Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#111

Post by corporalagumbo » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:22 PM UTC

efuquen wrote: post #104

corporalagumbo wrote: post #102

I remember reading a while ago about how Apple's reliance on Google for mapping was a massive problem for the company. Something about how in the future all ad revenue will derive from location-based recommendations. If that's true, then there was no other acceptable solution for Apple than to at some point simply bite the bullet and roll out an in-house mapping service. Continuing dependence on Google here simply po…

"Something about how in the future all ad revenue will derive from location-based recommendations" And why exactly should Apple care about this? Isn't the vast majority of their profit coming from higher then normal margins on hardware? Their bread and butter is suppose to be making compelling tech products that have high build quality and are easy to use for any type of user. Why would Apple care where ad dollars ar…

From what I understand search and ad revenue is one of Apple's revenue streams - I have no idea how large nor how to project growth. Just rehashing a vague memory.

Anyway I think there are plenty of good reasons for Apple to pursue its own maps solution; eventually all technology will be fully location-gnostic, so it seems like a pretty critical technology to me. If I were Apple I wouldn't be happy leaving that in the hands of a malicious competitor either. And when you have one of the world's largest customer bases to beta-test with... why not? Seems like pulling a tooth to me - best just to get it over with quickly, and you're glad once you do.

You call it compromising the quality of a core service, Apple might argue that effectively unless that service was in-house it was not adequate, so effectively never existed, and what they've done is get started on building the service they should have had a while ago.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#112

Post by terminus » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:30 PM UTC

> You cannot read about the errors in Apple Maps without realizing that these maps were being visually examined and used for the first time by Apple’s customers and not by Apple’s QC teams.

Wasn't iOS6 in public beta for a few months?

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#113

Post by jsz0 » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:30 PM UTC

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Apple's Maps. It doesn't excuse the pain it will cause users in the short term but I don't see anything that is going to be a long term problem for Apple. It's now just a process of fixing errors, stocking more POI information, and working with their partners/sources to continue improving the platform. There was never going to be a point where they could make this switch gracefully.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#114

Post by maxerickson » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:31 PM UTC

dvanduzer wrote: post #49

blrgeek wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've heard, Google had an army of around 1000+ contract workers in Hyderabad, India, cleaning up the data for about 5 years. If anything 400 man-years sounds low :) This is apart from MapMaker, and their dev teams, and their software improvements. For instance, if you look at directions in India now, they're awesome, since they tell you landmarks to look for on the way [pass by * on left], at the intersecti…

I don't think 3-4 years is a crazy estimate. This is pretty cutting edge stuff. If you hadn't already seen it, the Atlantic piece on the technology is a fantastic read: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/how-go... On the other hand, this actually is one of the rarer problems where throwing 10,000 contract workers from India for 5 months could solve much of the problem, especially since Google has a…

Does the position data provide any information beyond "phone was within a meter or two"?

I can see how that would help reveal issues, but I don't see how it would help much in fixing them.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#115

Post by cbs » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:33 PM UTC

terminus wrote: post #112

> You cannot read about the errors in Apple Maps without realizing that these maps were being visually examined and used for the first time by Apple’s customers and not by Apple’s QC teams. Wasn't iOS6 in public beta for a few months?

Public beta is apple's customers, not a QA team.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#116

Post by jamesrcole » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:34 PM UTC

In bigger-picture terms, Apple doing their own maps is surely a good thing because of the competition it creates.

Surely it's going to end up pushing improvements in maps technology.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#117

Post by bmeckel » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:40 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #94

bmeckel wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's their thinking actually. I think they knew it would be near impossible to have a product at launch be as impressive as googles and they're ok with that. However, by deploying in a mandatory setting with such a large user base they can catch up to Google quickly. Who knows though, they may have legitimately overlooked it.

For years, Google has been sending fleets of specially equipped cars down countless roads in order to help verify their map data. It is impossible to imagine Apple undertaking such a massive and unsexy project as a first mover, nevermind as in an effort which would obviously be copying Google. What has changed as Apple has scaled is that they are willing to weather a PR storm.

I don't think street view is what made google that much better than maps. It's the search that works, and detailed maps, which were around from before street view. But I do think you're partially right on the apple front, but they do stuff that pisses people off all the time, the difference is that it's usually taking out a feature (like Ethernet) that is only beginning to be phased out by the other tech companies. The big difference is that the maps change doesn't just bother geeks, but gets at their main user base, which they're usually pretty careful about.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#118

Post by camiller » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:40 PM UTC

snuze wrote: post #108

I used turn-by-turn directions yesterday and everything worked fine. I think people are blowing the whole thing way out of proportion. If Google Maps was so great, why did Google never add turn-by-turn directions to the iOS app? My guess is that they were simply holding it over Apple.

Most of the complaints I've seen had nothing to do with turn by turn navigation. It is more about where points of interest are on the maps, airports in the wrong place etc.

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#119

Post by ImprovedSilence » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:44 PM UTC

mmariani wrote: post #105

theklub wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess this means Apple really has taken over for Microsoft!

Sure, you could say that. But what I really mean is that the average HNer shifted his focus. And that's plain sad.

I used to feel the same way. My memories from back in the day were all articles about crazy programming languages, and cool new things people were doing. But that's when I was just starting out. In retrospect, I don't think that Hacker News has changed much, those articles are still there, but now I just get suckered into these kinds of articles for some reason. I think most people here will find much the same, when you join, you find the cool stuff. As you stick around, you start to get pulled into the linkbait/news type articles. As I'm sure people think it had already gone downhill by the time I joined 1.5yrs ago...

Re: Google Maps' advantage over Apple Maps

#120

Post by stcredzero » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 2:47 PM UTC

> Perhaps the most egregious error is that Apple’s team relied on quality control by algorithm and not a process partially vetted by informed human analysis. You cannot read about the errors in Apple Maps without realizing that these maps were being visually examined and used for the first time by Apple’s customers and not by Apple’s QC teams

Reminds me of the days when Microsoft used to release software that customers would call "beta-quality" and wonder if they were being used as unpaid QA.