Comments on: Yelp’s flaws become Apple Maps flaws in iOS 6

By: Karl Snow

Karl Snow — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:36:21 +0000

Well, turn-by-turn is very good, in Sweden at least, where I have tested it. But there is no help in Yelp. Neither is that part of TomTom which is supposed to know where to find f ex gas stations! That part was totally wrong, even when stationed in front of one I was directed to a gas station some 18 km away!
But, at least now you can use Apple Maps for something, other than that occasional pleasure with street view in the Google maps. Even though I miss it a little, it is absolutely no game changer, just a little pleasure without much practicality.

By: Jesse Palmer

Jesse Palmer — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:09:11 +0000

Google doesn’t just rely on manual verification with the postcards. They will make a new listing or update existing business info if they see enough trusted citations for that business. It’s far from perfect, but they’ve been getting it right more often lately.

By: justmy2cents

justmy2cents — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 02:20:26 +0000

Apple’s Maps need allot of work, and Yelp! doesn’t seem to help the situation at all.

I’ve “Reported a Problem” since iOS 6 dropped.. at least once a week. Just today, my business just now showed up in Apple Maps, at the *wrong location*! (every “Report a Problem” I’ve submitted included the *correct location*)

Apple already has the correct location info for my business as part of a vendor/partner database, that for some reason, they simply do not include in iOS 6 Map data..

Yelp shows the correct map location on their site..

What a f’in mess.

Living in a tourist area, I know many people use their iOS devices to search for local businesses when visiting.. Wish Apple would give small business owners a better way to clear this up. There should be a “Business Portal” for business owners to manage their location data and track the updates.

By: natecochrane

natecochrane — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:23:56 +0000

This may be true up to a point, but doesn’t explain, for instance, how Yelp entries validated in Australia through the company’s agreement with Yellow Pages show up incorrectly in Apple Maps.

By: Suresh Chanmugam

Suresh Chanmugam — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:58:32 +0000

For the record – I’m not a Yelp elite, and I don’t like the smell of Y’Elite’s either. :)

I’ve posted two reviews in my lifetime on Yelp and one was buried by their mysterious “filter”.

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:12:12 +0000

Good point about home based business (or business located at a UPS store type place). Google specifically disallows home based businesses or business with a mail stop only from being listed.

By: Lin S.

Lin S. — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:54:58 +0000

Yeah, Yelp is pretty inaccurate when it comes to business locations. I was researching a business and Yelp said that it was located downtown so I drove to it. Turns out that it was a home-based business and that business had been trying to get yelp to change their location address for over a year now! If you want to learn more about the inaccuracies of yelp just google ‘yelp problems.’ Or go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/yelp-reviews_n_985513.html. Yelp appears to be an extortion based business.

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:44:06 +0000

You bring up a good point. Crowdsourced data can be a blessing or a curse. Accuracy vs reliability.

By: pk

pk — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 12:48:09 +0000

I smell Yelp elite here….

By: Suresh Chanmugam

Suresh Chanmugam — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 03:03:38 +0000

I disagree. Searching for a restaurant by name is one of the most common reasons I use the Maps app on my iPhone. I find that Google’s data is often out of date; it’s hard to find businesses that have opened recently. I read a review of a new diner in Seattle called Square Knot a couple of weeks ago and decided to go there for dinner. It did not show up on the Google-powered iPhone Maps app. I had specifically held off on upgrading to iOS 6 because of the negative reviews about the new Apple powered Apps. I had to search for it in the Yelp app and then launch Maps from the Yelp app to navigate to the diner. Frustrated by my experience, I upgraded to iOS the next morning. Thanks to its crowdsourced data, Yelp already had Square Knot in its database and it comes up as the first and only search result in iOS 6 Maps. I checked back today – Square Knot diner has been open for months with 36 reviews on Yelp – and still doesn’t show up in Google Maps.

I regret listening to the pundits and delaying upgrading to iOS 6.

I do not regret eating a slice of homemade blackberry pie at the Square Knot diner for dessert even though I’d already wolfed down eggs benedict and hasbrowns :)