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Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

joemorrison.substack.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#131

Post by nikodunk »

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…

Since they added biking directions in the city I live, I've managed to switch to Apple Maps full-time! Just recently completed a cross country drive with only Apple maps - works really well. Of course now I've locked myself even further into the Apple's ecosystem, but at least my maps are smooth and minimal for now...

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#132

Post by jimktrains2 »

antipaul wrote: post #130
nr2x wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I also _want_ to like Apple Maps. But I always need to double check business hours using Google.

I usually check the store's site or call. I've had enough entries on Google be wrong to blindly trusy it either.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#133

Post by jimktrains2 »

eightysixfour wrote: post #128

Only tangentially related, but has anyone noticed that the Google Maps app for iOS has become significantly worse in the last few years? They have crammed so many touchpoints on to the map that it is impossible to touch anything of value - I can't tell you how many times I have somehow managed to select an entire county (something I don't think I've ever intentionally done) on my iPhone instead of a POI, which then z…

I dont have iOS, but I have similar, and more, complaints with the android and web versions.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#135

Post by tylerrobinson »

I would switch to Apple Maps if they adjusted your estimated position while driving. When you're following directions on Google Maps, the app seems to estimate your location based on your current speed and the road you're on. Apple Maps doesn't do this (or doesn't do it as much) so it causes me to miss turns.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#136

Post by reportingsjr »

kingaillas wrote: post #118
morsch wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps just isn't very good for hiking. But it's not just a map, it's got the yellow pages, Yelp, and, depending on where you are, various other things like hotel booking and public transport routing thrown in. My recent favorite feature is the live estimation of how crowded a store is, very useful during the pandemic. Much of this is stuff the software based on OSM isn't even trying, or doing so only very half…

> Google Maps just isn't very good for hiking I find openstreetmap.org to be great for showing hiking trails. At least for my local area.

I've spent a ton of time mapping out trails in my region on openstreetmap. I've found the issue now is the interface. The map data is only good if it can be easily read.

I'm starting to look at workflows for taking osm trail data and trying to make nice maps, but wow it is not easy to do!

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#137

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

tylerrobinson wrote: post #135

I would switch to Apple Maps if they adjusted your estimated position while driving. When you're following directions on Google Maps, the app seems to estimate your location based on your current speed and the road you're on. Apple Maps doesn't do this (or doesn't do it as much) so it causes me to miss turns.

I'm so happy I'm not the only one. This drives me crazy, and seems like such a simple feature to implement.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#138

Post by sonotmyname »

I switched to Apple Maps long before it was believed to be good enough for 2 features that Google Maps will never (likely) implement - random identifiers and location fuzzing. These privacy-first features are important to me.

Now that Apple Maps has had many years to get a lot better, I genuinely prefer it to Google Maps - even setting aside the privacy issues.

I love in California, so I understand there may be locale based differences, but it’s never really steered me wrong (pun intended), and always does a good job of picking a logical route.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#139

Post by seszett »

acdha wrote: post #109
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 Map…

In my experience it is very reliable in France and Belgium.

Whether on my 800-km, 8-hour trip to go to my parents across countries, or on my 150 km weekly commute (across countries as well actually) the traffic is consistently accurate and the ETA is almost always correct to a few minutes. In the worst case, maybe Google will expect 20 minutes extra time entering France or entering Antwerp when it's actually 30 minutes this particular day. But that's a very acceptable error on a 2-hour trip.

Of course, this was true in 2019 but I didn't have the occasion to keep doing these trips in 2020. Also, I can't compare with Apple Maps which isn't available on my smartphone.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#140

Post by Pamar »

marbu wrote: post #82
morsch wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps just isn't very good for hiking. But it's not just a map, it's got the yellow pages, Yelp, and, depending on where you are, various other things like hotel booking and public transport routing thrown in. My recent favorite feature is the live estimation of how crowded a store is, very useful during the pandemic. Much of this is stuff the software based on OSM isn't even trying, or doing so only very half…

Mapy.cz covers most of other use cases as well, including business info, public transport and other details. I personally find mapy.cz more tailored to pedestrian/public transport navigation within european city. The only feature which I go to google maps is the mentioned estimation of how crowded a place is (as this comes from android data, and google has an clear edge there).

Just tested for Germany (where I am living currently) and it is not very good: at the map level it shows the correct street number but it seems unable to use it for actual route planning (i.e. if you are in a street with numbers from 1 to 200 it seems to always calculate your arrival point at #1 even if you specificy that you are looking for "72/b").

Also, is it available as an app on iPhone?

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