Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google

Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by mcintyre1994 on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @01:06PM (#36421279)

I live in London and use public transport all the time. Apple Maps has always had a feature where if you leave a large tube/train station with multiple exits, it’ll tell you which to use, or which signs to follow inside. For some reason Google still doesn’t have this so I pretty much always use Apple Maps at least for new journeys.

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Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by droopyEyelids on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @02:39PM (#36422533)

Apple Maps was a pleasure to use when I last visited Tokyo, for the same reason.

This was in 2019 and I was using google as my default application, and I was blown away how much better Apple handled the trains. The part I remember most was how it denoted each train with proper colors, while showing their live positions. That made it easy to navigate the otherwise intimidating quantity of trains and complexity of the stations.

The experience got me to try Apple Maps in the USA again, where I found the quality had substantially improved and good enough for my use cases. It's only improved since then.

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Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by astrange on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @02:53PM (#36422719)

The trains should be about the same in either one since they come from a vendor (Jorudan), but the station info and walking times inside the station come from the maps companies.

Though I haven't used Google Maps there in a while, maybe they stopped using Jorudan.

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Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by droopyEyelids on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @03:45PM (#36423380)

Yes, I didn't mean to imply they have different information about the trains, rather that how they present the information in the UI was (is) markedly different.

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Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by smugma on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @06:46PM (#36425741)

As a Westerner who doesn’t live in Japan, Apple Maps is infinitely better there (2023).

In the US, I use Google Maps / Waze / Apple Maps about 50/20/30% of the time (Google by default / Waze if I care about shaving minutes or police / Apple if I am using Siri or just going somewhere I know and the Map is easily shown)

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Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by amf12 on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @03:03PM (#36422869)

Interesting. Google Maps showed me which exit to use at stations in Japan, recently.

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Re:Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google by sincerely on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @03:05PM (#36422881)

I can’t speak for London, but I live in NYC and Google Maps definitely does this here: (“Exit via…”) and (“Follow signs for…”)

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