You may have heard this week that the Maps app in iOS 6 is not as good as it was in iOS 5. We discussed it on this weeks podcast. Whilst I agree that the app is poor against the defacto market leader Google, there is something users can do to somewhat improve the service for others.
This weekend (Sunday) I decided to see how quickly information updates would be pushed out. I knew one of the local pubs in the area I grew up had been renamed recently so I submitted the name change.
To do this you click in the bottom right hand corner and press the “Report a Problem” button. You then follow the options and you will be given the data to correct it. This is then submitted to Apple.
I did this yesterday afternoon and when I checked this morning, the info had already been changed. That’s a less than 24 hour turnaround at the weekend.
I also did this with a supermarket nearby, it was labelled as “Kwik Save” but that info is comically out of date, It’s been Somerfield for at least 5 years. I submitted that update at the same time
And that has also now been updated
Whilst the new iOS Maps is not as accurate as its predecessor, this is partly because Apple doesn’t have years of crowdsourced data. If users who spot a mistake take the minute or so it needs to be corrected then the maps will quickly get better. This obviously doesn’t fix the problems with satellite view but I know Apple is already working on ways of fixing those too.
So if you spot something, take the time and make the change. You’ll make the service better for everyone.
That’s interesting. This should be something Apple is pushing via Twitter, Facebook etc.
That’s all well and good but I live in the center of a major European city and 60% of the shops in about a 2 mile radius are incorrectly labelled or missing. That is a lot of work ahead of the crowd!
Hmmm.. I submitted several changes last Thursday and they still havent come through – I would imagine they are overwhelmed.
I assumed the info was coming direct from Yelp, so changed a few other things directly in their apps – changes show up on Yelp but not on Maps yet.
It looks like it was not actually your correction that changed the name of the bar, but someone else’s. Note that you entered the name with a lowercase ‘k’ (“Mackenzies”), but the corrected name has an uppercase ‘K’ (“MacKenzies”).
I too added a bunch of map corrections on 24th Sep 12
Added a bunch of local restaurants and takeaway places that was missing.
Corrected position of a petrol station.
Added a missing petrol station.
Today is 28th Sep and as yet not a single mod is showing up.
Apple need to make these corrections fast, else people won’t bother to submit them.
Tried my bit to submit corrections, but haven’t seen a single one materialise. Why bother submitting any more?