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DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

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Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#131

Post by ilikehurdles »

chrisjc wrote: post #84
willio58 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I choose to use Apple maps for navigating most places within a city. On iPhone, I think it has far superior ux design. In between cities I use google maps because I feel it is more up to date.

My favourite google maps UX decision is asking me how good of a job google did getting me there before I arrive. It makes the last part of journeys really interesting especially as it results in me taking my eyes off of the road trying to reinitialize navigation...

Mine is how it now randomly suggestions turns based on what businesses are nearby. Example, "Turn right at the Chipotle". So now I have too look for signs of businesses in strip malls that may or may not be prominent in order to know where to go.

What a miserable service.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#132

Post by Faark »

dybber wrote: post #111
burlesona wrote: post #40

This is cool to see, and I think should be a virtuous cycle. As I understand it, maps is the kind of thing where more usage really helps make the map better, and while DDG doesn’t bring the scale of being the iphone’s default map, it should be adding a non-trivial amount of traffic. I’ve used Apple Maps as my primary map since it came out, and I’ve only gotten a wrong location one time in literally thousands of searc…

Apple Maps doesn’t do bike routes which is reason enough not to use it. Google Maps does a very nice job for bikes. If I should wish something of Google Maps it would be “I bring my bike on the train” routes, which is a very common and nice way to get around here in Denmark at least.

Bike routes with offline maps would be a nice addition as well...

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#133

Post by opportune »

banach wrote: post #93
baddox wrote: post #89

> For example, try a query such as "coffee shops" and zoom in on the map to refine your search. There is exactly one result for "coffee shops" in San Francisco. The tech and privacy initiatives sound good, but unfortunately the data needs work to pass basic sanity checks. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=coffee+shops&ia=web&iaxm=maps&stri... Edit: Searching for "coffee shop" (singular) shows many more results. Perhaps the b…

"coffee shop" on the other hand yields 20 results. I agree that some support for fuzzy search is needed, but there is a reasonable amount of data there.

This shows that they are probably not even doing stemming which shouldn't be that hard to implement and could have great benefit/cost

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#134

Post by opportune »

bilbo0s wrote: post #28
oldgun wrote: post #21

Not sure if it's a lot to ask, but I'll consider it a killer app if DDG can let user opt which map source to choose from? e.g. Some may prefer Google, and some may prefer openstreetmap? Just a thought.

Pretty sure you can forget about DDG supporting Google. The whole point of DDG is privacy. Not sure how they could use Google and still keep your location information private?

They could do what startpage does and cache google results; if something isn't cached, do a pass-through so Google does still get the search but doesn't get the user's specific information

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#135

Post by jraph »

Faark wrote: post #132
dybber wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps doesn’t do bike routes which is reason enough not to use it. Google Maps does a very nice job for bikes. If I should wish something of Google Maps it would be “I bring my bike on the train” routes, which is a very common and nice way to get around here in Denmark at least.

Bike routes with offline maps would be a nice addition as well...

OsmAnd does that :-)

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#136

Post by radicaldreamer »

eridius wrote: post #103
radicaldreamer wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps keeps confusing California St. and California Ave. in San Francisco. One is in downtown SF and the other is in Treasure Island, a part of the city surrounded on all sides by water only accessible via the Bay Bridge.

What do you mean by "confusing"? They have different names. If you select "California St" you get California St, and if you select "California Ave" you get California Ave.

You tap on a California St address and Maps directs you to the same address but on California Ave...

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#137

Post by PunchTornado »

dmix wrote: post #49
larrysalibra wrote: post #37

I thought people complaining in the comments were just being critical, but I clicked the “coffee shops” example search in the post - I’m in Hong Kong - and it showed me only 2 results: One coffee shop in Hong Kong and one on the other side of the Pearl River Delta in Macau. That’s pretty bad. Screenshot here: https://twitter.com/larrysalibra/status/1151182624108318720?...

That looks more like it has to do with query detection than the lack of results. It clearly didn’t understand the Hong Kong part, which is the main issue.

are people using apple maps completely different than google maps? 90% of the time I use map for searching places, shops etc. If apple maps is not excelling at that, why do people use it?

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#138

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #15
olah_1 wrote: post #5

Very recently Qwant launched their Maps beta that is based on OpenStreetMaps. Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20304720 Sidenote: I use duckduckgo for Safari search. I saw an ad on twitter for something that I searched in a private window of Safari. Not sure whose fault that is, but it really disturbed me.

Interesting, but certainly not usable yet. My "shorthand" address missed my house by about 5 miles, and the precise mailing address (like I'd use on an envelope) brought up a steakhouse about 8 miles away. My company name dropped me in Saudi Arabia, and the exact address dropped me in New York (I'm in Minnesota). It's the same issue I have with Open Street Maps, if you're not in SF/NYC/Chi they're damn near useless.…

> It's the same issue I have with Open Street Maps, if you're not in SF/NYC/Chi they're damn near useless

OSM long-time mapper here. SF and NYC are not our strong points. Europe is our strong point.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#139

Post by barkerja »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #120
threeseed wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've reported dozens of POI and route problems. It couldn't be simpler. Click on POI, scroll down and select "Report an Issue" and similarly when a route is complete there is a reporting option.

I've reported dozens of POI and route problems. It couldn't be simpler. So what happens when it's clear the route is all wrong and you don't want to follow it to its completion? And, honestly, while I remember a report problems thing at the end of a route I don't remember seeing it recently.

There's an option to report previous navigations. It breaks the route down step-by-step and lets you correct and report each one.

In addition to reporting wrong directions, you can also report the arrival entrance (ex: moving the pin into a parking lot vs. the entrance to the parking lot)

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#140

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #109
solarkraft wrote: post #24

Why support proprietary Apple Maps instead of Open Street Map? Is the data a lot more precise? Is the viewer smoother? Is it just another step towards aligning with Apple for an eventual buyout/search engine standard? That said: If privacy is the only concern Apple seems to be a pretty good ally, as the only major player with a significant interest in it.

Open Street Map is not remotely usable in many parts of the country. Picking largely at random: South Minneapolis is pretty much unpopulated other than parks/schools/churches: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/44.9256/-93.2303 Same in a good chunk of Memphis: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/35.1364/-89.9691 and some major suburbs of Atlanta: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/33.7077/-84.2708 It appears…

Where “the country” is the US, of course. This doesn’t hold true in Europe at all.
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