I've been a Kagi subscriber for a while now, the only non-Kagi workflow I end up using frequently is !gm instead of using the Kagi maps. Hopefully that gap closes up in the future.
Hopefully we can win you over soon enough <3
- dylan (maps team)
But Google Maps has been getting worse over time for me, and I want something better. GM results contain items that are completely irrelevant to what I search, selecting "4.5+ Stars" filter returns places rated only 3 stars and hides valid 4.5+ star results, "open now" includes places that the results themselves say are closed, the list goes on...
I just went through my recent !gm history, compared it to Kagi, and I'm impressed with the results and that things like ratings are there, but do have a few notes.
- Filters. Sorting is great, but filters would be more ideal. Example use-case for me you can probably guess from my gm gripes. Finding restaurants with filters for ratings, cuisine, "open now" and/or open hours, and distance. The ratings and "open now" filters would be enough for me to switch.
- Searching for something, then panning away or zooming feels like it's missing a "search this area" button, since the results don't automatically adapt.
- Map initializes in the correct general area. Clicking the crosshairs location button shows a "Couldn't find your location" error, even after allowing location in the site permissions and refreshing a bunch. (reproduced in Brave and Safari. Chrome doesn't seem to have this issue, same permissions prompts for browser/OS popped up for all three)
- Opening the "Control Center" right sidebar and scrolling randomly produces artifacts, like it's flashing by disappearing/reappearing. (reproduced in Chrome and Brave, Safari seems fine)
1. Navigation makes pointless detours.
2. The "rotate the map back to north-up" button doesn't work.
3. "You're looking at Barcelona and asked for restaurants? I know a few, in Tokyo"
4. Half of navigation window is useless UI elements I cannot hide.
I've been trying mapy.cz for a while because they were fantastic for tourism purposes, but they're locking more and more features behind a paywall and I'm not sure I want to pay for that. The killer features of Google Maps are the POIs, reviews, photos, Street View, and public transport planning. I cannot really switch to another map app without having those.
I guess the biggest problem is and will always be the quality of data. The reason I can't use CoMaps much is because OSM just doesn't have the same accuracy and recency of data on businesses and POIs in my area as compared to Google/Apple.
1. Transit. I'm in NYC, and Google Maps does a great job of showing the MTA, trains and busses. Every route, all the stations, which trains stop there and when, even where the entrances are. Kagi Maps has no train routes or layers. There's stations, most of them at least, but it's basically the Wikipedia entry for that station. No up-to-date info or routes.
2. Mobile apps. At least half of the time, my maps use is an Android intent for address or directions, which only an app can answer. And the only really good way to get your location and see what's around you.
I don't really notice latency at all personally, but fixing those things might bring my Kagi Maps usage from 0% to like 50%+.
I know, it's probably a pain in the butt to integrate with the transit systems of hundreds of cities for up-to-date info, but OSM does at least have the stations and routes. Not much point trying to beat the official MTA app in functionality, but something is better than nothing.
It's also weirdly hard to get to. Why isn't it an option in the main list of Kagi things? To get there from the Kagi homepage, I have to click on search options, then maps.
1) navigation
2) give me more info about this business that I tapped on
3) reviews; find related businesses, yelp style
I cannot figure out how to do any of those things with your UI.
Ideally, for (1), it’d let me choose to open in organic maps (reliably works at all) or apple maps (better when it works, which is rare offline, even with offline maps turned on) on my phone.
This might he fantasy land, but if it could send the location to BMW’s app, then that’d be awesome too. (The bmw app can send the location on to my car.)
One other thing: Lot’s of people are asking for an app. “Add to homescreen” works well on first glance, at least in iOS. The big thing is integration with the other apps. (Something like avenza would be cool for parks.)
> For example, searching Kagi for !w Monty Python will search Wikipedia directly for "Monty Python" and take you to that Wikipedia search result. [1]
If you're on a plan with limited searches per month, it does not count against your quota.
DuckDuckGo has bangs as well.