y ago

ive been using it for a few months now. its not as good as google maps but definitely doesn't suck. and certainly is better than apple maps.

aphextron 8y ago
>ive been using it for a few months now. its not as good as google maps but definitely doesn't suck. and certainly is better than apple maps. I've also found the mapping aspects to be ok, but the search results are truly abysmal in comparison to Apple Maps. Point-to-point direction finding is of course a solved, commoditized technical problem this point. But the real special sauce is in combining that with real time traffic info and highly relevant local search results, which Apple does far better than any open source offering I've seen.

latexr 8y ago

> Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. Not in Portugal, or most places in Europe where I’ve tried it. They are so far behind it’s not even funny.

garmaine 8y ago
Or most of east Asia. It won’t even find what you’re looking for most of the time, let alone give sensible directions.

t0astbread 8y ago

You're forgetting one detail that I think should be emphasized here: OSM is about free knowledge (as in freedom). You can use, modify and share OSM data however you want. Apple on the other hand is hoarding its information. You can only access it through their products in the ways they intended. They control everything (as always). I do believe it when Apple says they're respecting their users' privacy, just like I believe it when DDG says that. But I am disappointed when I see how these companies neglect freedom and how so few of their users care about it.

briandear 8y ago
> You can use, modify and share OSM data however you want. You are still free to do that with OSM. Not sure what that has to do with DDG. Just because they don't want to use OSM, doesn't change any of your rights to using OSM. > Apple on the other hand is hoarding its information. You are free to requisition a fleet of mapping vehicles, drones and satellites and gather your own maps information and share it with whomever you want. If Apple is the one paying a ton of money to create their information, I'm not sure why it's surprising that they want to use that information in their products. You don't have a right to Apple's mapping data any more than you have a right to Colonel Sanders's chicken recipe -- however, nothing is stopping you from making your own chicken recipe and sharing it with whomever you want. You could even start a community around sharing chicken recipes. That some people don't care about chicken recipe secrecy doesn't harm your rights to enjoy chicken with recipes created and shared by you or your friends. Some of us actually just want to buy some fried chicken and not worry about the provenance of the recipe. We have more important priorities (for us) than the openness of a private company's chicken preparation secrets. We just want good tasting chicken. Many of us aren't chicken enthusiasts, spending our time lamenting the secrecy of the Colonel's chicken choices. What it really sounds like the source of your complaint is that if DDG doesn't continue to use OSM, then perhaps OSM will suffer for it. If that's the real origin of your disdain for this decision, then perhaps OSM isn't as valuable in the marketplace of ideas as people might think it is. However, if this actually doesn't affect OSM (I don't think it does,) then that means that DDG can use whatever they want and the OSM folks can happily share to their heart's content.
- 8y ago

nvr219 8y ago

> Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. Reporting from Washington, DC: nope.

arendtio 8y ago

Well, the map quality depends on the region. So I could easily argue that OSM has much better quality than Google Maps, looking at Hamburg, Germany for example. I know that the quality is not everywhere as good as there, but the quality varies for the other Map products too. So if it 'sucks' or the other thing 'sucks' greatly depends on where you currently are.

Mindwipe 8y ago

> Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. In California maybe. Everywhere else? Not even close.

sbuk 8y ago
In my experience, Apple maps are on a par with Google Maps in London. Google never get my address location right, despite numerous reports to them. Apple does.
jrnichols 8y ago
i'm in north Texas and into Oklahoma a lot, and Apple Maps has been fantastic here. I haven't had Google Maps installed on my iPhone in years.