4 ms·

Apple Launches New Maps Search API

27 points by barredo 14y ago

jweir 14y ago
I like how the picture in the article shows Google Maps, not Apple's maps. Most telling.
- sjwright 14y ago
  Most telling of journalistic laziness perhaps. Possibly even revealing a lack of awareness or knowledge by the author. It might even be just some low-paid, technically unskilled assistant tasked with attaching vaguely relevant images to articles. My guess is that -- whoever it was -- typed something like "maps iphone" into Getty Images and picked whatever came up top. Here's the same Getty photo in its intended context: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/new-google-maps-app-restores-order-to-the-universe http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/new-google-m...
  - denzil_correa 14y ago
    > It might even be just some low-paid, technically unskilled assistant tasked with attaching vaguely relevant images to articles. The problem though is that the article is passed off with the contact author as "Matthew Panzarino" Matthew Panzarino is the Managing Editor of TNW. Matthew brings 20 years of computing experience and mobile tech obsession to delivering the latest and greatest tech news and views. http://thenextweb.com/author/matthewpanzarino/ http://thenextweb.com/author/matthewpanzarino/ Now, this seems like a journalist with 20-years of computing experience making a rookie 'lazy' mistake. The "behind the scenes" may be different though.
bsimpson 14y ago
If Apple wants to compete in cloud services like mapping, they should publish a REST API for web apps as well. If I was developing a local search app for mobile and web, I imagine I'd want to use the same data provider on both platforms.
- duaneb 14y ago
  Yea, but then they'd also have to do a maps interface via the browser when they're really just trying to move their extremely profitable hardware.
  - nextstep 14y ago
    Why would a REST API require Apple to do a maps browser interface?
    - whalesalad 14y ago
      How would you render their point of interest data in your web app otherwise? Of course you'd use google maps... But... Therein lies the rub.
    - duaneb 14y ago
      So, you would suggest that Apple provide the information to be used with Google Maps? Somehow I don't see that playing out too well for them.
- taligent 14y ago
  > If Apple wants to compete in cloud services like mapping Who says they want to ? Maybe they just didn't want Google screwing them over for an important app like Maps. Which in maybe a self fulfilling prophecy ended up being true.
pkaler 14y ago
Apple should acquire Foursquare to compete at the Maps API level. Apple Maps uses Yelp for venue and Point Of Interest search. I'm in Vancouver and Yelp is OK but not great here. I'm told it's worse in places like Europe. On the other hand, Foursquare's venue and POI search is very good. There API is one of the best in the business. Their core API is great. They have a really good real-time & push API. The way that Aspects & Actions are designed for each of the Endpoints is very good, too. https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/ https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/ On top of this, Foursquare is a Scala/JVM shop. Apple is a Java/JVM shop. (And they may still be using the WebObjects for some older services.) Apple would get the added benefit of migrating to a modern stack and getting a really good technical team. Modernizing their stack and modernizing their web APIs would go a long way in fixing the "Apple doesn't get web services" problem.
- taligent 14y ago
  FourSquare might be a little too cumbersome for an acquisition. They are based in New York and Apple generally buys for specific technology not for brands as well. As for the technology WebObjects has been a Java technology for years now and it is used for iTunes Store and Apple Online Store (not sure about iCloud) but only to a limited extent. There really isn't anything specific that other technologies could bring to the table. Sure Akka/Scala could improve concurrency but Apple services are built such that you can just throw more hardware at it.
  - saurik 14y ago
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578186074223787936.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732490720457818... "Apple in Talks With Foursquare About Data-Sharing Deal"
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

27 points by barredo 14y ago

jweir 14y ago

I like how the picture in the article shows Google Maps, not Apple's maps. Most telling.

sjwright 14y ago
Most telling of journalistic laziness perhaps. Possibly even revealing a lack of awareness or knowledge by the author. It might even be just some low-paid, technically unskilled assistant tasked with attaching vaguely relevant images to articles. My guess is that -- whoever it was -- typed something like "maps iphone" into Getty Images and picked whatever came up top. Here's the same Getty photo in its intended context: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/new-google-maps-app-restores-order-to-the-universe http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/new-google-m...
- denzil_correa 14y ago
  > It might even be just some low-paid, technically unskilled assistant tasked with attaching vaguely relevant images to articles. The problem though is that the article is passed off with the contact author as "Matthew Panzarino" Matthew Panzarino is the Managing Editor of TNW. Matthew brings 20 years of computing experience and mobile tech obsession to delivering the latest and greatest tech news and views. http://thenextweb.com/author/matthewpanzarino/ http://thenextweb.com/author/matthewpanzarino/ Now, this seems like a journalist with 20-years of computing experience making a rookie 'lazy' mistake. The "behind the scenes" may be different though.

bsimpson 14y ago

If Apple wants to compete in cloud services like mapping, they should publish a REST API for web apps as well. If I was developing a local search app for mobile and web, I imagine I'd want to use the same data provider on both platforms.

duaneb 14y ago
Yea, but then they'd also have to do a maps interface via the browser when they're really just trying to move their extremely profitable hardware.
- nextstep 14y ago
  Why would a REST API require Apple to do a maps browser interface?
  - whalesalad 14y ago
    How would you render their point of interest data in your web app otherwise? Of course you'd use google maps... But... Therein lies the rub.
  - duaneb 14y ago
    So, you would suggest that Apple provide the information to be used with Google Maps? Somehow I don't see that playing out too well for them.
taligent 14y ago
> If Apple wants to compete in cloud services like mapping Who says they want to ? Maybe they just didn't want Google screwing them over for an important app like Maps. Which in maybe a self fulfilling prophecy ended up being true.

pkaler 14y ago

Apple should acquire Foursquare to compete at the Maps API level. Apple Maps uses Yelp for venue and Point Of Interest search. I'm in Vancouver and Yelp is OK but not great here. I'm told it's worse in places like Europe. On the other hand, Foursquare's venue and POI search is very good. There API is one of the best in the business. Their core API is great. They have a really good real-time & push API. The way that Aspects & Actions are designed for each of the Endpoints is very good, too. https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/ https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/ On top of this, Foursquare is a Scala/JVM shop. Apple is a Java/JVM shop. (And they may still be using the WebObjects for some older services.) Apple would get the added benefit of migrating to a modern stack and getting a really good technical team. Modernizing their stack and modernizing their web APIs would go a long way in fixing the "Apple doesn't get web services" problem.

taligent 14y ago
FourSquare might be a little too cumbersome for an acquisition. They are based in New York and Apple generally buys for specific technology not for brands as well. As for the technology WebObjects has been a Java technology for years now and it is used for iTunes Store and Apple Online Store (not sure about iCloud) but only to a limited extent. There really isn't anything specific that other technologies could bring to the table. Sure Akka/Scala could improve concurrency but Apple services are built such that you can just throw more hardware at it.
- saurik 14y ago
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578186074223787936.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732490720457818... "Apple in Talks With Foursquare About Data-Sharing Deal"
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]