In spite of all the screaming about Apple's maps, no one has yet provided any evidence that x is greater than y, much less that any difference is significant.
For me, it's not just about errors. It's about crappy functionality. The traffic data in Apple's new Maps is just barely above useless. All you get is is red dashes if it knows of a traffic issue. No indication how severe the traffic problem is. The road could be shut down and you'd never know it until you drove up to the line of stopped traffic. The 3d maps are really just useless eye candy. The hybrid view is ridiculous in that it only highlights certain roads. The level of detail is too low and by the time you reach a decent level of detail you've zoomed in so far the map is useless.
And yes there are data issues. I tried searching for a restaurant I was going to and it couldn't find it by name. I found the address and put it in. Ironically some other data source apparently knew the restaurant as there was a market for it on the map. Too bad it wasn't a data source that Apple searched.
Google maps has already replaced Apple's Maps on my iPhone.
Another **itbag analyst...simultaneously spouting and citing irrelevant analyst opinion. "Not only did *Google win*, but *Apple lost*." Seriously? Didn't we learn to ignore these idiots after the last recession?
Users are the big winners - Google'ites can love the Google, FWIW. Everyone else have plenty of options too. Open Street Maps is nice, as are many of the mapping plugins like Map Quest.
IMO, Google has been too big for their britches since they became an Advertising company instead of a search company. (Yes, a long time.) Their sojourn into telephony has only exacerbated the problem. Sad, especially given the bright beginning they had.
One common thing I see on Apple sites is people bashing Google for anonymously tracking user behaviors and using that data so advertisers can target people that might actually want their products. Everyone knows that is what Google does.
That very apologetic of Google for you to say. You should receive some Google stock for that!
(Sad that you only see Google bashing on Apple sites....should be much more prevalent than that as they very much deserve bashing.)
I think if you asked 1000 people on the street "what Google does" the answer would universally be "Internet Search!" Not "tracking me for advertisers".
Google is really there to track you for advertisers, BTW. It's Google's get rich quick scheme, and it's working out well so far - nuts to the rest of us. Search engines, phones...and everything else...are only coincidence. I do not like advertising, nor the advertising industry, so I will not further support Google outside of Search. (And I use Duck Duck Go and other alternative searches as much as possible...resorting to Google as needed.)
It should be no surprise to someone such as yourself who is informed on Google why some people are surprised (more like disappointed...people have always wanted to like Google) to learn what scheisty practices Google is up to on the advertising side of the house. The side that in reality makes up about 99% of the Google house. I think that factoid would also be a surprise to the vast majority of Google users.
"Behavioral advertising" and other dirty tricks that Google uses in advertising are practically unknown to their customers, really devious, and IMO evil in a very Microsoftian fashion.
Android is costing Google tremendous amounts of money (whether or not you consider the bottomless pit that is Motorola!). It is costing Google a lot in terms of credibility and goodwill with Regulators, Industry standards associations, etc. It is obviously costing a lot in negative PR. But despite all this, Google ABSOLUTELY has no choice but to pursue the Android strategy as much as it can - they have to destroy iOS or marginalize it as much as possible. In 2007, when Apple asked Google to pay $100M to be the default search provider, it really opened Google's eyes to the risk that an unchallenged and massively popular platform like the iPhone could cause. By virtue of controlling this platform, Apple could force Google to pay increasing amounts of money to continue to be the default search provider. And this would hurt Google at its most sensitive spot - at the end of the day, over 90% of Google's revenues comes from advertising tied to search, and Apple could force Google to part with most of its search revenues from the iPhone.
[...]
The only edge Google has, stems from two sources - the fact that Google has already made massive investments in servers, storage, bandwidth - and any competitor has to make at least close to this level of investment to even stand a chance of competing with Google. This will not deter the big guys like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. The second advantage stems from the fact that Google sees over 75% of all searches - just the sheer volume of these searches allow Google to improve its results. It is this advantage that could be weakened if (say) Bing manages to become the default search provider on iOS. In a single shot, Bing would get access to a large portion of search queries, and they can improve their results quickly using these queries.
This is the edge that Google does not want to lose! And the reason that will explain Google's actions over the last 2-3 years.
Okay with the facts, but not sure I agree with your analysis.
Apple playing hardball with Google is a side-effect of Google's entrance to cell-phone market with a copy-cat product and an own-the-world-like-Microsoft attitude. Prior to that they were all chummy all the time. No sense in trying to muddy this by portraying Google as some kind of victim.
Further, Google got way up in the search market share (user searches NOT advertising dollars!!!) by being good at search -- not by having a smart phone or having a browser or being involved with advertising and not due to a lack of competitors.
Today, Google still has few legitimate competitors in search. (Bing certainly isn't one.) As long as they maintain such a commanding lead in marketshare and give better results this is unlikely to change. However, continued bad behavior outside of search along with continued neglect/abuse of the search clientele may change this. (We can hope....I want the good old Google that didn't seem to care about anything but search back!)
It's very easy to whore out your OS to anyone that can slam together a box and not give a damn about the experience. The lazy-man's way to market share. Keep puffing up share numbers by spreading around garbage - much of which doesn't even qualify as a "smartphone" while masquerading as one in the measurements.
