

How tiny commuting app Transit is beating Google Maps - kevingibbon
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/05/how-tiny-commuting-app-transit-is-beating-google-maps-in-canada/

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tantalor
Buried the lead: "Transit integrates tightly with local cities that offer
real-time data from GPS-enabled trains and buses. That integration is now
easy, but the legal work sometimes is not. And the legal challenges that some
cities have had with Google have opened doors for Transit. In one case — I
cannot reveal the name, but it is a top-five global city in terms of
population — the city has broken off negotiations with Google and approached
Transit for an exclusive." (paragraph 12)

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ZeroGravitas
Its been a while since I looked at this but Google used to encourage cities to
publish this data publicly in a structured form. If that's still the case then
the "legal" issue is that the city are more interested in royalty income than
efficient use of public transport. The use of the word "exclusive" supports
this hypothesis.

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Gabler
Post title: "How tiny commuting app Transit is beating Google Maps"

From the article: "Ultimately, Vermette knows, a tiny commuter’s app that
focuses on buses and trains is not going to beat the massive, well-funded, and
multifunction Google Maps — in downloads, users, and time spent in app."

???

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kwestro
That's right. Sounds like hype.

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atirip
"which provides real-time bus and train schedules in just 37 global cities"
yeah, sure, global it is! Dont they teach the meaning of the word global in
the US elementary schools anymore?

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jvzr
Yeah, like this other paragraph about a future announcement, one of the top 5
cities by population: they are all asian. Is it Tokyo? Only one of these that
publishes GPS data for its transit system. Or is it "global" = US?

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snogglethorpe
Given Tokyo's huge number of independent transit operators, there's no real
authority to grant any "exclusives."

By the same token, getting real-time info out of all of these operators would
seem a huge task...

But given the nature of Tokyo transport, it's hardly necessary in most cases
anyway—everything runs extremely frequently, and pretty much exactly on time
(so scheduled times are usually all you need), and the system's emphasis on
rail over buses means that variability due to traffic conditions is rarely a
concern.

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samvermette
That's good to know for when we launch Tokyo, thank you.

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huffman
"And it never helps to get a boost from partner."

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samvermette
Nice typo right?

