Apple "Maps" and Wrong Directions

[Laustin1878]

Had an interesting issue arise recently where the people I'm working with were advised by some of their customers that the directions from their "Maps" was sending them to the wrong town. The numerical did exist on the same street but it was a different town several miles away. It happened enough to where people complained. Not everyone found the correct address which resulted in lost business.

I checked a myriad of sources trying to pin point where the incorrect issue was coming from and it pointed to iPhone users using the iOS Maps program. Tracing it back a little further it seems that a lot of their information is being piped in from TomTom. Every single instance where this business is listed has the correct address including the town. Nowhere on the internet has this business ever been listed using the town that the directions keep pointing to.

With the amount of people using iPhones these days, it may be worth checking and verifying that your client's business is listed properly and their customers are getting the correct directions. Very isolated issue from what I can see but i'm still struggling to see how this information can be incorrect when it's not listed that way anywhere on the web.

 

[Nyagoslav]

It might be an issue with the Apple Maps search algorithm instead of a basic data problem. It might be easier to investigate if I knew the exact situation (the correct address, and the one people were sent to).

As a side note, Apple Maps receive business data from a number of sources, including (for the US, because I presume the issue is related to a US business):

TomTom
Yelp
Localeze
Acxiom
Factual

Cheers,
Nyagoslav

 

[Laustin1878]

Good to see you posting Nyagoslav. Thank you for sharing some of the additional sources. I did notice that there are several sources that are provided to Maps but these other sources all have accurate information from what I saw.

I don't see how it can be wrong. It's an entirely different town albeit, up to 1 mile away. Just curious, how do you think this can be an algorithm issue? Would you mind elaborating a little bit on this?

There has to be incorrect data somewhere and by process of elimination, I'm thought it was TomTom. The wrong town only shows up in Apple Maps. Places and Bing have it correct also.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Luke

What country is it in? TomTom doesn't take new submissions - and I don't think even corrections - for US businesses.

 

[Laustin1878]

Sorry guys, this is a U.S. based business. I know Maps had their problems with directions but their maps are showing an address that has no affiliation in any way, shape or form with the business. I started looking at it and told the client to put a small disclaimer on their Contact Us page about the directions from this source in hopes that it could eventually be resolved.

 

[brentnau]

I am having a client with the same issue. The pin location is showing down the road at their competitor's location. I have have gone through reporting it from Apple Maps and I have checked the data directories. Any other ideas to get this fixed? Is their an official Apple Maps support forum?

 

[Laustin1878]

I have not been able to resolve the issue yet. There are quite a few sources that feed data to Apple Maps. I've doubled back and checked a number of them, sent corrections to TomTom and still no luck.

I can't seem to find it at the moment but I will keep looking and repost when I find the list of sources that provide data to Apple Maps. Double check Yelp, TomTom along with the list Nyagoslav posted to start.

 

[brentnau]

This is the most up to date list of data providers for Apple Maps...

http://screenwerk.com/2014/05/<wbr>23/apple-maps-expanding-data-<wbr>sources/

 

[Laustin1878]

Thanks for the list. The list I had found was from Apple itself. I can't recall if they included additional information as to which information is provided or not. I could have sworn I bookmarked the page.