Is Apple Maps better than Google Maps?
Choose your direction with our guide to the differences and similarities between the tech giants' rival map apps
When you're lost in a strange city, there's often a technological decision to be made.
Should you log onto Apple Maps to help you find the way to your destination, or should you use Google Maps?
Now an American blogger has weighed in with his opinion about the differences between these two competing services.
James O'Beirne, a cartography expert, examined maps of New York, San Francisco and London to discover if Apple and Google represented them differently.
"We want to see what Google and Apple label when they have thousands of things to choose from," .
He found that Apple tended to include more cities and towns on its maps when zoomed out, giving a slightly more cluttered image.
The same thing happened when he focused on the cities, with Apple showing a higher number of place names.
"Apple Maps generally labels more cities than Google Maps on the maps we looked at," O'Beirne continued.
Apple also tended to show more roads at some zoom levels, although Google was more likely to include street names on its maps.
The search engine's maps also featured more "shields" showing freeway or motorway numbers than its competitors.
O'Beirne said "Google is prioritizing shields over cities—while Apple is prioritizing cities over shields".
The map maven also examined how the two competing tech giants handled "places of interest", which could be anything from a bar to a tourist attraction.
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In London, the search giant seemed to show users a larger number of tube stations, suggesting that "Google Maps heavily prioritises transit, while Apple prioritises landmarks”.
So how will all of this help you navigate around the world?
Well, that depends on what you need to do and where you want to get to go.
"If only we could take the best of both maps above—Google’s road labels and Apple’s city labels—and somehow combine them together," O'Beirne concluded.
If you're still feeling lost, it might be useful to check out the massive difference in the number of people who use the rival services.
Currently, Apple Maps has just 55 million monthly users compared to about one billion for Google.
It looks like the maker of the iPad and iPhone has a long road to run until it catches up with its arch rival.
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