Apple Maps on the Web
Apple (Hacker News):
Today, Apple Maps on the web is available in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Maps directly from their browser.
[…]
All developers, including those using MapKit JS, can also link out to Maps on the web, so their users can get driving directions, see detailed place information, and more.
Maps on the web is available in English at the current time, and it works with Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad, and Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs. Apple plans to add support for additional languages, browsers, and platforms over time.
Apple Maps on the web seems to be rather limited so far. The web app supports panning and zooming on the map, searching and tapping on locations, looking up directions, and browsing curated guides. However, it isn’t currently possible to tilt the map to view 3D building models or terrain elevation, and directions are limited to Driving and Walking. Look Around (Apple’s equivalent to Google Street View) is not available on the web either, but Apple says the feature will arrive in the coming months.
[…]
In my testing, performance across Apple Maps on the web isn’t stellar in Safari. I’m observing stutters in transition animations, as well as when panning the map. In Google Chrome, however, the web app feels significantly smoother.
However, it worked poorly in my testing in Microsoft Edge running in Windows 11 on my M1 MacBook Air via VMware Fusion.
[…]
With the beta of Maps on the Web, when you share the URL to a location from the browser’s address bar, the recipient gets a more full-featured mapping experience regardless of platform.
While I don’t anticipate this is going to put Google out of business any time soon, I’m hopeful that this does a few things. First, having this available on the web will hopefully drive more visibility into the hit-or-miss nature of some of the POI data on Apple Maps. I’m crossing my fingers that we see an improvement in the quality of data on the platform.
There’s something funny about reading these stories on your iPhone and tapping the link to get an error that Safari for iOS is an unsupported browser. I know the app is a better experience, but this should be a little more graceful if you want to get the word out about Apple Maps on the web …
Apple updated its Apple Maps on the web feature to add support for the Firefox browser this week.
Previously:
2 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Still blocks me on Firefox (beta) on Linux. Their support page (https://support.apple.com/en-ca/120585) does say Firefox "on your Mac or iPad" and "On your Windows PC" so I guess they're not claiming otherwise, but I can't remember the last time something on the web was blocked by OS platform.
