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How Google Builds Its Maps

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#91

Post by andyking »

jilt wrote: post #68

Don't miss this part: 'Not to detour too much, but what you see above is just the beginning of how Google is going to use Street View imagery. Think of them as the early web crawlers (remember those?) going out in the world, looking for the words on pages. That's what Street View is doing. One of its first uses is finding street signs (and addresses) so that Google's maps can better understand the logic of human tran…

Only if you're already public enough with your political views, the name of your kids' school and so on to stick that data on the back of your car anyway.

If you really wanted to keep your politics secret, you wouldn't put a political sticker on your car.

All anyone sees on my car is what radio station I listen to.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#92

Post by paganel »

rogerchucker wrote: post #41
spaghetti wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps is possibly my favorite app that currently ships with iOS. I think I might give up email and texting on the device before I'd give up maps. I'm disappointed that Google maps isn't shipping with iOS 6.

I freaking hate the Google maps app on iPhone - I don't have any need for a map app on a mobile device unless it has turn-by-turn voice navigation along with re-routing capabilities. It's only good for looking up locations/directions when I am stuck somewhere for traveling. If I'm home, my macbook's google map is good enough to serve that purpose. So I have no clue why on earth Apple created such a neutered mapping a…

> I freaking hate the Google maps app on iPhone - I don't have any need for a map app on a mobile device unless it has turn-by-turn voice navigation along with re-routing capabilities

Really now? As another anecdotal point, I freaking love it, and I'm saying this as a an almost-Apple-fanboy. I'm a pedestrian living in an Eastern European city of 2-million people, and I've used the maps app countless times.

Not that I wouldn't know my city (I've actually implemented 2 or 3 or map-related projects focused on the city I live in, just as a hobby), but because it is impossible to remember how exactly to locate the street bearing the name of an obscure 19-century music composer that just happens to be the address of a restaurant you're interested in. Or how when I got lost in the center of Athens, as a tourist, around Omonia Square ("I don't need a paper map, I can manage" I was saying to myself as I was leaving my hotel room), I heavily relied on the said map and on the kindness on strangers who had shared their home wifi networks to make my way around to Exarcheia.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#93

Post by RobAley »

andyking wrote: post #90
RobAley wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble with that is if like me you live on the edge of a city, the route you end up taking out of the city is very, very different than if you start in the centre where google will place you, and the time estimate etc. can vary by as much as 30 minutes.

I guess I'm lucky - I'd never looked before, but I checked, and I live in a very small town, about 50 feet from where Google Maps places my town name. I get your point - if you live in North London, then getting directions from "London" is probably not the way to go. Postcodes seem to be the quickest way, for me.

Indeed, being in the UK postcodes are great. A short unambiguous way of identifying a fairly specific location (usually down to part of one street). From my limited knowledge of postal/zip codes in the rest of the world though, they aren't always that precise, sometimes refering just to a whole town (or greater area).

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#94

Post by tonfa »

icefox wrote: post #57
ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

A lot of people under estimate the investment Google has made in their maps product. That we've got two companies doing that (Apple and Google) is a bit mind boggling.

It is funny how much effort google is putting into their maps and yet their interface to the maps (maps.google.com) could still use basic improvements like how 99 out of 100 times I want directions it is to or from my house and yet I have to type in almost my entire address before it appears in the drop down. Considering I am logged into google, have confirmed my address and type in the same address over and over you…

Now that they can do more cross product interactions, I wish it would complete from my address book (like android does).

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#95

Post by stevetursi »

RobAley wrote: post #89
andyking wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just do it by entering the name of my town rather than my full address, on the basis that I already know how to get out of my own town, and only really need detailed directions once I get to the other end of the journey.

The trouble with that is if like me you live on the edge of a city, the route you end up taking out of the city is very, very different than if you start in the centre where google will place you, and the time estimate etc. can vary by as much as 30 minutes.

That's when I break out the postal code. If your city has that much of a span, then tell Google to start at your postal code instead - the idea being that you can usually drive from one end of a postal code to the other in <5 minutes. I know there are postal codes that span long distances, but they tend not to be in cities that span long distances.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#96

Post by gman99 »

Tichy wrote: post #87
ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

A lot of people under estimate the investment Google has made in their maps product. That we've got two companies doing that (Apple and Google) is a bit mind boggling.

And Bing? Also Nokia Maps - not sure what they use on the new Windows 8 phones? For a while Nokia Maps at least were available offline for free, but perhaps that advantage has gone now that there is map caching on Android.

Android has map caching, but not for search or turn by turn nav Also, you can't map cache entire continents/countries like on Nokia devices (OK, you can, if you do it tediously in small sections)

So Nokia (symbian/windows phone) still holds the edge when it comes to navigation. When it comes to local search/places, the Nokia offering is nowhere near as good as the (online) Google Maps

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#97

Post by Tichy »

twelvechairs wrote: post #66
taligent wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually Apple does have a big part in it. They bring together all the data from Tom Tom, Waze, OSM etc as well as the two teams they purchased: C3 and Placebase into one coherent product. It's amazing that Apple has nearly matched Google in some parts (maps, directions) and far exceeded them in others (3D).

> far exceeded them in others (3D). Actually Google and Apple have pretty similar systems for 3d maps. Apple are in beta with their new version for ios6, which will have slightly better resolution than (the current, been there for a while) Google Earth, but not hugely so. See for comparison http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/iphone-news/3d-maps-comparison-... Nokia are producing similar 3d maps, although again slightly low…

I wonder if the iPhone 5 will have a bigger screen. The iPhone 4 screen seems very tiny compared to my Galaxy Nexus. What is the use of fancy 3d if the screen is tiny?

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#98

Post by nl »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

A lot of people under estimate the investment Google has made in their maps product. That we've got two companies doing that (Apple and Google) is a bit mind boggling.

Microsoft is making the same investment with Bing Maps

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#99

Post by BitMastro »

taligent wrote: post #70
twelvechairs wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> far exceeded them in others (3D). Actually Google and Apple have pretty similar systems for 3d maps. Apple are in beta with their new version for ios6, which will have slightly better resolution than (the current, been there for a while) Google Earth, but not hugely so. See for comparison http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/iphone-news/3d-maps-comparison-... Nokia are producing similar 3d maps, although again slightly low…

Actually we do. Apple supports 26 cities. Google supports 13.

Where did you get those numbers? As far as I can tell, more that one hundred cities have textured buildings in Google Earth (they were created by building maker https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/earth/learn/3dbuildings.ht...) as well as in mobile maps (http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/maps/3d/ my city has 3d outlines and it's not even in the map). Apple maps too should have at least 40 cities in 3D.

Re: How Google Builds Its Maps

#100

Post by ccozan »

gman99 wrote: post #96
Tichy wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Bing? Also Nokia Maps - not sure what they use on the new Windows 8 phones? For a while Nokia Maps at least were available offline for free, but perhaps that advantage has gone now that there is map caching on Android.

Android has map caching, but not for search or turn by turn nav Also, you can't map cache entire continents/countries like on Nokia devices (OK, you can, if you do it tediously in small sections) So Nokia (symbian/windows phone) still holds the edge when it comes to navigation. When it comes to local search/places, the Nokia offering is nowhere near as good as the (online) Google Maps

Nokia has indeed the best _free_ navigation of all. I am keeping in my car an old E72 just for it, loaded with all the maps of EU. However, even if updates are quite often, sometimes the map is outdated. But anyhow, the navigation is only for orientation and trip data, I mostly drive by signs and, of course, common sense.
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