Everybody — or well, almost everybody — knows that Apple Maps is inferior to Google Maps. There are countless examples of Apple Maps being worse! Motorola, however, ignored all the real examples and used a fake address to show off how Google Maps is better than Apple Maps. Huh?
This was what Motorola posted to Google+ post (oh, look at that Google on Google synergy!):
Clever little Moto! Creating a nice and convenient hashtag for Apple map fails! Showing side-by-side comparisons of the two maps! It’s definitely effective. But the address is ‘fake’. AppleInsider discovered that there’s no real address listed at 315 E 15th St in Manhattan New York — it’s a public park, not an address listing. Basically, no one would really search for 315 E 15th St in Manhattan because it doesn’t exist.
So why does Apple show 315 Marlborough Road all the way in Brooklyn on Apple Maps? Well, it’s actually not a complete fail. According to AppleInsider:
So why would anyone actually be “looking for 315 E 15th” in New York? The only reasonable reason would be to locate an actual address that does exist in Brooklyn (which is also part of New York City), in an area where a series of numbered streets between East 11th and E 16th now have assigned names.
What was apparently once the 300 block of East 15th Street is now named Marlborough Road. Five blocks away, Marlborough Road turns into E 15th Street, where numbers begin on the 800 block.
When you clarify the ‘315 E 15th St’ search to include Manhattan, Apple Maps actually points to the same non-existent address that Google Maps does. But without the Manhattan-clarifier, Apple Maps points towards an actual address listing before going to the made-up address. It chose the address that someone might search over the one that no one should search. That actually makes sense, right?
Apple did screw up in releasing a half-baked Apple Maps — false listings, screwy 3D world — but this wasn’t actually one of the failures. Instead, it seems a lot like needlessly misleading advertising in a race where Google is already a thousand miles ahead. [AppleInsider]