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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

#171

Post by nicholassmith »

DannyBee wrote: post #139
nicholassmith wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, I mean Apple won't get the many data faults I report, the missing POI reports or the incorrect POI reports. Apple has an entire globe to cover, it'll improve incrementally globally but improve locally for me if I'm reporting my concerns.

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

#172

Post by Terretta »

wes-exp wrote: post #140
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.

I believe that was a deliberate tweak in response to the throngs of spam apps titling themselves by the key search terms of popular apps -- and the throngs of users complaining when they idiotically bought one of the spam apps instead of the real app.

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

#173

Post by clauretano »

jdeibele wrote: post #158
bad_user wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Try searching in Google for "San Francisco" versus "Francisco San." On the other hand, that's not a mistake you can make, because "San Francisco" in the minds of people really is "Sanfrancisco", a single word. Why would anybody spell "San Francisco" as "Francisco San"? In fact Google should differentiate heavily between these 2 terms, as they aren't similar at all. Google also does a lot of other neat things, like…

That's true about San Francisco versus Francisco San but I wonder how well Apple Maps does with "4485 Belmont Portland" versus "Portland 4485 Belmont" and the like. It gets more complicated when you realize "oh, yeah I need to add 'NE' because it's in the Northeast part of the city". So now it's "Portland 4485 Belmont NE". If you were to think about it before you started typing, it'd be "4485 NE Belmont Portland" but…

Ah, Portland is lucky. Here in Seattle, we have roads that are 1235 NE 40th St (for E-W streets) as well as 12345 University Way NE (for N-S avenues). The latter, as you would suspect, totally breaks Apple Maps.

That is on top of the issue of searching for something like "1st and University", which takes me to some L'ecole in Paris, France rather than the intersection that is a block from me. It's as if they don't factor in your current location at all. I know on the desktop I frequently look at maps of faraway places, but I'd suspect that people tend to look for things near them while on mobile devices.

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

#174

Post by andybak »

coob wrote: post #166
andybak wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're mistaken. They are on Android so it seems odd they wouldn't be. The ability to zoom to arbitrary levels with no pixellation seems to imply it most definitely is vector.

On iOS it appears they're a mixture of bitmap tiles and vector text. I definitely see pixelation of roads at certain zoom levels.

Can you give steps to reproduce? I was looking specifically at road outlines and they seemed like they were definitely vector.

Satellite views are obviously bitmap.

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

#175

Post by Terretta »

eco wrote: post #155
dunham wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :)

Google refused to allow Apple access because Apple was unwilling to allow more Google branding and Latitude support. It was a breakdown in negotiations, not either side being selfish.

This comment is clearly unbiased (and correct), which makes it all the more annoying that your comment (elsewhere in this thread) about Google's early troubles with search in their own app store has been being voted down.

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

#177

Post by cookiecaper »

technoslut wrote: post #127
kjackson2012 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good CEO knows when to stop throwing good money after bad. Apple will NEVER reach the search domain expertise of Google, and Maps is too valuable to let turn into a complete debacle, as Apple has learned. We have given Apple so much money THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH IT. They have $120B in the bank, more cash than any other company has ever had. They can buy very famous companies for cash, like Cisco, Dell, Fa…

>Apple will NEVER reach the search domain expertise of Google, and Maps is too valuable to let turn into a complete debacle, as Apple has learned. How can you possibly say that? How was Android 1.0 compared to what it is today? Or Windows 1.0? In your view no one should start anything if they aren't immediately good at it. What should be questioned is Apple's dedication to Mpas. If they're not interested in creating…

The point is that you don't push an irrevocable update to a critical service, one of the few things that is somewhat likely involve real-life, actual physical safety, out to millions of millions of users. Yes, maybe when it was brand new, called "experimental", and people hadn't come to trust it, GPS/location stuff could be spotty, but the bar is raised now. While we can all respect that development takes iteration, you just don't force people to use your stuff until it's up to expectation, even if those expectations have been made much higher than they were a few years ago.

A few bugs here and there is understandable, of course. Any honest person looking at the situation knows that Apple's Maps app was not just a matter of a couple semi-serious bugs; it was practically unusable for a large portion of people, and it's an application where unusability could create real safety issues. Completely unacceptable handling on Apple's part. They could have pushed it as a "beta" or "preview release" or other "help us work out the bugs" thing, but they decided to force all users to engage it as their only maps experience. Apple is responsible for this severe oversight in judgment.

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

#178

Post by ricardobeat »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #102
Alaskan005 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No wonder he is the CEO and you aren't. Think LOOOOONG term, in a few years Apple will catch Google for the most part (hello AAPL bank accounts and increase of usage!) and Apple will not depend on a major competitor for a crucial aspect of the mobile world. Google is the loser, despite Apple having a few growing pains.

A good CEO knows when to stop throwing good money after bad. Apple will NEVER reach the search domain expertise of Google, and Maps is too valuable to let turn into a complete debacle, as Apple has learned. We have given Apple so much money THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH IT. They have $120B in the bank, more cash than any other company has ever had. They can buy very famous companies for cash, like Cisco, Dell, Fa…

Do you really believe that 1) they have $120 billion 'sitting in the bank doing 0% interest' 2) have no idea what do with it 3) don't want to improve their products?

They already have Google Maps, and the money.

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

#179

Post by seiji »

theorique wrote: post #154
seiji wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the difficult data problems in the world, creating an online mirror map of the physical world is probably in the top three. Let's say Apple tried. They didn't know how hard it would be, so they bought all the companies they could. They realized, "shit--this still won't be good enough, but we can't give in to mountain view." Their only move? Release 98% done maps anyway and hope Google misses the iOS map spying ad…

Someday a company will buy google just for its mapping capability and toss the rest in the bitbucket. Sounds like you're exaggerating for effect but still ... wat? What company is at a scale to buy Google and kill its cash cow of search advertising? And why would they?

Thought experiment: a company buying google (10, 20, 50 years hence) would be much bigger and may not care about tiny revenue streams.

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

#180

Post by dale386 »

jmspring wrote: post #167
IgorPartola wrote: post #132

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…

A quality maps app seems like one of those audacious undertakings given how much there are to them. Sure, sources like OSM help quite a bit, but the amount of data needed (be it through one's own data acquisition, partnering, licensing, etc) is pretty massive. This is one of the main reasons the iOS maps had problems. There are already niche apps for things like public transport, though you may need an app per city/r…

An app per city would be great! Here in NYC, with boats, subways, railroad, and buses (and all of this x2 as there are private and public services), no one app on iOS fit the bill. Google Maps connects EVERYTHING.
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