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Apple may launch Google Maps rival today

zobzu 14y ago
I wonder how many articles will miss the point tho. While they might fight for user control and so on the biggest reason for this move is simple. Google has stopped updating the mapping software for iOS a year or two ago, when it bought Android. Apple's Google-made map application is not very good compared to the Android version, specially due to the lack of vector support. That gives Apple no other choice than to find a replacement.
- dag11 14y ago
  Your time scales are way off. Google didn't just buy Android a "year or two ago", nor did it stop updating Maps when it bought Android.
  - graue 14y ago
    Indeed, Google bought Android in 2005: http://www.webcitation.org/5wk7sIvVb http://www.webcitation.org/5wk7sIvVb I can't find any info confirming that they stopped updating Maps for iOS, or when that might have happened. It's clearly been updated since 2005, though.
    - jeffool 14y ago
      And on top of that, the lead story on Drudge this instant is one about Apple and Google updating their satellites to "military-grade".
- tzs 14y ago
  iOS is also the only place I've personally seen Google put very intrusive ads in maps. For instance, on my iPad if I go to the Google maps application and ask for drive directions from Seattle, WA, to Caltech, Pasadena, CA, it often gives me driving directions to the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. It does drop a pin for Caltech on the map, and the Cordon Bleu pin is a different color, but it would be easy for someone not expecting this to end up driving to the Cordon Bleu location. To get the driving directions to Caltech, you have to tap on the destination text field, and a list of destinations drops down, with Caltech (the one I explicitly told Google was my destination) listed second, behind the sponsored Cordon Bleu item. I asked Android users at work, and none of them had ever seen their destinations replaced with a sponsored destination like that. I've also never seen it happen on the web-based Google maps.

zobzu 14y ago

I wonder how many articles will miss the point tho. While they might fight for user control and so on the biggest reason for this move is simple. Google has stopped updating the mapping software for iOS a year or two ago, when it bought Android. Apple's Google-made map application is not very good compared to the Android version, specially due to the lack of vector support. That gives Apple no other choice than to find a replacement.

dag11 14y ago
Your time scales are way off. Google didn't just buy Android a "year or two ago", nor did it stop updating Maps when it bought Android.
- graue 14y ago
  Indeed, Google bought Android in 2005: http://www.webcitation.org/5wk7sIvVb http://www.webcitation.org/5wk7sIvVb I can't find any info confirming that they stopped updating Maps for iOS, or when that might have happened. It's clearly been updated since 2005, though.
  - jeffool 14y ago
    And on top of that, the lead story on Drudge this instant is one about Apple and Google updating their satellites to "military-grade".
tzs 14y ago
iOS is also the only place I've personally seen Google put very intrusive ads in maps. For instance, on my iPad if I go to the Google maps application and ask for drive directions from Seattle, WA, to Caltech, Pasadena, CA, it often gives me driving directions to the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. It does drop a pin for Caltech on the map, and the Cordon Bleu pin is a different color, but it would be easy for someone not expecting this to end up driving to the Cordon Bleu location. To get the driving directions to Caltech, you have to tap on the destination text field, and a list of destinations drops down, with Caltech (the one I explicitly told Google was my destination) listed second, behind the sponsored Cordon Bleu item. I asked Android users at work, and none of them had ever seen their destinations replaced with a sponsored destination like that. I've also never seen it happen on the web-based Google maps.