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Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

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Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#131

Post by jug6ernaut »

w1ntermute wrote: post #87
jug6ernaut wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume your assuming Google Maps will just stagnate during this time? Or are you assuming Google Maps has already reached its peak?

I highly doubt Google Maps has reached its peak. You're constantly hearing about new things being added, such as the Photosphere feature in Android 4.2 letting people take 360 deg indoor pictures and attach them to buildings on Google Maps, or doing an underwater "Street View" at the Great Barrier Reef. Just a few weeks ago, 3D structures appeared on Google Maps for my parents' house in the suburban Midwest. Google M…

Oh i agree with you, i simply posed these questions to counter the claim that "Apple Maps" will catch up with Google Maps in a few years.

There is a lot to it and to make such a blanket claim with nothing to back it up is pretty weak. The questions were meant to point this out.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#132

Post by IgorPartola »

How many startups just said "ah fuck it!" now that Google Maps is back on iOS? Back when Apple removed Google maps I thought there would be four stages to this fiasco:

1. Apple Maps are introduced and nobody likes them. Google Maps are nixed and some bullshit reason is given for not letting them back into the ecosystem for a while.

2. A bunch of people see an opportunity to create something that Apple will buy. They drop everything and get busy.

3. 3-6 months later Google Maps are allowed back into the ecosystem. 99% of the newly minted startups go bust.

4. A year later Apple actually makes Apple Maps usable in iOS 7. The rest of the startups go bust.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#133

Post by tolmasky »

BryantD wrote: post #112
kjackson2012 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're wrong. It's not with the data. It's with Apple's ability to search. Like I said below, look up "Pier 39 San Francisco". This is a dead simple query, extremely specific, and they point you to a really bad area of SF. This isn't Tom Tom data, it's how Apple resolves this query to something useful. Search is Google's domain expertise. Apple needs to basically start from scratch and figure out how to create a…

"why would someone go ahead and use Apple's terrible search engine to help them improve their search?" Because at the end of the day I want to make choices that result in more flexibility down the line. I do not want to live in a world where Apple is the only OS provider for mobile devices. Likewise, I don't want to live in a world in which Google is the only reasonable choice for map searches.

So is your strategy to always use the worse of two services to ensure competition for the future?

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#135

Post by kalleboo »

recursive wrote: post #64
lawdawg wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps are vector based as well...

Not on my cell phone.

Which means you must be using it in a browser, on a Java phone/blackberry, or in iOS 5. Try the new iOS app or an Android phone.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#136

Post by dunham »

recursive wrote: post #64
lawdawg wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps are vector based as well...

Not on my cell phone.

The new app is vector based and has turn by turn directions.

Google refused Apple access to both of those features in the original "Maps" app (in iOS <= 5), but they conveniently included them in their new Google Maps app. :)

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#137

Post by bunderbunder »

brianpan wrote: post #86
kjackson2012 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're wrong. It's not with the data. It's with Apple's ability to search. Like I said below, look up "Pier 39 San Francisco". This is a dead simple query, extremely specific, and they point you to a really bad area of SF. This isn't Tom Tom data, it's how Apple resolves this query to something useful. Search is Google's domain expertise. Apple needs to basically start from scratch and figure out how to create a…

Surely you agree that your example is a non-standard address. The things are more important to get right: postal addresses, searches for company names, airports, schools, searches for intersections. Of course you want to get the other things right like, parks (what's the pinpoint location of a park?) and things like pier 39. But those errors don't make Apple Maps a non-starter. I've been using it in the Bay Area with…

Even with company names, they do a pretty poor job. Though it is getting better.

For example, a month or so back a search for "Northern Brewer" (homebrew store chain) made when I'm physically only about 2 miles away from their Milwaukee location would return only the location of their flagship store in the Twin Cities. Which I suppose is technically a correct result, but it's a little galling to have regressed to a mapping app that doesn't even understand concepts as basic as, "When I just enter a business's name all by itself, it just might be reasonable to assume I was looking for a local place."

Some are still really bad. A search for the Miller Brewery's bar, Miller Inn, produces a single result for a business called Fabric Inn in Miller, South Dakota.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#138

Post by danielweber »

bstar77 wrote: post #50

Edit: somehow I screwed up my response, should be a response to @kjackson2012. Apple's main issues are with their location information from TomTom. If apple is able to partner with a company with better data, these types of problems should not be nearly as bad. Here's where Apple's maps product is better... The maps are vector based so there is not such a huge dependence on a data connection. I live near the pine bar…

I'ved used Android's "Navigation" app on different older phones without a data plan (only WiFi) and they've been surprisingly good about setting up a route and letting me follow it.

(I can't change my route mid-trip, which was maybe what you were saying.)

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#139

Post by DannyBee »

nicholassmith wrote: post #66
kjackson2012 wrote: post #33

Frankly, Tim Cook should shut down the entire Apple Maps division. Who in their right mind is going to use Apple Maps at this point? Try searching "Pier 39 San Francisco". The query can't be any more specific, and it's the most iconic location for tourists, and Apple Maps will bring you to a pretty shady area of town, only a mile or two away from Hunter's Point, one of the more violent areas of SF.

I am. I talked about it on the other, now super long, thread and my reasons boiled down to: I prefer how Apple Maps works and feels, in general for my usage it works fine, it has gotten better over time and if I stop using it it won't get better. Horses for courses, if Google Maps scratches your cartographic itch then go for it but please don't say things like "shut down the entire Apple Maps division" as some of us…

What do you mean "if I stop using it it won't get better"?

Do you mean apple will stop supporting it?

I'm having trouble seeing why you can't stop using it for a year until it gets better.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#140

Post by wes-exp »

tharris0101 wrote: post #91

Sort of off-topic and I've harped on this before, but when I search "google maps" in the app store, it's the fifth search result! As a developer in the App Store, I really hope they do something to fix the abysmal searches in it.

Agreed! This happens with my own app as well! Apparently the app title, even when an exact match to your search query, is no longer considered important.

If there is one thing Apple truly fails at, it is search.

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