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[Weaver]

Why is Apple Maps still so crap? Half the stuff you see listed on Google Maps for the local area (Broadford, Isle of Skye) is in the wrong place slightly, because the database entries are incomplete with half-entered postcodes and lazy, poorly edited content. Some points are missing entirely.

[4candles]

Isn't the word 'Maps' superfluous here?   

[Weaver]

4candles ? 

[4candles]

As I hoped the smilies would indicate, it was just a light-hearted way of saying that, IMHO, Apple implementations sometimes leave something to be desired.


Having said that, I once spent a couple of hours late at night trying to find a Travelodge which Google Maps had placed about three miles from its actual location.   
I've noticed a few other discrepancies since then.

[Ronski]

It's actually quite easy to correct place on Google maps, I've often done it.

[Weaver]

I've been trying to correct Apple Maps a lot recently for the local area.

In December I tried to sort out all the mapping services, Google, Apple and Bing maps so that they would have Mrs Weaver at exactly the correct point as every one of them was helping as much as they could to send her B&B guests to the wrong place half a mile down the road, leaving them bewildered in the pitch blackness. I managed in some cases to achieve my aim. Bing maps might have slid back again though, which would be very bad.

[Weaver]

There ought to be a much easier way for members of the public to complain whether or not they are 'authorities' such as business owners. Then at least the providers would be getting an idea of how bad their products are.

Idea: One useful thing would be a free app that allows you to go to the point shown on the map - by aligning in yourself with the names point on the map grid - and then you capture a GPS reading so you could see how accurate the map display grid is, and secondly allow the user to also capture a GPS reading taken at the real named place. This way the public could work for the map providers if they were feeling generous.

[Weaver]

4candles - understood - always was !

[4candles]

 

[displaced]

There ought to be a much easier way for members of the public to complain whether or not they are 'authorities' such as business owners. Then at least the providers would be getting an idea of how bad their products are.

In fairness, I've fixed a fair few things in Apple Maps in my local area (Gravesend and other places in N.W. Kent).  There's a 'Report an Issue' button which lets you edit all of the details for a location (including website/opening times etc. for businesses).  Apple then review and approve as needed.  Out of 10 or so corrections, they've all been approved.

[Weaver]

I discovered the options to correct map data, and have been using them like mad. So it's good to know there is a chance of someone actually listening to these reports and not being awkward. The reporting in Apple Maps is probably more accessible anyway compared with some of the other services, to their credit.

There's no real excuse for the half-entered postcodes though, as some bulk validation routines to scrutinise the quality of the data en masse would throw up a warning about all these problems and stop this particular kind of poor quality entry getting into the system in the first place. It's a shame more websites for businesses for example aren't machine-readable using structured data in web pages using techniques such as web microformats.