Monthly Archives: May 2014

Another Apple Maps win over Bing and Google

One of my hobbies is bicycle riding on my nearly 20-year old Trek bike. Today, an article popped up about a local bicyclist who was hit by a car. A location was given (63rd and Tyler Avenue) and I was curious if that was anywhere I frequently ride.

I have been using Bing rewards lately to earn gift cards ($5 so far; let me know if you want to sign up and you can use my referral link) so I headed to Bing Maps to search. Tyler Avenue was not found.

I checked Google Maps next and it also couldn’t find the location. When I tried to just find the street (Tyler Avenue), Google could find no reference at all.

I then loaded Apple Maps and it located the spot immediately.

As I go to type this up, I am redoing my searches. Now, Bing is finding it with no problem (which seems odd, unless it has adjusted from people searching for it today due to this being all over the news). Google doesn’t even show the road that both Bing and Apple maps show (no wonder Google can’t find it). Amusingly, the street sign is clearly in the Google Streetview image from the intersection.

At this point, Bing and Apple maps both can find it, but Google cannot. I am puzzled why Bing could not (unless it had something to do with me searching on a mobile device earlier in the day, versus desktop later).

I am glad we have choices. A month ago, I would have just searched in Google and if it wasn’t there, I’d assume the article was wrong.

Now if Bing and Apple could add bicycle trails to their maps, maybe I wouldn’t be using Google maps at all these days.