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Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

joemorrison.substack.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#101

Post by oflannabhra »

wayne wrote: post #84

> Meanwhile at an office down the hall, Azure Maps has been humming along quietly since 2018, beating AWS to the punch by over two years. Microsoft's actually been in the geo API game for significantly longer, pre-Google Maps. MapPoint started as a desktop GIS product in 2000 that let businesses create desktop maps, and they've had an online API since 2002... it started as a SOAP API: https://news.microsoft.com/2002/…

I also remember Microsoft being involved in TerraServer pre-2000. Loading up satellite photos of my house on dial-up is an early internet memory that will stick with me forever.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#102

Post by awinter-py »

runako wrote: post #96
joejoebags wrote: post #79

What’s up HN?! Always fun to find an article of mine on here. What I’ve learned so far: I’ve underestimated the important of their place data to the rest of the search apparatus, and likely underestimated the relevance of Maps to their autonomous vehicle strategy. What I remain curious about that I’d love your speculation on: why do they bother with the Google Maps Platform at all? They have plenty of ways to monetiz…

> why go through the headache of opening it up to other businesses? Such a platform is obviously necessary for the Internet; Google exposing Maps (& related APIs) makes it less likely that another company will build the default platform for map APIs on the Internet.

commoditize your complement

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#103

Post by nr2x »

larrymyers wrote: post #90

I really want to use Apple Maps full time on my iPhone, just because of how much clutter Google Maps has accumulated on the screen. If anything tells me Google is losing the ability to innovate it's the newly added pill buttons for pre-set searches and branded POIs on the map. I remember when this was added to MapQuest circa 2010, and was the transition from trying to have an excellent mapping experience to just addi…

I wanted Apple Maps to succeed so I’ve been using it from day one. It’s gotten much, much better. That said, if I’m going on a long trip where a non-optimal route is a big deal, I’ll double check with google maps and often (but not always) find a better route.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#104

Post by applemapsanon »

partingshots wrote: post #11
g0ran wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be noted that this article is from 2017.

I highly recommend checking out Justin’s blog for more of his posts, the most recent being in December 2020. He’s a passionate cartographer, and has been posting about maps since 2010, 2017 being his rise to popularity not withstanding.

He’s actually not a "cartographer" and has no formal training in cartography.

(This misconception comes from a 2017 Verge piece on "Google Maps' Moat" that misstated that he was.)

Source/Disclosure: I'm a close friend.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#105

Post by joseph_grobbles »

qalmakka wrote: post #93

I tried opening Apple Maps, and they are still way behind Google in almost everything where I live in (EU, Italy). For instance, Apple Maps correctly pins my parent's house but they show it as being several hundred metres away from the street (it's not). Look around also isn't available in my area, and as far as I could see it's not even available in Milan (there's 3D available, though). The only areas I saw the bino…

Maybe you lumped Canada in with the US, but Apple Maps is superb here, and I always default to it with few complaints [1]. It already was brilliant for navigation, but their recent detail update makes it much more usable for map porn.

The fun thing about maps is that there is little lock-in. If I go to someplace where Apple Maps is poor, I'll open Google Maps. Heck, if a particular city or country had a superior option ("ItalyMapper" where the citizens and government of Italy put group effort into making an excellent product) I'd use that for the trip. There is absolutely nothing saying that it's all or nothing (you aren't saying this, but some other comments are arguing as if this is a holistic binary choice that we all have to make. But we don't).

My son sends me Google Maps links when he's at friends and needs a pickup because that's what he uses. Whatever. I use GM for that trip, but revert back to AM when I am setting directions myself.

[1] - I enjoy the app more, don't like Google tracking, and it's simply better at navigating. GM does a lot of weird stuff. On major city streets with two lanes in each direction, but with an extra left turning lane that appears near the intersection, it will say "stay right to continue straight" as I approach. It is confusing -- do I need to move to the right lane? (no) -- and when the actual instructions are just "keep going straight" it's needlessly intrusive because of course that is what I was going to do regardless. Weird little quirks like that abound.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#106

Post by awinter-py »

I'll believe spatial computing is here when I can successfully search for an open restaurant with usable outdoor dining sorted by proximity to a point

shocking that businesses who are investing $10k+ in greenhouses can't list that data on G maps for search

general extension of G's failure to support faceted search of any kind

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#107

Post by nr2x »

Joe8Bit wrote: post #23

Great article, but I think the conclusion about Google Maps languishing because it’s a low margin product is wrong. While Google Maps as a distinct product has a bottom and top line I think the author underestimates the value that the underlying places data has for Google’s core search product. The local place data is _massivley_ important to search. I don’t see any foreseeable way Google let’s the product that gener…

I hope the days of big tech treating startups as lego pieces to be snapped into their empires will be stopped by regulators. I imagine a lot of new ideas, not bound by ad tech revenue, may take root.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#108

Post by 0x10c0fe11ce »

aikinai wrote: post #100
htfu wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As bizarre as this may sound to your generation there are, in fact, such things as standalone jokes.

I honestly don’t even know what generation you’re assuming I’m from and referring to. Is this supposed to be something old people don’t understand? Or young people? Of course you can have standalone jokes, but “I’m six years old” is not one.

It’s not a generation thing. The joke is the OP is obviously not six. We know that because most six year olds can’t come up with such an artifact to set the timeframe of an article. For more references on jokes like this read MAD. ;)

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#109

Post by acdha »

colesantiago wrote: post #71

Sure, but do the challengers have real time traffic prediction? [0] [0] https://deepmind.com/blog/article/traffic-prediction-with-ad...

Does Google? They've been publishing cool papers for many years but the experience while using Google Maps has been consistently highly-unrealistc ETAs with things like unprotected left turns across 4 lanes of traffic “saving” time (in areas like DC, NYC, BOS, etc. where they have tons of data, too).

Maybe this is the iteration where the results will actually match the publications but it's been years since Apple Maps wasn't consistently more accurate on actual arrival time for me.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#110

Post by gr__or »

joejoebags wrote: post #79

What’s up HN?! Always fun to find an article of mine on here. What I’ve learned so far: I’ve underestimated the important of their place data to the rest of the search apparatus, and likely underestimated the relevance of Maps to their autonomous vehicle strategy. What I remain curious about that I’d love your speculation on: why do they bother with the Google Maps Platform at all? They have plenty of ways to monetiz…

I so so much appreciate this article. Google's maps dominance has been frustrating me, both as a user who wants innovation, and as a developer who wants affordable access. Very excited to read about these combined efforts (and, like you said, anti-tragedies-of-the-commons)

Thank you!

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