So as many of you know I’ve been in the mapping business for a little while. Over the years I’ve come to experience many approaches and methodologies to map making. 1
When I embarked on my career at Apple Maps in 2013 I was already an avid Apple fanboy, having had my first exposure to Apple in about 1980 with the Apple ][ 2. So it wasn’t too hard for me to fit into the Apple culture.
![Apple ][ Computer — Image Credit: Computer History Museum](https://maphappenings.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/apple-computer.png?w=1024)
2013 was a year after the disastrous Apple Maps launch and the Maps team was hiring like crazy to build a team that not only could build a great map, but build a map that would become the benchmark for everyone else.
Ten years later I’m not sure everyone would agree they’ve achieved the goal, but I think most people who use Apple Maps have appreciated the improvements. To wit, Sam Wolfson’s excellent article recently published in The Guardian: “A decade after a disastrous launch, is Apple Maps finally good?“
But back to my induction to the Apple Maps team in 2013:
Once the IV drip had been inserted and the Kool Aid was flowing I quickly learned the inner workings of Apple’s DNA and how it differed from all the other big tech companies. Much of it stemmed from the fact that Apple did not — and for the most part still does not — rely on advertising to run its business. That gave rise to one of Tim Cook’s most famous quotes about the other guys:
“The end result of all of this is that you are no longer the customer. You are the product.”
Being lumped with the other guys drove people at Apple crazy, particularly when negotiating deals with European organizations. It was particularly bad in France. 3 The French had invented a new acronym: GAFA. GAFA stood for “Google Apple Facebook Amazon” and if you were a member of this group you weren’t to be trusted. You can read more about GAFA in Kabir Chibber‘s 2014 article in Quartz:
In the French press, and for much of the rest of Europe, their innovation is often seen in a less positive light—the ugly Americans coming over with innovative approaches to invading personal privacy or new ways to avoid paying their fair share.
I had my own experience with this when my team was tasked with sourcing floor plans for airport terminal buildings. I won’t forget my first meeting with London Heathrow Airport (LHR). Now I’ll never put the good folks at LHR in the same boat as the French, but let’s just say they still took some convincing.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: “Hey, would you be able to supply us with floor plans of the publicly accessible areas of your terminals so we can provide an insanely great indoor mapping experience for users of Apple Maps?”
LHR (with crossed arms): “No.”
Me: “Perhaps you could tell me why not?”
LHR: “We tried that with Google two years ago.”
Me: “But we’re not Google!”
LHR (still with crossed arms): “Well Google allows anyone to add places to their map. Because of that we have unlicensed taxi companies claiming to provide official taxi services right in the middle of our concourse. That’s a real problem for us. We can’t let you do that too.”
Upon that I was shown a Google map of LHR Terminal 5 with an icon for “Bob’s Taxis” right there in the middle of the arrivals area. Not good.
I am pleased to say our negotiations with the friendly chaps at LHR got there eventually and now Apple Maps users have the pleasure of using indoor maps in many airports around the world, including LHR:
Meanwhile here’s LHR in Google Maps:
And if you zoom in a bit:
Yes, dear readers, the dreaded unlicensed taxi cab service is still there. It’s no longer called “Bob’s Taxis” and it now sounds a lot more official, but hey — I pity the poor passengers that fall for this.
It doesn’t stop there.
A very good friend of mine was surprised to find that photos of NASCAR like race cars — which judging by his Vermont cultivated demographics he would never own — were now associated with his home address on Google Maps! He doesn’t know who put them there, but only through a sternly worded note did he finally manage to convince the good people at Google to take the photos down.
But it gets worse. Much worse.
Take this recent story from Shmuli Evers on Twit…, err, I mean ‘X’:
It turned out this number wasn’t Delta’s number at all. When the supposed Delta Airlines rep started asking him to confirm information by texting a different number he began to get suspicious. He asked them where they were located. They said “Rochester NY”. He asked them “Where is Rochester?”. They said “2 hours south of NY”.4 That was the red flag that did it. Google had a scam number listed as the official number for Delta airlines.
Shmuli did some more checking. Delta wasn’t alone. Google had scam numbers listed for many other airlines at JFK and LaGuardia:
If you want the read the whole thread I suggest you start here:
My @delta flight got canceled from JFK. The customer service line was huge, so I google a Delta JFK phone number. The number was 1888-571-4869 Thinking I reached Delta, I started telling them about getting me on a new flight.
— Shmuli Evers (@Shmuli) July 16, 2023
Needless to say since Shmuli discovered this problem about three weeks ago Google seems to have resolved the issue. But shit, how did this happen?
It looks like the scammers simply dropped some new places on Google Maps simply by using the ‘Add a missing place’ / ‘Add your business’ feature of the product. 5
Is this still possible?
Well just for giggles I tried it today and attempted to add ”Barry’s Nail Salon” to Google Maps. Sure enough within the hour I got this message from the nice folks at Google:
Add just a few hours later it appeared in its full glory on Google Maps:
So what’s the deal here?
I think it is a text book example of the main difference in DNA between Google and Apple:
- Google is all about crowdsourcing.
- Apple is all about curation.
Does the same kind of scamming happen on Apple Maps? I’ve not heard that it does.
Are places on Apple Maps infallible? Lord god, no, absolutely not. They’re OK in some regions of the globe, but in others they still suck.
But given this ease of spamming it still brings up the question: can Places on Google Maps still be trusted?
1 See “OK Map Making Nerds — Where’s Your Revolution?“
2 Around the same time I was also an avid Sinclair fanboy and the proud owner (and programmer) of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, but that’s a whole other story!
3 Who would have thought?!
4 It ain’t. Even on Google Maps.
5 In your browser simply right click on any location in Google Maps and this menu will pop up:
