Apple Paying Freelancers to Improve the Accuracy of Apple Maps

[MacRumors]

In an effort to improve Apple Maps, which many iPhone users still consider to be inferior to Google Maps, Apple has enlisted the help of contracted freelancers to validate the accuracy of points of interest and other information, in exchange for micropayments, according to French blog iGeneration.

For the past year, through a platform called TryRating, Apple has reportedly paid freelancers 54 cents per task on average, with each task often only taking a few minutes to complete. The fine print allegedly limits freelancers to 600 completed tasks, and no more than 20 hours worked, per week.

The report doesn't specify how freelancers are selected, but they appear to be recruited through a third-party subcontractor.

A typical task, for example, could be verifying the accuracy and relevance of the search results that Apple Maps shows for a "McDonald's" query for a particular location. The freelancer's task would be to ensure the McDonald's restaurants listed are within a close distance, have accurate addresses, and so forth.

Apple's so-called TryRating platform with a typical verification task​

Apple supposedly has a 200-page Maps Search Evaluation Guidelines document that freelancers are required to follow.

One of the examples Apple provides is a search from Somerville, Massachusetts for "Machu Picchu," a well-known historical site in Peru, but also the name of a local restaurant in the city. A freelancer's task would be to ensure all of the search results for "Machu Picchu" are contextually relevant.

iGeneration's in-depth report provides further details about Apple's so-called TryRating platform, which it likens to Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

Apple Maps launched in 2012 and was quickly criticized for having incomplete and inaccurate mapping data, which led some iPhone users on dangerous routes. Apple CEO Tim Cook offered a rare public apology for the frustration it caused customers, and then iOS chief Scott Forstall was ousted just one month later.

Apple Maps still gets a bad rap among some users, but Apple's continued efforts to improve the app should help reverse some of those opinions.

Article Link: Apple Paying Freelancers to Improve the Accuracy of Apple Maps

 

[jent]

Anyone know how to participate in TryRating?

 

[BrettApple]

Heck, it doesn't even get my home address right. I'll be sitting on the couch and it always says I'm 5 minutes to home on the destinations widget. I disabled it because of that. Whereas Google Maps is spot on to our mailbox.

When people need directions to the house I always tell them not to use Apple Maps. Or go by landmarks.

This is in Kansas too, nothing special. The address just shows up nearly a mile away from where it actually is. I've submitted requests to fix it but it hasn't helped any thus far. So no surprise with this.

 

[cardfan]

Apple can try all it wants but google maps puts it to shame. As long as Apple continues to not use google with siri, maps, or other, it will always be somewhat of a compromise. Then again, apple maps, siri, isn't why you buy an iphone.

 

[WordsmithMR]

At most you're making $16.20/hour and that's not compensating for gas. Driving wouldn't be necessary in large cities... but then I would imagine there would be more people doing this as a freelancing job... So potentially less for you to do? Either way, it is pretty low wage.

 

[benroberts3]

What Apple needs to do is create a program like Google Guides to help improve their maps through crowdsourcing. It seems like Apple is really making this a lot harder than it needs to be with this type of platform. Sure, it's nice to be compensated but only a few people can complete 600 tasks a week!

They should make it a fun program with points and goodies that is free for the general public. From there, just watch Apple maps gain loads of new places, restaurants, shops, etc. Crowd sourcing has proved to be the best way to gain local knowledge. Especially when it comes to something like maps.

I hope Apple realizes this soon before Google Maps pulls too far ahead for Apple to ever catch up.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Joe, I presume you are French literate. Does the article provide any hints as to how Apple recruits these contractors?

 

[Michael Scrip]

The freelancers are helping verify that the Apple Maps information is correct. Great.

But where did the information come from in the first place?

They mention the incomplete and inaccurate mapping data from 5 years ago. So where did Apple get it then? I'm just curious about that.

 

[SoN1NjA]

Heck, it doesn't even get my home address right. I'll be sitting on the couch and it always says I'm 5 minutes to home on the destinations widget. I disabled it because of that. Whereas Google Maps is spot on to our mailbox.

When people need directions to the house I always tell them not to use Apple Maps. Or go by landmarks.

This is in Kansas too, nothing special. The address just shows up nearly a mile away from where it actually is. I've submitted requests to fix it but it hasn't helped any thus far. So no surprise with this.

You can report an error in the Maps app

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203080

 

[drewyboy]

Apple can try all it wants but google maps puts it to shame. As long as Apple continues to not use google with siri, maps, or other, it will always be somewhat of a compromise. Then again, apple maps, siri, isn't why you buy an iphone.

Exactly. Apple hardware + other folks service's is how we roll in my family.
[doublepost=1496424880][/doublepost]

You can report in error in the Maps app

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203080

What part of his "I've submitted requests to fix it but it hasn't helped any thus far." isn't clear enough to understand that he has?

