Re: Apple Maps ... now in a web browser near you

On Thu, 25 Jul 2024 09:29:33 +1200, Your Name wrote:

Currently in public beta testing. No need for a specific Maps app, but
it does need an up-to-date version of Safari, Chrome, or Edge web
browsers (apparently does not work with Firefox for some weird reaon).
 
 
 
    Apple takes direct aim at Google with surprising launch of Apple
    Maps on the web
    -------------------------------------------------------
    Now you won't need an Apple device to use the best mapping service.

[snip]

It looks like mapkit has had a public API (https://developer.apple.com/
documentation/mapkitjs) for quite some time now. DuckDuckGo uses it to
provide a maps experience much like Google.

I can also confirm that firefox is "unsupported". This is trivial to
bypass by spoofing a Safari user agent, and so far it's perfectly usable.
After getting to compare DDG and Apple Maps on the web, the data is all
the same, but ranked and presented very differently. Queries on DDG are
relatively geographically broad and static: one example returned results
for a ~5mi radius while zoomed to ~0.5mi. The maps beta is much tighter,
but even fairly minor shifts cause it to run the query again.