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Comment by plaidfuji | Hacker News Reader

Apple Maps is good for directions now … Google Maps is still much better as a kind of digital Yellow Pages … to figure out where you want to go to begin with, what’s open, get reviews of stores and vendors, as an entry point to food delivery… you know, all of the monetizable parts of a maps app.

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That's because Apple Maps uses Yelp as its POI database, and Yelp isn't impartial, business owners can pay to be higher up in the search results, and to remove negative reviews.

Changing their POI source to something else would be the single biggest improvement Apple could make to Maps.

Not to mention Yelp isn't a "thing" outside of boutique restaurants and coffee shops in busy metro areas, while Google Reviews are for the other 95% of businesses and locations.

Is yelp still a thing in those areas anymore? It's mobile website is nonexistent and I can't be the only one that never cared to download the app.

Yelp is still pretty good for major U.S. metropolitan areas. Not sure what's beyond that, other than Tripadvisor is like Yelp for the rest of the world.

I’ve noticed that in the last few months, Apple Maps has been showing their own ratings, and sometimes even prompting me for a thumbs up/down rating, for certain businesses. I haven’t read anything about them starting their own POI database to eventually replace Yelp, but that makes me suspicious — and it would certainly fit Apple’s modus operandi of owning their own data/infrastructure as much as possible.

Well, that's reason enough for me to prefer Google Maps.

No kidding. Yelp is an abysmal dark-pattern-laden product, and I avoid it at all costs. Why would anybody partner with them. It’s like partnering with GoDaddy.

Yeah, Apple Maps is still not as good for finding points of interest. A huge missing feature is that there's no equivalent to Google Maps' "Search this location" button. So if you search for something and then move the map, you just have to randomly pinch and scroll a bit and hope that it'll refresh with the new search radius.

They will never do it willingly, but I wish Google would split the POI stuff out of their maps app. It's all getting incredibly bloated the way it is, anyway. Then I could look up a place in there - because it's an excellent service - but use Apple Maps for the rest.

I wish the same. In general when I need to call a local business (plumber, electrician, pizza delivery, etc.) the easiest way I know how is to look them up on google maps, then hit "call". It seems... silly... to basically have to look up directions to a place on a map I have no intention of going, simply because it's the closest thing I have to an online mobile-accessible local phone book.

That is a bit silly, but on the other hand, sometimes it’s important to check that you’re calling the right branch, or that you aren’t confusing a business with a similarly-named one in another city, and a map view is good for that.

Google Maps will even tell you if something is in stock. I searched Sunkist Zero Sugar on Google Maps and it showed me all the grocery stores in my area that carried it and “in stock (updated today)”.

That's impressive. Thanks for the heads up. I never would have tried searching for a specific product that way. I have searched for "burger" or "pizza" successfully, but a specific product along with an inventory check? Wow.

I used Apple Maps for directions for the first time since it launched the other day, thinking it would be a piece of crap, and was very pleasantly surprised. The results were the same as Google, but presented in a better UI.

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