Battle of The Maps, Round 2: Intelligence

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For maps to be useful, they have to know a lot and be able to adapt. Put another way, maps have to be intelligent so you don't have to be. Round 2 takes a look at just how well each map app uses its information and how wisely it uses it. FIGHT!

Look at how smart Apple Maps is. Not only can it find places, but within a relative location as well! Sure, Google Maps can do that too (right), but it's a prime example of how maps need to be intelligent to be useful.

So, searching for something as common as a Target in a city as well-known as New Orleans should be pretty easy. However, when I search for my church in Apple Maps, it provides me with one church 3 states away, and 2 more on the opposite coast. Either that, or I just get a "No results found." error. Google Maps, on the other hand, actually shows me what I was looking for: my church, only about 4 miles away. To be fair, Google has been collecting data on locations for years longer than Apple. In fact, all Apple has done is bought companies for their location data. Google Maps certainly wins this point.

Maps should also be aware of what's going on in the navigation field (roads & highways), so information like traffic, delays, and construction is very important. Maps should also be able to route around those, to save time and hassle.

 

Apple Maps (left) sees some pretty heavy traffic in the center of the city, as well as a couple of construction sites around the river. Google Maps (right) sees not only the bad traffic, but all the other not bad traffic. It does not, however, show construction at either place Apple Maps did. Both showing construction and filling in all the traffic around are nice features, so a winner can't be chosen from that. But, how does each app use this data when calculating routes?

  

When calculating a route, Apple Maps immediately shows 3 routes overlaid on the map, as well as any traffic it reports (left). That's nice and basic, but Google Maps steps it up. Before showing just a map with 3 routes (right), Google Maps previews each route, showing which roads will be taken, as well as severity of traffic for each route (center). Tapping on a route then shows it on a map. What good is information if it isn't used or acknowledged? With Google Maps, not only can a route be chosen, but the amount of traffic as well. Apple Maps just jumbles all the data into 3 nondescript routes that YOU have to choose the best/least-traffic-filled of.

Apple Maps not only lacks key information and knowledge, it doesn't know how to use the stuff it does have. Google Maps, on the other hand, has plenty of info and readily molds routes and searches around it. So, the Intelligence round goes to...