{"id":14752,"date":"2016-06-07T11:31:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T15:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=14752"},"modified":"2016-06-16T09:32:29","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T13:32:29","slug":"cartography-comparison-google-maps-apple-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/07\/cartography-comparison-google-maps-apple-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartography Comparison: Google Maps & Apple Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin O’Beirne<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n

At its heart, this series of essays is a comparison of the current state of Google’s and Apple’s cartography. But it’s also something more: an exploration into all of the tradeoffs that go into designing and making maps such as these.<\/p>\r\n

[…]<\/p>\r\n

Apple is labeling more cities. And Apple is also showing more roads. But Google has more road labels.<\/p>\r\n

[…]<\/p>\r\n

That means that out of a combined total of 35 unique places on both maps, the two maps have only 5 places in common.<\/p>\r\n

[…]<\/p>\r\n

It’s clear that Google thinks transit is important, while Apple thinks that airports, hospitals, and landmarks are important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

He does not look at rural areas, on the grounds that “the things that are labeled are the area’s only<\/em> things.” Nonetheless, I’ve still noticed major differences, with Apple Maps typically omitting smaller roads, in favor of showing nothing<\/em>, unless you really zoom in. In urban areas, I like that Google always shows the transit stations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

As noted earlier<\/a>, I find the most striking difference to be search. Google Maps is very good at it; Apple Maps isn’t. The latter is getting better, insomuch as it less-frequently shows me results in Delaware and Washington D.C. instead of Calgary, but Google is still leaps-and-bounds ahead.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

Khoi Vinh<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n

O’Beirne refrains from calling one or the other superior, but for me, the clear difference is that Apple Maps is concerned with cartographic integrity where Google Maps is concerned with the experience<\/em> of using the application. That is to say, at most given zoom levels, Apple Maps presents formally better maps, but holistically, Google Maps presents more of the right information at the right time. Which is consistent with what animates each company: Apple is focused on beauty and elegance, and Google is focused on information delivery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

I still greatly prefer Google Maps, both for its design and map data. However, Google has made some changes recently that seem like regressions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Previously: Google Maps & Label Readability<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Update (2016-06-08): Lee Bennett<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Two huge reasons I prefer Google Maps: Street View and single handed (one finger) zooming.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin O’Beirne: At its heart, this series of essays is a comparison of the current state of Google’s and Apple’s cartography. But it’s also something more: an exploration into all of the tradeoffs that go into designing and making maps such as these. […] Apple is labeling more cities. And Apple is also showing more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[618,77,245,31,1137,106,343],"class_list":["post-14752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-maps","tag-design","tag-googlemaps","tag-ios","tag-ios-9","tag-maps","tag-search"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14814,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14752\/revisions\/14814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}