Google Maps

Today Google released Google Maps on the App Store. The app is the exact same that was leaked a few weeks back.

I’ve tested it this morning on my way to work and I am happy to share my (albeit short but helpful nonetheless) experience with it.

The UI

First off, I like the interface, the chrome. Well, I like the search field and the buttons in the Map view. Nice, to the point, not over the top. The Settings view I’m less fond of, but hey it’s a Google product: they have to stick to their guns.

The map tiles seem to be vectorized this time and it’s a welcome change. (I write “seems” because there are some weird, weird bugs that sometimes causes map elements to be randomly stretched here and there. I don’t think it’s raster either, but their vectorization seems quite strange.) I dislike the color scheme and find the Apple Maps’s one more pleasing to my eyes. The font, too. But hey, it’s readable and there is much more information there than in Apple’s.

The Satellite view is much slower than Apple’s, and is quite frankly of no use to me. I cannot comment on the quality nor will I compare the two.

The tracking dot is weird: it’s nicely, sharply textured but glows the same color (blue). From far away, it looks blurry, not sharp at all. It’s a step back to Apple’s pulsing tracking dot.

Also, I have to question the consistency of the UI: the tracking dot is light blue and matte, whereas the Routes line is blue and glossy. I’d have preferred the Routes line to be matte as well.

I’m not quite fond of the Navigation part of the app: the upper pane (with next Exit, etc.) has a low contrast (white on green, with almost no text shadow). I prefer Apple’s white on blue here.

The labels are also better on Apple’s side: instead of being written “on the roads” and then skewed to give the false sense of perspective, their are applied as virtual sign posts with an arrow pointing to their street. It’s a nicer approach which works better.

The UX

The first launch was quite standard, with Google asking for my  approval of several things, like uploading data to improve Google’s maps.

Once connected to my Google account (to sync my home & work places, and several other favorite spots ; it does work, I’ve tested on maps.google.com), I was good to go.

Navigation is as good as Apple’s but I have to question the Traffic accuracy. I have had much better results with Apple’s than Google’s, which seems to be the opposite of everyone else’s. However, it does seems a tad faster at finding Routes the first time ; rerouting is not as fast.

One major flaw I’ve encountered this morning is when I took the tunnel: it’s a 4-miles long tunnel with no phone nor GPS signal. I don’t recall ever having a problem with Apple Maps ; today with Google’s my tracking dot just stopped at the entrance and never moved. There was seemingly no attempt at figuring where I was apart trying to reach a satellite or whatever. Along the course, my dot randomly jumped all over the city. (I wonder what all the fuss is with quantum teleportation: Google Maps does it already!)

Conclusion

While I much prefer Apple Maps’s UI and UX, and of course its system integration, Google Maps’s data is currently much better. And by data I mean POI and street names.

I have never, ever been lost due to Apple Maps’s direction. They are just stellar where I live and the first itinerary has always been the best and quickest.

I’m not saying Google has led me wrong either. It’s just that Apple’s Directions data is great where I live.