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Google Maps' Moat

justinobeirne.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat

#581

Post by rpowers »

wutbrodo wrote: post #25

Is there a reason anyone uses Apple Maps, aside from wanting to avoid Google out of principle/privacy/monoculture concerns? To be clear, these are entirely legitimate reasons, but I was wondering if the product has any direct benefits for the user (which is a coherent subset of reasons given the modal users' level of concern about systemic issues). I'm not trying to randomly snipe at Apple here, I just know very litt…

* Apple Maps has better navigation in Oakland than Google * Transit instructions are vastly superior.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#582

Post by zjaffee »

iClaudiusX wrote: post #73
mastax wrote: post #63

Great article, but it has me thinking: what is holding Apple back? My ideas: - Apple is just a few years behind; they launched a decade later. Come back in 3 years and they'll be close to parity. - Apple only needs Maps to be good enough to avoid PR disaster, since they need a reasonable default on iOS. On the other hand Google needs to be good enough to beat competitors since they want to make money on traffic, usag…

Apple had a huge head start with Siri but has been surpassed quite handily by Google and Amazon for some time now. I'm not sure we can simply rely on the passage of time for Apple to improve these large projects.

I think a big part of this, at least when compared to google, is Siri's issues with language understanding rather than converting the audio to text. Google is much better at picking up on contextual details simply because they have such a huge background in doing so for search.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#583

Post by on_and_off »

wdr1 wrote: post #533

Is the author (Justin O'Beirne) really Apple's Head of Cartography? https://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-o-beirne

That's him.

IIRC he left Apple in 2015 and only after that he resumed publicly talking about mapping products.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#584

Post by chmaynard »

dom96 wrote: post #479
chmaynard wrote: post #431

Earlier this year, Google Maps was directing people traveling to my newly-constructed home to a different location several miles away. I reported the problem to Google via their app, which prompted me to indicate the correct location on a map. The new location was in their database within a day or two, and I received a thank-you email from Google. Amazing.

I couldn't disagree more. Perhaps you can help me out but I see no way to correct invalid addresses on Google Maps. How did you do it?

I'm currently using Google Maps on iOS 11.2.1. This may do it for you:

    1. Bring up the app menu (tap the icon in the upper right).
    2. Tap Settings.
    3. Tap Edit Home or Work.
    4. Tap the elipsis on the right side of the Home item.
    5. Follow the instructions...

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#585

Post by bcbrown »

dillondoyle wrote: post #173
taneq wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet we have Waymo building 2cm-resolution maps and not operating outside of mapped areas, and (more scarily) Tesla geotagging false positives where Autopilot misidentifies some roadside feature and panic brakes.

If all the cars are always mapping and collecting data will maps ever be out of date?

By definition, any car that makes an update to a map has experienced an out of date map.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#586

Post by ghshephard »

kuschku wrote: post #441
ghshephard wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem in Singapore is that Apple (or whoever they contract this to) hasn't updated major parts of the city in several years - Go take a look at Maxwell Road near the Singapore Chinese Cultural Center connecting to Central Blvd from Straits Blvd - that road hasn't been there since 2015 (at least, maybe longer) - but Apple Still says that it exists and uses it for directions. Maps are one area where Apple has a "…

I live in a city in Germany (280k population) where Google hasn’t updated the 2D satellite images since 2004. A few months ago, they introduced 3D buildings, and Earth shows up-to-date satellite imagery now, but still didn’t update the satellite imagery used in the Maps app. Worse yet are maps and transit – roads and sometimes entire districts missing, data from somewhere between 2005 and 2009, and no transit data at…

That's very odd, and unusual for Google - outlier. The place I grew up, Fawn Lake, British Columbia, has had three or four revisions to its satellite pictures since 2008. I watch my mother do construction on her property, and by how many outbuildings there are, I can see that it has been updated in at least the last 2 years. Population about 250 (generous estimate) in the 200 square miles around Fawn Lake.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#587

Post by kuschku »

ghshephard wrote: post #586
kuschku wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a city in Germany (280k population) where Google hasn’t updated the 2D satellite images since 2004. A few months ago, they introduced 3D buildings, and Earth shows up-to-date satellite imagery now, but still didn’t update the satellite imagery used in the Maps app. Worse yet are maps and transit – roads and sometimes entire districts missing, data from somewhere between 2005 and 2009, and no transit data at…

That's very odd, and unusual for Google - outlier. The place I grew up, Fawn Lake, British Columbia, has had three or four revisions to its satellite pictures since 2008. I watch my mother do construction on her property, and by how many outbuildings there are, I can see that it has been updated in at least the last 2 years. Population about 250 (generous estimate) in the 200 square miles around Fawn Lake.

The big problem with this is, we have a situation where Google maps is very obviously inferior, to all competing solutions – even paper maps are now more up to date – and yet, everyone still uses it. Because it’s the default.

That shows just how powerful the advantage of a default app is, and how at this point, Google Maps is entirely without competition just because it is the default.

Not even when Google Maps sucks do people switch away – often because many don’t even know there are alternatives.

(And btw, this issue isn’t just like that in one German city, Google Maps is here like that in many places).

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#588

Post by gideon_b »

You wouldn't believe how helpful "areas of interest" were for wandering around foreign cities. I was wandering around a city I didn't know, unable to speak the language, and yet I could easily connect corridors of interesting shops and restaurants.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#589

Post by londons_explore »

radicalbyte wrote: post #319
whazor wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in Netherlands. Google Maps has recently become worse and worse. Small pedestrian roads are missing, and the navigation is getting stupid. Google applies the one-way limitations for cars also on cycling routes.

The navigation also constantly crashes, I can only use it two days a week because the other three days it freezes whilst loading directions.

Send in-app feedback about it.

It's probably caused by some third party app or rarely-tested phone model. They take in app feedback into account when deciding what to work on next.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#590

Post by Stephen304 »

aluhut wrote: post #292
sytelus wrote: post #142

Many people don't realize why Google maps are so much better than anything out there. I would actually give lot of credit to Marissa Mayer who suddenly became in charge of maps from otherwise more higher position. Thanks to her influence in Google SLT and ability to make impressive arguments, she was able to make a case for maps as core pillar in Google's offering and consequently obtain huge investment and large tal…

No love for OpenStreetMaps here? In Germany it is often superior to everything out there. Especially due to the mappers/updaters motivation and nice gamification tools like StreetComplete or more professional tools like Vespucci. https://github.com/westnordost/StreetComplete http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci

I absolutely love OSM, even though I usually use Google maps in my day to day. Mainly I strongly support the open licensing and how quickly and easy it is to contribute. I actually added ~500 house outlines and ~150 house addresses to my hometown in the past couple days - it gets really addicting!

I really hope that one day OSM will be able to better compete with Google maps. I feel like there is a serious lack of OSM mobile apps. The only one I know of (that is acceptable) is Maps.me, but I find it too cluttered compared to Google maps.

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