Time for a poll: Apple maps or Google maps?

Other forums have this thread. And now we have quite a number of iPhone users here.

What is your experience? Google or Apple maps? And for what? Turn by Turn or POI (point of interest).

Outside the US, Apple maps seems flawed (well the data base, not the UI), from what I've read. The few times I've used it in France, England,Canada, Mexico and Japan, it worked fine, but that is a small data base.

In the US, I use Apple Maps exclusively and it's accurate. I don't do POI's that much. I prefer the UI turn by turn over Google's version. Especially in the cities.

I have both on my iPhone.

Simple poll. But to be clear, its concerning Apple's iOS: Do you use Apple Maps or Google maps mainly? You can list details in a post.

 

Thanks Charlyee.

I like the larger street signs in Apple Maps while doing turn by turn. I also like the the 3D driving maps (apple) when in the city. Feel like Luke Skywalker, plus it is easier for me to anticipate the next turn from the building shapes.

But as long as it gets you there.

 

Very interesting responses, thanks for those that have replied. I'll be curious how Apple maps works when I'm out west soon. A little surprised at the east/west coast difference in usability...I would think that Apple would hit California very well with good maps.

I did say that I don't use POI's much. But this is certainly where AM undelivered, compared to Google.

Some things that I've noticed and have become accustomed too. I can't say it is consistent everywhere, but I've run across these things, and maybe others would find this useful:

1. In AM, if I type in 'pizza', I may come up with one pizza place. In Google maps, I'll come up with 8 in my area...but not all that are actually here. That is pretty common.

2. However, if I type in 'JFB's Pizza' the AM search will come up with a match right away, and locate it.

3. If I type in XYZ restaurant, like 2 above, it will find it, but the pin will be in the wrong place, sometimes. Sometimes this is because the wrong address is assigned to the restaurant. So if I type in the actually address, it shows up correctly. Most times, it is just wrong by being across the street, or the next block.

As a result of my experience above, I'll type in the actual address of the restaurant, and then AM works very well for me. Even in very, very rural areas in my neck of the woods.

4. Typing in "300 3rd Street", can give a different address than "300 3rd St." In the example I found, it was only a block off. But a very odd situation. Not always though.

So maybe AM is working well for me because I type in addresses and not POI's like 'Mikes Pizza'. :dunno: ???

Like I said, it is mainly off a block or less. Although, last year, one instance was the wrong city.

But for the smaller errors, AM will take me 200 miles to the correct destination, and then if it is off by a block, I'm not too upset...because at that point, I'm actually looking for address with my eyes. In one case, the church was on the other side of the street, so that was easily to spot.

But most times it works fine with just the address.

Here is an interesting counter example:

Last September, I drove to NYC towards the East Side (normally I take the West approach). I punched in the address in Apple Maps on the iPhone, and also punched the address in Google Maps on my Laptop (and then printed the directions). I wasn't sure about AM approach, so my wife and I used the printed GM. Wow. It put us on an highway, with a name in GM that didn't exist (or at least is not common nor used in the highway signs). Missed the turn and wound up in a very bad area. Since the quickest thing to do was to follow the iPhone AM, we did that, and it got us out and to the right place. We had to drive back the next day...and Apple Maps directions were the right one, and less confusing. Go Figure? :headscrat I could not figure why Google screwed up a major highway nearly inside NYC.

To be sure, AM is not up to snuff with Google Maps, esp. with punching in POI's. But I like the UI better, and I've been okay by punching in the address...and then checking where it winds up before driving.

And sometimes, even GM is wrong! So I predominately use AM, intelligently, and see it progress along. But if I lived in an area where it was just plain wrong a majority of the times, in a big way, then I would use GM instead.

It is a shame that Google and Apple parted ways in 2009. The original UI in Apple 2008 was made by Apple, using the Google database, and continued through iOS 5. And I think in iOS 6 & 7, Apple has written the better software map UI, compared to Google version. Just wish they could use the Google data base again. Ahh. will not happen. And why did Google reduce Street view so much in their App? It was better in iOS 5, you could enter Street View, and pan your phone around the streets in front of you. I did that in Paris once, just to figure out where I was by the building photos.

 

I'd be curious how that works out. There seems to be consensus on the 'other forum' for this too. Well, at least I'm reading people having the same experience as I do.

 

3/3 is a good start. Were these all in California ?


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