
Apple Launches New Maps Search API - barredo
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/01/29/apples-ios-6-1-maps-search-api-is-its-official-alternative-to-google-places-for-local-results/
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pkaler
Apple should acquire Foursquare to compete at the Maps API level.

Apple Maps uses Yelp for venue and Point Of Interest search. I'm in Vancouver
and Yelp is OK but not great here. I'm told it's worse in places like Europe.

On the other hand, Foursquare's venue and POI search is very good. There API
is one of the best in the business. Their core API is great. They have a
really good real-time & push API. The way that Aspects & Actions are designed
for each of the Endpoints is very good, too.
<https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/>

On top of this, Foursquare is a Scala/JVM shop. Apple is a Java/JVM shop. (And
they may still be using the WebObjects for some older services.) Apple would
get the added benefit of migrating to a modern stack and getting a really good
technical team.

Modernizing their stack and modernizing their web APIs would go a long way in
fixing the "Apple doesn't get web services" problem.

~~~
taligent
FourSquare might be a little too cumbersome for an acquisition. They are based
in New York and Apple generally buys for specific technology not for brands as
well.

As for the technology WebObjects has been a Java technology for years now and
it is used for iTunes Store and Apple Online Store (not sure about iCloud) but
only to a limited extent. There really isn't anything specific that other
technologies could bring to the table. Sure Akka/Scala could improve
concurrency but Apple services are built such that you can just throw more
hardware at it.

~~~
saurik
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732490720457818...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578186074223787936.html)

"Apple in Talks With Foursquare About Data-Sharing Deal"

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jweir
I like how the picture in the article shows Google Maps, not Apple's maps.
Most telling.

~~~
sjwright
Most telling of journalistic laziness perhaps. Possibly even revealing a lack
of awareness or knowledge by the author. It might even be just some low-paid,
technically unskilled assistant tasked with attaching vaguely relevant images
to articles.

My guess is that -- whoever it was -- typed something like "maps iphone" into
Getty Images and picked whatever came up top.

Here's the same Getty photo in its intended context:

[http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/new-
google-m...](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/new-google-maps-
app-restores-order-to-the-universe)

~~~
denzil_correa
> It might even be just some low-paid, technically unskilled assistant tasked
> with attaching vaguely relevant images to articles.

The problem though is that the article is passed off with the contact author
as "Matthew Panzarino"

    
    
        Matthew Panzarino is the Managing Editor of TNW. Matthew 
        brings 20 years of computing experience and mobile tech 
        obsession to delivering the latest and greatest tech 
        news and views.
    

<http://thenextweb.com/author/matthewpanzarino/>

Now, this seems like a journalist with 20-years of computing experience making
a rookie 'lazy' mistake. The "behind the scenes" may be different though.

------
bsimpson
If Apple wants to compete in cloud services like mapping, they should publish
a REST API for web apps as well. If I was developing a local search app for
mobile and web, I imagine I'd want to use the same data provider on both
platforms.

~~~
duaneb
Yea, but then they'd also have to do a maps interface via the browser when
they're really just trying to move their extremely profitable hardware.

~~~
nextstep
Why would a REST API require Apple to do a maps browser interface?

~~~
whalesalad
How would you render their point of interest data in your web app otherwise?
Of course you'd use google maps... But... Therein lies the rub.

