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

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

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 308 posts

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

#201

Post by drivebyacct2 »

seiji wrote: post #197
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is involved in these types of conspiracies anyway? Are there Android "fanboys" that short Apple stock and then go on the Internet and... do what exactly?

It'd like to introduce you to this crazy person (I can't tell if they are joking or not, but they followed up with even more crazy, so I don't think they are joking): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4914414

I guess I don't really buy that that rhetoric is what caused "Apple Maps sucks" to be a meme for the last month and a half. I mean, are you saying millions of people were conned into thinking it was inferior to Google Maps?

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

#202

Post by wahsd »

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.

...don't forget maps. They failed at that too. But I can tell you that it was not necessarily Apple that failed at maps. The same problems I had with Apple maps were there in Magellan GPS and their map and content provider Navteq....which is Apple Maps' map, nav, and data provider.

Ever notice when you were doing the turn-by-turn directions that there is a lag in the marker that leads you to miss or almost miss turns, especially in complex intersections....that lag was a huge issue 8 years ago, as it is today. In all that time, Navteq did very little, it seems, to improve routing, maps, or navigation. I was just using Apple Maps yesterday (I'm a very patient and open minded person that gives several unbiased opportunities) when I was told to go around this very short road segment. Turns out it was probably because the segment it marked as "No Thru Trucks". Those Navteq annoyances are what made Magellan GPS horrible and after who knows how long of doing nothing to improve them, Navteq has brought Apple to its knees.

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

#203

Post by fudged71 »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #183
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…

I don't see how a startup could produce much of value at this scale in that timeframe.

Unless you had been building an efficient backend/internal tool for receiving mapping error reports and fixing the issues. I know Google's got their own very efficient tools for doing this; Apple might not have had the time to do this yet, at the time of their Apple Maps release.

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

#204

Post by wahsd »

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…

One good thing, about this whole Apple Maps FUBAR; I will probably continue using Waze for turn by turn directions. They have that down pat.

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

#205

Post by recursive »

andybak wrote: post #74
recursive wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on my cell phone.

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.

I am using an Android device. And I do clearly see pixelation when I zoom in, before the new tiles load.

Here's a screenshot I took after I enabled airplane mode: http://i.imgur.com/wc5Ie.png

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

#206

Post by recursive »

kalleboo wrote: post #135
recursive wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm using the maps app on and Android phone. When I zoom in, I see the pixelation before the new tileset loads.

Here's a screenshot I took after I enabled airplane mode: http://i.imgur.com/wc5Ie.png

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

#207

Post by recursive »

jonknee wrote: post #119
recursive wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on my cell phone.

Perhaps you need to install the App we're all talking about then. It's most definitely vector based.

I thought we were talking about the Google Maps app. Because that's what I'm talking about.

Here's a screenshot I took after I enabled airplane mode: http://i.imgur.com/wc5Ie.png

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

#208

Post by recursive »

jlouis wrote: post #77
recursive wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on my cell phone.

Curiously, I wonder what they do then because they definitely have the vector data in the backend. Google Maps for Android has been vector based for 1.5 to 2 years now.

I'm using google maps for android. When I zoom in, I can clearly see the pixelation of the tiles before the new tiles load. The google play store doesn't show any updates for the app. Where are you getting your information?

Here's a screenshot I took after I enabled airplane mode: http://i.imgur.com/wc5Ie.png

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

#209

Post by wahsd »

eco wrote: post #156
wes-exp wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Android Market had this same problem in the early days. It was frustrating but pretty amusing how terrible Google, of all companies, was at getting search right in their app store.

Granted, but, seriously, Apple has never even feigned search-fu and MS/Bing has a better chance of making search even a competition.

On a side note, and this might titillate you; I am seeing serious cracks in Google's search skills as their other assets lack search or it is rather clunky. Now if Bing just didn't suck so bad, there might even be a challenger.

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

#210

Post by stordoff »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #56
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…

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…

> No, you're wrong. It's not with the data.

It seems to be both. I tried two locations in the Apple store, and the data for both was incorrect:

* One gave a location about 10-15 miles away (with a pop-up showing details of the correct venue). I checked the correct location, and nothing was marked on the map. (Image: http://i.imgur.com/FHVax.jpg - the proper location is just above the 'd' in Cambridge)

* One was found correctly, but the listed information (phone, website etc.) was mostly incorrect.

* Satellite images are of a much lower resolution than Google Maps in some areas (e.g. my house!)

Post reply on HN