I prefer these days while it doesn’t have a feature parody with Google maps. It has a much cleaner interface, doesn’t have ads and half the time gives us better search results.
any time I've used garmin over the years it had been only slightly better then useless.
there are other options though. ive been using openstreetmap for about 4 years and have only found the need to use Google once in all that time. although with openstreetmap being crowd sources it really depends on how much work has been done in a particular area but in my country its pretty decent
I used it occasionally, at one point it was better than GMaps when data connection was spotty. But sooner or later I'd always go back, because directions-related features always felt better in the Google world.
This is in Northern England though. In the Big Smoke it might be different.
I must disagree with you on maps. Google maps is a fantastic geographic aware search.
It is a horrific map. On any given screen there is an 80% chance that the major road I'm interested in is not labeled. Finding the name of a relevant cross street is a nightmare.
I feel like it used to be better. Way better. I think the map aspect has been dropped entirely as a real feature now that they supply directions (search) primarily instead.
The Maps.app itself is a lot better. The sad thing is that Google has the best mapping data out there, they have been investing, collecting and tweaking it for years. Now everything that isn't Google Maps is substandard by default.
Google Maps has its pitfalls, but it's by far the most up to date in the cities I've used it.
OSM lacks a lot of details that completely change how you'd move from point A to point B (I was missing overpass bridges and crossable paths in residential neighboorhoods), and point to point navigation is also not great. Then it completely lacks all the more commercial features Google has built on top of Maps (store details, position sharing, timeline etc.)
On sheer readability I also prefer Google Maps, but I've been using it so long that that might be just familiarity.
I wish I'd like OSM a lot more, but every time I ended up back to Maps for a reason or another.
Hadn't heard about that. Still works better than Google maps, though - not that I'm making much of a claim by saying so. I cannot imagine what the designers of the current Google maps site were thinking.
I've started trying Maps as a substitute for Google on my iPhone. Its map looks simpler while driving, though I've had a few glitches. Meanwhile I use search.brave.com instead of Google search. It seems just as good for almost everything. Is Google falling behind in its key products?
A few years ago it was the only tool I could find that could answer questions like "show me every college within 100 km of this point".
I haven't needed to do anything like that since. But it is yet another example of how I think Google maps and similar are weak junk only good for finding coffee shops.
reply