The more things change...!
Sub out the term "smartphone" and go back about ten years and I think I may have written that exact passage about M$FT. LOL - You really took me back with that one! Thanks!
Comments
For me, it's not just about errors. It's about crappy functionality. The traffic data in Apple's new Maps is just barely above useless. All you get is is red dashes if it knows of a traffic issue. No indication how severe the traffic problem is. The road could be shut down and you'd never know it until you drove up to the line of stopped traffic. The 3d maps are really just useless eye candy. The hybrid view is ridiculous in that it only highlights certain roads. The level of detail is too low and by the time you reach a decent level of detail you've zoomed in so far the map is useless.
And yes there are data issues. I tried searching for a restaurant I was going to and it couldn't find it by name. I found the address and put it in. Ironically some other data source apparently knew the restaurant as there was a market for it on the map. Too bad it wasn't a data source that Apple searched.
Google maps has already replaced Apple's Maps on my iPhone.
Don't complain that Google is stalking you and that no one here warned you
Pretty sure there's a few million people who'd be more interesting for Google to stalk. But if they are, it's nice to know they care so much.
Users are the big winners - Google'ites can love the Google, FWIW. Everyone else have plenty of options too. Open Street Maps is nice, as are many of the mapping plugins like Map Quest.
IMO, Google has been too big for their britches since they became an Advertising company instead of a search company. (Yes, a long time.) Their sojourn into telephony has only exacerbated the problem. Sad, especially given the bright beginning they had.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frood
One common thing I see on Apple sites is people bashing Google for anonymously tracking user behaviors and using that data so advertisers can target people that might actually want their products. Everyone knows that is what Google does.
That very apologetic of Google for you to say. You should receive some Google stock for that!
(Sad that you only see Google bashing on Apple sites....should be much more prevalent than that as they very much deserve bashing.)
I think if you asked 1000 people on the street "what Google does" the answer would universally be "Internet Search!" Not "tracking me for advertisers".
Google is really there to track you for advertisers, BTW. It's Google's get rich quick scheme, and it's working out well so far - nuts to the rest of us. Search engines, phones...and everything else...are only coincidence. I do not like advertising, nor the advertising industry, so I will not further support Google outside of Search. (And I use Duck Duck Go and other alternative searches as much as possible...resorting to Google as needed.)
It should be no surprise to someone such as yourself who is informed on Google why some people are surprised (more like disappointed...people have always wanted to like Google) to learn what scheisty practices Google is up to on the advertising side of the house. The side that in reality makes up about 99% of the Google house. I think that factoid would also be a surprise to the vast majority of Google users.
"Behavioral advertising" and other dirty tricks that Google uses in advertising are practically unknown to their customers, really devious, and IMO evil in a very Microsoftian fashion.
[/soapbox]
Quote:
Originally Posted by macarena
[...]
Android is costing Google tremendous amounts of money (whether or not you consider the bottomless pit that is Motorola!). It is costing Google a lot in terms of credibility and goodwill with Regulators, Industry standards associations, etc. It is obviously costing a lot in negative PR. But despite all this, Google ABSOLUTELY has no choice but to pursue the Android strategy as much as it can - they have to destroy iOS or marginalize it as much as possible. In 2007, when Apple asked Google to pay $100M to be the default search provider, it really opened Google's eyes to the risk that an unchallenged and massively popular platform like the iPhone could cause. By virtue of controlling this platform, Apple could force Google to pay increasing amounts of money to continue to be the default search provider. And this would hurt Google at its most sensitive spot - at the end of the day, over 90% of Google's revenues comes from advertising tied to search, and Apple could force Google to part with most of its search revenues from the iPhone.
[...]
The only edge Google has, stems from two sources - the fact that Google has already made massive investments in servers, storage, bandwidth - and any competitor has to make at least close to this level of investment to even stand a chance of competing with Google. This will not deter the big guys like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. The second advantage stems from the fact that Google sees over 75% of all searches - just the sheer volume of these searches allow Google to improve its results. It is this advantage that could be weakened if (say) Bing manages to become the default search provider on iOS. In a single shot, Bing would get access to a large portion of search queries, and they can improve their results quickly using these queries.
This is the edge that Google does not want to lose! And the reason that will explain Google's actions over the last 2-3 years.
Okay with the facts, but not sure I agree with your analysis.
Apple playing hardball with Google is a side-effect of Google's entrance to cell-phone market with a copy-cat product and an own-the-world-like-Microsoft attitude. Prior to that they were all chummy all the time. No sense in trying to muddy this by portraying Google as some kind of victim.
Further, Google got way up in the search market share (user searches NOT advertising dollars!!!) by being good at search -- not by having a smart phone or having a browser or being involved with advertising and not due to a lack of competitors.
Today, Google still has few legitimate competitors in search. (Bing certainly isn't one.) As long as they maintain such a commanding lead in marketshare and give better results this is unlikely to change. However, continued bad behavior outside of search along with continued neglect/abuse of the search clientele may change this. (We can hope....I want the good old Google that didn't seem to care about anything but search back!)
The more things change...!
Sub out the term "smartphone" and go back about ten years and I think I may have written that exact passage about M$FT. LOL - You really took me back with that one! Thanks!