Apple Launches 'Surveyor' App for Apple Maps Data Collection

[DeepIn2U]

I'm not using Maps until Apple stop relying on Yelp for information!

Wooord?!!

Why thr hell is Apple still relying on Yelp!? Is that even relevant anymore?!

Moreover what about ALL those Apple employees coming the world eoth BackPack Apple Map camers GPS and other equipment a few short years back for?! It made Apple maps better.

So NOW after Forstall kick,
After all those employees in cars or walking with backpacks to get 1st person view and a whole new Maps which actually i feel is better than Google's maps still since 2023 [I'm on Galaxy S23 btw not iphone]

But now their asking their USERS to get data?!

FUNK THAT MOVE! that's literary a slap in the face.

Hey Cook why don't YOU go out and spend your days taking pictures of signs and stuff in Surveyor to improve Maps! Bought time YOU give something back to your user base after all you screwed up.

What's next asking the mac, iPad and iPhone user base to submitted code to improve Siri?! To be honest I'm sure there are a LOT of technically inclined users that could do a better job but they shouldn't not for free! And Giovanni should be canned if that happens with no stock options and give all stock to those users if asked to submitt.

 

[DeepIn2U]

It's city dependent. Apple has long had its own reviews system but if your city has fewer iPhones or people aren't leaving reviews, then it defaults to third party apps like Yelp, OpenTable, Lonely Planet, etc.

I started adding reviews to every place I went and at one point, I just stopped seeing Yelp because it caught on in Toronto. So it's a chicken and egg thing. If you don't review locations in Apple Maps, then it'll continue to be Yelp.

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When you rate through Apple Maps, it pulls up your pictures from that location and suggests you add them. Makes it super easy to rate a place with photos.


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Like you, I hate Yelp with the heat of a thousand suns, but I didn't ignore it, I set out to do something about it and left reviews and encouraged others to do the same.

I do like how Apple pulls info from relevant third parties if there aren't enough native reviews.

Oh I did forget about this. Still it had to have too many reviews to switch from 3rd party reviews. Would be nice if Apple made public the amount of reviews needed to switch.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Open Street Maps is a not-for-profit foundation that coordinates volunteer mapping and GIS processing to produce a fully open and redistributable set of data. The data is held under open-source licenses and free for anyone to use with proper attribution. As a result, it would not be possible for Apple to "buy" them. There's nothing to buy when the core product is open source.

Apple has used OSM data in specific regions where there either wasn't complete commercial data or the commercial provider was unwilling to license it to them, but their long term goal has likely always been to generate and control their own data, much as Google does (and hence why this app and the partnership with Premise exists).

Would love to know if you're aware of, and could share, which company Apple originally used for its map data the first 1.5yrs Maps was launched?

 

[DeepIn2U]

Apple Maps has the best UI/UX. Google Maps has the best data and reviews. They really should merge

Honestly I'd love to see Apple Maps for Android.

We could see a big shift as their UI/UX of Maps is far cleaner and easier to use especially bookmarked locations.

I miss having to select a location I've bookmarked just to see it on thr map itself and not automatically try routing me. GMaps used to do that but stopped and it's annoying as hell.

 

[cateye]

Would love to know if you're aware of, and could share, which company Apple originally used for its map data the first 1.5yrs Maps was launched?

Pretty sure it was TomTom, at least here in the U.S.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Pretty sure it was TomTom, at least here in the U.S.

You are correct it was TomTom globally initially.