Look out MapQuest, Apple Maps debuts on the web in beta

AppleInsider

It's taken 12 years, but Apple Maps is finally available on the web for those still looking to print directions on paper or search for business information on a Windows computer.

Apple Maps on the web

Apple Maps actually first made its way to the web with MapKit JS in 2018, which let websites embed Apple Maps instead of Google Maps. Now, the entirety of Apple Maps is available as a website, but it's in beta.

The web version of Apple Maps is a simple clone of the mapping interface found on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. However, you'll not be using it for turn-by-turn navigation.

The interface should be familiar to anyone who's ever seen Apple Maps. A sidebar shows options for search, guides, and directions. Pick a business, and you'll get the pane with hours, phone numbers, website, menus, Yelp, and user reviews.

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If you get directions to a location, it'll show the overview and step-by-step instructions. Go to the print menu, and the directions are automatically formatted for printing.

Apple wants to add Look Around, its version of Google Street View, in a future update. Developers can also link out to Maps on the web for more specific integrations.

Google has long dominated online mapping, so much so that chances are if you see a map on a website, it's Google's. Apple has been able to penetrate this market slightly, with some websites taking advantage of the MapKit JS -- most famously DuckDuckGo in 2019.

Apple has claimed in the past that Apple Maps is by far the most popular mapping app used on iPhone, which makes sense due to default power. But in order to take even more mindshare from the market, Apple has to have its maps everywhere.

Print out your driving directions from Apple Maps on the web

So, finally, we've arrived 12 years later at Apple Maps on the web. While it likely won't be a huge blow to Google, it is at least another option for those who prefer Apple Maps and may be stuck on a work Windows PC while looking for local business info.

Apple Maps is available on the web in English only. It works in Safari, Chrome, and Edge browsers for now, and additional browsers and languages will be added with time.



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StrangeDays

ah yeah, Look Around, I remember that…had so much promise. But never materialized as I’d expected. I’m in a city with multiple pro sports teams and regularly hosts the Super Bowl, and Apple vans drove thru years ago…yet, no Look Around. 

maltz

Look out MapQuest

lowededwookie

StrangeDays said:

ah yeah, Look Around, I remember that…had so much promise. But never materialized as I’d expected. I’m in a city with multiple pro sports teams and regularly hosts the Super Bowl, and Apple vans drove thru years ago…yet, no Look Around. 

Really? Am I missing something because we have it here in New Zealand. Works even smoother than Google Maps.

Next question. How do we get access to the web beta? I'd love to give it a crack.

My only missing feature I'd love to see in any version of Apple Maps is house numbering like in Google. As a postal worker, being able to see the addresses on the map when zoomed in helps a lot when making up delivery lists. It's the ONLY thing I use Google Maps for which is woefully out of date here in NZ.

RonnyDaddy

Well, Apple should use some more recent maps, for every inches of the world, frequently.

Luis.A.Masanti

My two cents… worthless as usual.

1— quote: “So, finally, we've arrived 12 years later at Apple Maps on the web.”
Tim Cook always remembers us that… “Apple is for the long run…”
(Just go to look Google's cementer of apps…)

2— Why did you… or your editor… mention MapQuest in the title and then it does not appears in the body of the article?

On the other hand… somewhere there is the news that Microsoft, Amzon, and Meta put a lot of money in an open maps foundation… 

jabohn

lowededwookie said:

Next question. How do we get access to the web beta? I'd love to give it a crack..

Links to almost everything in the article EXCEPT the beta website?
Try beta.maps.apple.com

Wesley Hilliard

Luis.A.Masanti said:

My two cents… worthless as usual.

1— quote: “So, finally, we've arrived 12 years later at Apple Maps on the web.”
Tim Cook always remembers us that… “Apple is for the long run…”
(Just go to look Google's cementer of apps…)

2— Why did you… or your editor… mention MapQuest in the title and then it does not appears in the body of the article?

On the other hand… somewhere there is the news that Microsoft, Amzon, and Meta put a lot of money in an open maps foundation… 

MapQuest still exists. It's been used for years as a way to get human readable printouts of driving directions from the internet. It's so (recently) prevalent that I had to submit MapQuest directions in some requests for leave in the military as recently as 2016. Which I thought was wild at the time.

I believe this Apple Maps update is more of a threat to dinosaurs like MapQuest than Google. Those using Google Maps likely won't stop, but if you use Apple Maps on your phone and still, for whatever reason, used sites like MapQuest on a PC, then Apple Maps has arrived to replace that use case. That's why it's MapQuest in the headline, not Google.

All in all, it's just a silly reference. You get it or you don't. There wasn't any reason to explain the reference in the story. But those who know got a chuckle. And now you know too.

whitehusky

RonnyDaddy said:

Well, Apple should use some more recent maps, for every inches of the world, frequently.

They're using very recent satellite imagery where I am that what's even in any of their apps, which is a little odd. Imagery on iPhone/iPad/Maps.app from here is from prior to 2016, but this new beta site's images of my area are from July/August 2023. I can tell because you can see our new deck which was built in July last year, but some trees we had taken down in late fall are still there, and an outdoor table we added in September's not there yet, so must have been July/August 2023. That's pretty recent. Wonder why I can't see that on the iPhone/iPad/Maps.app yet, though.

beowulfschmidt

AppleInsider said:

Apple Maps is available on the web in English only. It works in Safari, Chrome, and Edge browsers for now, and additional browsers and languages will be added with time.

Yay!  One browser that isn't available on Windows, and the two most privacy invasive browsers ever!  Awesome!

Yes, I'm being curmudgeonly.  I know it's a beta.  I know they went for high market share browsers for the penetration.  Still annoying.

quakerotis

Why not? It’s a data feed that can be exposed everywhere.

dewme

MapQuest is nothing but bad memories for me. I once, and only once, tried to use MapQuest printouts to drive solo through Chicago. I survived and miraculously made it to the I Love Cheese State in one uncrumpled piece. Driving through Chicago at the best of times is like trying to walk through the middle of a mosh pit full of demented monkeys, but trying to read directions off a piece of paper while doing so is pure insanity. 

meterestnz

lowededwookie said:

StrangeDays said:

ah yeah, Look Around, I remember that…had so much promise. But never materialized as I’d expected. I’m in a city with multiple pro sports teams and regularly hosts the Super Bowl, and Apple vans drove thru years ago…yet, no Look Around. 

Really? Am I missing something because we have it here in New Zealand. Works even smoother than Google Maps.

Next question. How do we get access to the web beta? I'd love to give it a crack.

My only missing feature I'd love to see in any version of Apple Maps is house numbering like in Google. As a postal worker, being able to see the addresses on the map when zoomed in helps a lot when making up delivery lists. It's the ONLY thing I use Google Maps for which is woefully out of date here in NZ.

Absolutely, all of the above except I’m not a postman 🤣👍

thebudda

Been in aw enforcement over 20 years and I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone sitting in a parking lot or side of the road with papers in their hand looking confused and needing directions. With one sole exception, every other time in my career it was always a Mapquest printout. Each time I'd look over it and shake my head trying to figure out how 2/3 of the directions were fine but then there would be a reference to an interstate or highway in another state, or one that did not exist at all. Mapquest was not a very high bar to exceed.