Re:Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
by bobviolier on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @06:27AM
(#25568782)
Can't speak about Eastern Europe, but here in the Netherlands the public transport with Google Maps is really good. Including live-timing as to when your tram will arrive.
Re:Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
by dkjaudyeqooe on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @06:32AM
(#25568816)
I have no problem with that, it works fine for me too, but public transport routing here (the actual mapping functionality) in Den Haag is broken and has been for years.
Even when I don't encounter obvious bugs, Google serves up illogical routes.
Google map is amazing in India (a poor country albeit with higher usage).
It is not uncommon to see cab or auto (tuk-tuk) drivers use smartphones to navigate the city roads.
Map technology in general has become a great leveller, where it enables outsider to start driving cabs in complex cities roads (which otherwise would be almost impossible without direction from passenger).
Maybe they don't care about poor countries with lower usage, but I'd be embarrassed to have that in my product.
Having said that, rich western Europe is in some ways no better. If you create a public transport route, Google maps will send you walking hundreds of meters around non-existent barriers, or sometimes insist that you go one tram stop past and then catch the tram back to the stop you want to go to.
Maps, like search seems to be slowly suffering from some sort of corporate rot over at Google.