Apple Maps showing TripAdvisor, Booking.com reviews in search results

Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2015
In what appears to be a recent update to Apple's in-house mapping service, hotel reviews pulled from TripAdvisor and Booking.com are showing up in local search results alongside data sourced from Yelp.




Spotted by AppleInsider reader Ram, Apple Maps searches are returning TripAdvisor reviews for specific hotels, including the Days Inn in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. Further investigation showed Booking.com reviews also popping up in various locations around the world, including China.

Since its inception, Apple Maps has relied solely on Yelp to provide reviews for local search, allowing users to read point of interest reviews without leaving the app. Neither TripAdvisor or Booking.com are listed as sources on Apple's official Maps attribution webpage, but reviews with links to their respective webpages and apps are now appearing in Maps queries.

It is not yet known how Apple plans to incorporate the new services, or to what extent, though it appears that data from TripAdvisor and Booking.com are currently supplementing, not replacing, Yelp information. For example, conducting a search for "Hotels" in the area surrounding Monmouth Junction returns a list of establishments from Yelp's database, while a pointed query for "Days Inn" brings back a list supplied by TripAdvisor.

The new capability may be linked to Apple's acquisition of social navigation startup Spotsetter, which used proprietary algorithms to recommend points of interest based on social network contacts. Prior to Apple's purchase, the app had hooks into TripAdvisor, Zagat and Yelp.

Apple has been working hard to build out its mapping service since a bungled launch in 2012. Most recently, four new sources of business and POI data were added to bolster the app's local search feature.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    I'm glad Apple continues to aggressively build out its Maps app capabilities. This is a highly important and core function of all mobile devices.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    pujones1pujones1 Posts: 222member
    I really hope at the next Apple event that something is said about Maps. It's been a long time coming.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    geekmeegeekmee Posts: 629member
    Based on this response... Let's hope Apple's services get "bungled" more often.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member

    This is truly a welcome addition.

     

    The lack of a street view is the only reason I turn to Google Maps. Many times, it's finding what the hotel looks like from the outside. TripAdvisor provides  pretty good user images to give me a visual reference.

     

    Not sure if Apple Maps will ever get street view or what those minivans with antennas were all about. But personally I find Maps highly usable in my area and getting better every year.

  • Reply 5 of 13

    I live in NYC but I've been in Florida, the Orlando are for the past few days and have been using Apple Maps to get around, a lot. I have to say it's for me anyway, it's been amazing. I've been able to get around easily, turn by turn directions have been highly accurate. I hate leaving NYC so this is the first time in all these years Ive had the chance to really use it, and  t's been great!

  • Reply 6 of 13
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    One thing I wish they would do with Maps is that if your search query is going to take you more than 100km or so from your current location, it would pop up an alert. Sometimes it takes awhile to actually zoom into where you are searching and if Maps takes you across the ocean to another country just because it can't find a Chinese restaurant in Panama, it is annoying to have to make your way back to where you were before being transported away.

  • Reply 7 of 13
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Keep hurting that scumbag ad company Appje.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    Maybe they should fix the logic and accuracy before adding features. In NYC searching an address and it suggests South Africa? [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/57505/width/350/height/700[/IMG]
  • Reply 9 of 13



    Typing "530 1st Ave" in Maps brings up NYC as first choice. There is no "first ave" in NYC, BTW.

  • Reply 10 of 13
    Actually I’ve lived in NYC all my life and First Avenue and 1st Avenue are the same—one is the name of the street, the other an abbreviation used for signage. But the point is when you click on an iOS-created hot link from a company’s address on their website it should just work. Forcing a user to figure out which “first” to use is the kind of really bad user experience that Apple usually is known to tackle. And it proves my point even more that there is bad programming logic if Apple Maps can’t parse 1st and First, based on location of the query.

    By the way, here’s exactly how the address appears on NYU’s web site:
    [INDENT]WHERE TO FIND US
    550 First Avenue
    New York, NY 10016
    Phone: 212-263-5800[/INDENT]
  • Reply 11 of 13
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Maybe they should fix the logic and accuracy before adding features. In NYC searching an address and it suggests South Africa? 700

    Well, that certainly is a first!
  • Reply 12 of 13



    Sorry, I should have been more clear. There is no "first ave" in Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps, or Apple Maps for NYC. They all show "1st Ave", and in all of them typing in "550 first avenue, new york" provides the address for NYU's medical center.

     

    As you're in NYC you might try typing "550 1st Ave" and see if Apple Maps sends you to South Africa.

  • Reply 13 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by BeowulfRex View Post

     



    Typing "530 1st Ave" in Maps brings up NYC as first choice. There is no "first ave" in NYC, BTW.


     

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Theodore Davis View Post



    Actually I’ve lived in NYC all my life and First Avenue and 1st Avenue are the same—one is the name of the street, the other an abbreviation used for signage. But the point is when you click on an iOS-created hot link from a company’s address on their website it should just work. Forcing a user to figure out which “first” to use is the kind of really bad user experience that Apple usually is known to tackle. And it proves my point even more that there is bad programming logic if Apple Maps can’t parse 1st and First, based on location of the query.

     

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by BeowulfRex View Post

     



    Sorry, I should have been more clear. There is no "first ave" in Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps, or Apple Maps for NYC. They all show "1st Ave", and in all of them typing in "550 first avenue, new york" provides the address for NYU's medical center.

     

    As you're in NYC you might try typing "550 1st Ave" and see if Apple Maps sends you to South Africa.


     

    And even if technically there's no such thing as "First Avenue" in New York City, if you're in Manhattan and searching for "550 First Avenue", the AI algorithms should presume that you mean "550 1st Avenue" [while giving you the chance to force it to some city in Canada or South Africa], rather than just assuming off the bat that you mean a city in Canada or South Africa, and not even give you the NYC choice as an option.

     

    i.e., I'm sure that literally thousands of people a week in the greater NYC area enter searches involving "First Avenue", and that well over 99% of them are looking for a place on the east side of Manhattan - not in Canada or South Africa.

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