Nokia Maps and Google Maps (mobile) are rubbish!

[Ben]

So, I was in London yesterday, wondering around as you do, and I wanted to know how to get to Selfridges from where I was.

Easy! The N95 8GB has Nokia Maps and Google Maps so surely I was sorted.

Or so you'd think. Nokia Maps, despite having plenty of other shops in London, seems to have neglected to include Selfridges. In fact, it doesn't even have 400 Oxford Street, as when I tried that address it came back with 398 Oxford Street.

Fine, I thought, I know where I am, I'll check Google Maps. Uhh uhhhh!

Google Maps places Selfridges on Rathbone Place. My on-foot investigations confirmed that Selfridges was, indeed, not there.

Streetmap.co.uk gets it right, placing it between Bond Street and Marble Arch - in other words, where it actually is!

So what sodding good is Nokia Maps and Google Maps on my phone, then? I asked them the simplest of questions, trying to find one of the most famous stores in the UK, and they both failed miserably and, worse, gave misleading results.

After that experience I suggest anyone looking for mapping on their N95/N95 8GB or other Nokia GPS phone ditches both Nokia Maps and Google Maps and finds alternative software.

Utter rubbish.

[Hands0n]

LOL at the mapping experience - this is so typical of the low-end map tools. I swear, Tom Tom is probably the best, and that is not saying too much in their favour either. Tales of large trucks being sent down country lanes july big enough for a bullock cart abound. The accuracy within large cities like London fares less well.

I have played with Google Maps in the countryside - it seems accurate enough, and the GPS functionality on the N95 is fairly spot on. Okay, so I know where I am, thats easy enough. But as Ben has found out, route planning is not so much to do with anything much other than the back-end database of POI. And one would have to challenge why a famous store like Selfridges is (a) not a POI [Nokia Maps] or (b) accurately recorded [Google Maps]. As the lad says, shame on the both of them.

His is not an exclusive tale - I cannot even find my place of work in a famous East London Lane famous worldwide for its curry houses. My guess is that Google's database of London information is, at best, challenged.

In mitigation though, it is nice to be able to summon such assistance on the handset - even if it is highly suspect at times. I'm a bred [but not born in] Londoner myself, and so not challenged by its immensity. I can find my way around the majority of it rather like a Black Cab driver. But I can somewhat imagine how it must be for those not as familiar as I am with the place.

The technology should improve - but such mapping and POI is really nothing new and so should not be quite so wrong in this day and age.

[bsrjl1]

They're allowing people to move incorrect pushpins on Google Maps USA, the sooner we can do that over here the closer we'll be to accurate maps.

[The Mullet of G]

My experiences with Nokia Maps have all been good so far, that said I tend not to look for stuff like shops and the like though, its mostly just peoples addresses I look for and its always got me there, I even use it at festivals for marking where my tent is so I can find my way back to it. I don't think its meant to replace dedicated GPS devices like Tom Tom, its just handy if your lost as you'll more than likely have your phone with you.

[3GScottishUser]

I have used Google maps once on the Viewty and it is fiddly and not particulary user friendly. I found where I was looking for but it took far longer than it would if I had booted up a PC and used the on-line version.

A work in progress maybe?

[Hands0n]

A work in progress maybe?

Not really, unless you normally walk around with your PC in your pocket :D Consider, in the mobile context, Google Maps works superbly if you're out and about and need that bit of direction.

Also, don't just try postcodes, streets or shops. Try entering names or descriptions of what you want, i.e. Petrol or Cinema, or Chinese and it'll find and display those businesses nearest where you are currently located!