Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

joemorrison.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 442 posts

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#231

Post by matwood »

rorykoehler wrote: post #221
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’d use Apple Maps if they got rid of Yelp.

This is from the summer, but at least we know they are working on native ratings.

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/26/apple-maps-new-ratings-...

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#232

Post by Pxtl »

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…

Yup. When I switch to DDG, the quality of local results is a huge discriminating factor that pushes me back to Google. Google Maps adds great value to the "one stop search" of Google Search.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#233

Post by matkoniecz »

dschep wrote: post #85
sildur wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, they now have the same detail OSM had five years ago. Who knows, maybe some day they will be on par.

That was my first thought when I just saw "sidewalks" & "crosswalks" too. But AFAIK OSM doesn't have anything remotely like that level of sidewalk shape data. And while stairs on paths are mapped, I don't think outdoor building stairs are mapped.

> But AFAIK OSM doesn't have anything remotely like that level of sidewalk shape data.

Yes, for now only tiny part of sidewalks has area info. See https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:area:highway

> I don't think outdoor building stairs are mapped.

It can be mapped, also not done in most of places

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#234

Post by sofixa »

brmgb wrote: post #72
saberience wrote: post #18

I live in London and for commuting around via public transport OR walking I always use Citymapper, which is massively superior than Google Maps for directions. I suspect they are using Googles APIs underneath it all, but their UI is better than Google maps and also their recommended public transport directions are orders of magnitude better than Google Maps. Citymapper will get you between any two locations in London…

Citymapper is so much better in Paris where Google Maps is very poor for public transport. I'm extremely impressed. It can not only tell you which exit you need to take (extremely important in Paris) but also which car to board to be the closest to the proper exit or line change. Multimodal routing is also extremely impressive. They properly implement the city bike sharing system including how much bikes and empty sp…

> Citymapper is so much better in Paris where Google Maps is very poor for public transport. I'm extremely impressed. > It can not only tell you which exit you need to take (extremely important in Paris) but also which car to board to be the closest to the proper exit or line change

Google Maps has been doing both of these for at least a year now.

> Multimodal routing is also extremely impressive. They properly implement the city bike sharing system including how much bikes and empty spots they are available at each station

That one is pretty cool. If only the service wasn't massacred and rendered almost unusable :( ( used it regularly but had to buy a bike due to how often there would be broken bikes or bugs in their system. I think they lost a lot of customers with the provider switch, it was a complete disaster for more than a year and still isn't great).

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#235

Post by jeffbee »

tinus_hn wrote: post #229
jeffbee wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That feature did not exist until Inbox, years later.

How would you be able to tell if it existed earlier? Anyway the point is it exists now.

Because I personally (with many collaborators, of course) wrote that feature.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#236

Post by jkaplowitz »

dasil003 wrote: post #162
jimktrains2 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Store sites tend to be less reliable than Google. Just last night I was searching one and the website had been out of date for months and yet Google had it right.

I've seen that divergence go both ways. Of course, neither source is as reliable as calling (if you get a human to answer), as much of a hassle as calling can sometimes be.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#237

Post by 8ytecoder »

freedomben wrote: post #178
17a9f4a4f4e5b3f wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, Apple Maps still doesn't feel as good for searching obscure things as Google Maps did 5 years ago, but neither does Google Maps. An example: I recently searched for "photography repair" in my area and Apple gave me film developing places and local event photographers, Google gave me (I kid you not, first result) McDonalds and Best Buy. The latter I can understand, they sell photography equipment and they do re…

With Google Maps I will know about a Maverik gas station that is on my route that I know I want to stop at. I'll search for it "along my route" and I get a bunch of other gas stations that I don't want. I suspect they are prioritizing the other gas station brands because they paid for preference, and selected "Maverik" as one of their keywords, but the impact to me is that the exact thing I searched for doesn't come…

I wish there was a premium product that I could pay for. I’d pay an annual fee if the search is accurate, supports offline, has good navigation and supports CarPlay. Right now I use Apple Maps for online navigation and Here maps for offline. Neither does a good job of search. And both suck to different extent with navigation. Navigation is so crucial to us these days it’s totally worth paying for. I have been using Apple Maps for a few years now and it has gotten a ton better than it used to be. If that continues it’ll be part of the Apple tax and I’d be glad to continue as an Apple customer.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#238

Post by marcinzm »

maxerickson wrote: post #183
alasdair_ wrote: post #173

I worked at a company that heavily used the maps API in 2018. The 1,400% price hike really was an eye opener. It wasn't just the money involved, which was large, but the fact that it came so suddenly and with so much magnitude. Google's choice to bump these prices made me realize that they could do the same thing with their compute cloud pricing or other APIs, again with little notice. That, in turn, led to the reali…

Mapbox responded to Google raising prices by raising their prices. Is it likely that Azure and Amazon would do similar if they raised prices on GCP?

Google was the dominant provider of maps I'm guessing by a large margin. GCP is not the dominant provider of cloud services (they're third or distant third).

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#239

Post by reaperducer »

porknubbins wrote: post #196
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.

On Apple maps day one I was an iPhone user living in Tokyo and Apple maps was like “what are trains? Here’s a 20 mile driving route through Tokyo”. Google maps was gone and I’m not sure whether to its on Apple or Google but my ability to get around was impaired significantly.

I was an iPhone user living in Tokyo and Apple maps was like “what are trains?

Apple Maps has had Tokyo transit data since 2016.

Tokyo got transit data years before many other cities.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#240

Post by franklampard »

jimkleiber wrote: post #197
stiray wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google's choice to bump these prices made me realize that they could do the same thing with their compute cloud pricing or other APIs, again with little notice. That, in turn, led to the realization that we needed to remove our reliance on Google's entire stack, and quickly, or we'd be in a terrible bargaining position later. Yes. You are right. The whole cloud deal is a try to rule out on premise infrastructure an…

These two comments make me see SaaS more like paying rent for housing: If we become fully dependent on a service (shelter) and then the provider (landlord) jacks up the price, we may be quickly forced to switch services (homes) or be out of business (homeless).

I like this analogy. I think a good idea is to sign a long term (1 year to multiple years) contract with cloud providers.
Post reply on HN