Fixing the iOS Maps Data Problem

With the release of iOS 6 Apple gave to the world a maps product that isn’t meeting the expectations we’ve become used to. The data set isn’t up to par with what Google or MapQuest has spent years building and refining - often times through contributions from us by way of the feedback forms on their mapping products. A great way for our voices to be heard by Apple is to tell them where the data inaccuracies are in their maps. We can flood support with details can make the maps more accurate and in turn tell them how bad the data set is right now.

Providing Feedback

Google Maps, Bing Maps, MapQuest, and every other mapping product accepts feedback. They have been doing it for a long time and their data sets have improved over time thanks, in part, to all our input. The maps in iOS 6 also accept feedback. Here’s how we can do it.

iOS 6 Maps Feedback Location

If you look under the hook there is a place to Report a Problem. If you follow this you get:

iOS 6 Maps Feedback Location

Here we can choose our problem and then tell them what we found. If we spent half the time we’ve already spent complaining about the bad data telling them about it via feedback they would know internally about it and have a lot of ways to start improving it. Can we flood their support system?