 

[TimUSCA]

The freelancers are helping verify that the Apple Maps information is correct. Great.

But where did the information come from in the first place?

They mention the incomplete and inaccurate mapping data from 5 years ago. So where did Apple get it then? I'm just curious about that.

Tom Tom, I believe. Then they added Yelp information recently.

 

[Michael Scrip]

What Apple needs to do is create a program like Google Guides to help improve their maps through crowdsourcing. It seems like Apple is really making this a lot harder than it needs to be with this type of platform. Sure, it's nice to be compensated but only a few people can complete 600 tasks a week!

They should make it a fun program with points and goodies that is free for the general public. From there, just watch Apple maps gain loads of new places, restaurants, shops, etc. Crowd sourcing has proved to be the best way to gain local knowledge. Especially when it comes to something like maps.

I hope Apple realizes this soon before Google Maps pulls too far ahead for Apple to ever catch up.

I heard this is why Ingress was developed... to get people walking around and verifying where certain landmarks are.

Google created a startup and a game that people played for fun.... but that also gave Google TONS of mapping info.

 

[theBigD23]

Heck, it doesn't even get my home address right. I'll be sitting on the couch and it always says I'm 5 minutes to home on the destinations widget. I disabled it because of that. Whereas Google Maps is spot on to our mailbox.

When people need directions to the house I always tell them not to use Apple Maps. Or go by landmarks.

This is in Kansas too, nothing special. The address just shows up nearly a mile away from where it actually is. I've submitted requests to fix it but it hasn't helped any thus far. So no surprise with this.

You can report the issue to Apple through the Maps app. I did last week and today got notification that the issue was fixed.

 

[bbeagle]

At most you're making $16.20/hour and that's not compensating for gas. Driving wouldn't be necessary in large cities... but then I would imagine there would be more people doing this as a freelancing job... So potentially less for you to do? Either way, it is pretty low wage.

The MEDIAN income in the United States in the first quarter of 2017 for men under 25 who worked full-time was $558/week. That is $13.95/hour. I bet those people wouldn't think earning $2.25 more an hour is bad.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf

 

[nelsonammo]

WTF Apple, you are so rich and Maps is one of your premier apps and you're relying on some 3rd party taskrabbit app that pays people 54 cents to improve the data on it?

 

[Jsameds]

Good. Apple Maps needs to be better.

 

[IJ Reilly]

What part of his "I've submitted requests to fix it but it hasn't helped any thus far." isn't clear enough to understand that he has?

It can take awhile, how long presumably depending on the complexity of the reported error. Awhile back I reported the boundaries for a National Monument as wrong. The correction did not appear quickly, but it looks right now.

 

[e-coli]

Apple should buy Foursquare and Yelp, and integrate their data into Maps.

Then again, Apple bought and killed HopStop, and somehow train times haven't made it into Maps yet.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Tom Tom, I believe.

We never heard bad things about Tom Tom's data in their own GPS devices... did we?

I just wonder why early Apple Maps was so bad.

There used to be two Walmarts listed in my town on Apple Maps... yet there is only one. I don't know where Apple got that info. There isn't a document on Earth that has, or ever had, a Walmart listed at that address.

That's the kinda stuff that confuses me.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

What Apple needs to do is create a program like Google Guides to help improve their maps through crowdsourcing. It seems like Apple is really making this a lot harder than it needs to be with this type of platform. Sure, it's nice to be compensated but only a few people can complete 600 tasks a week!

They should make it a fun program with points and goodies that is free for the general public. From there, just watch Apple maps gain loads of new places, restaurants, shops, etc. Crowd sourcing has proved to be the best way to gain local knowledge. Especially when it comes to something like maps.

I hope Apple realizes this soon before Google Maps pulls too far ahead for Apple to ever catch up.

I would take extra iCloud space over payment any day.

 

[alpha076]

It should allow to use google maps when using Apple carplay, that is a major inconvenience.

 

[imran5720]

May be in 10 years it can compete with google maps

 

[mi7chy]

You get what you pay for. Cheapen out paying only 54 cents and you will get that level of maps data. Either go all in or replace apple maps with Google Maps/Waze.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Still looking for a mapping app that will plot searched points of interest for a variety of mapping systems: Apple thinks it's here, Google thinks it's here, Waze thinks it's here and so on. Then, head for the cluster point instead of the unique outlier(s).

Or even a "Apple thinks it's here but Google thinks it's here" app when the searched point differs between just those two.

 

[2010mini]

Apple can try all it wants but google maps puts it to shame. As long as Apple continues to not use google with siri, maps, or other, it will always be somewhat of a compromise. Then again, apple maps, siri, isn't why you buy an iphone.

Had Google not purposely kept turn by turn navigating away from iOS it would still be the default map today