Battle of the Maps

Google maps could have all the brilliant features in the world, but as long as it doesn't allow pre-loading it is not at the races. The fact that there are often times when the connection isn't available or slow and you have a grey screen is stupidity in the extreme. All because Google want to track where we are.

Nokia maps wins by walkover. Google failed to present a fully working product.

Pre-loading is actually extremely important feature. For example when I want to go abroad, where I am in non-familiar environment and therefore map application is of high usefulness, google maps is practically unusable for me due to unbearable prices for data roaming from my carrier, supposing there is no free Wi-Fi at hand of course, like it used to be in non-urban areas. So google can be fancier and even more accurate, but when it is of no use, it`s just for decoration, as it were.

I have to admit, that i use Google Maps more often as Ovi Maps on a daily basis. Usually when i need to find out where i am in an unknown town (faster location finding), search for something (much better search function). But there are times when Ovi Maps beats Google Maps hands down:

1. Navigation
I couldn't use google maps for voice guided turn by turn navigation even if i wanted to pay for it (at least as long as the version from Android isn't available for nokia)
I bought a navigation license for ovi maps and have a navigation system in my pocket

2. Offline
When i travel outside of germany i'm offline. The costs are horrendous. So i preload the maps and use ovi maps. In Europe i can use my navigation license and anywhere else i at least know where i am and where i'm heading to. And then the admittedly limited POI database schows his offline superiority over google search.

The conclusion is, why should someone need to decide between Google Maps and Ovi Maps when you can have both?

What about the other mapping software packages out there?

Route 66
Garmin XT
Sygix
?

Used google maps once on my home network. Discovered that I can't keep the maps, and sans a data flatrate it immediately lost its appeal. Thus, I've been using ovi maps ever since, though I have to say that it only became really usable since its 3.0 upgrade.

but as long as we can't pre-load maps, I don't even consider using Google Maps.

Can you compare apples and pears, Windows and MAC, N97 and Iphone?
Of course you can but... these are different. And different does not necessarily mean that one thing is always better than another.

OVI maps and google maps are different as well.
I use both on my N97 and, in general, I prefer the first one because of the pre-loadable maps.

When I have a flat internet or a WIFI connection, of course google is very good, but I am often abroad and, in this case, the cost would be a nightmare.

To conclude, why using one or another when you have a versatile system that can use both?

It's not just the cost of downloading maps on the go. It's the remote locations where there is no network coverage. These are often the places where navigation is useful, and google can't supply a map for their application. Idiotic in the extreme.

I am using Maps 3 on E71. It would run circles around Google maps, if it were a finished product. It is not. It is a buggy beta released way too early. Ovi maps has a sound, very good and useful core application, but the buggy 'features' layered on top of it ruin the experience.

I still use Ovi Maps because of the pre-loaded maps, the walk navigation (which works very well where I am at, It knows about some grassy paths in my neighborhood. Not bike roads, though, even if they are shared by bikes and pedestrians.)

My biggest problems with ovi maps: It is intrusive - If I, as often happens, wander to walking routes Ovi maps does not know about, it starts loudly repeating 'Route recalculation.... Route recalculation... in 30 second intervals until I get back to recognized route.

If I set my destination already while on the tube, the damn things will startle the entire car by shouting :'NO GPS SIGNAL!' just as it may yell at any time :'GPS SIGNAL LOST!' Loudly!

Now, I can always tune down the volume, right? NO! (this happened after last firmware update.) If I am to scroll up to check on my route, I will have to use the Center button UP. However, if the volume is down, the center button up will increase the volume. So I can only scroll the map to the walking direction if I have the volume on the loudest!

(this kind of intrusiveness that spoil otherwise good applications is my biggest problem with the E71: The flash on the camera goes off and spoils my photos (try taking a photo of a book page without first turning off the flash), The Ovi Maps is waking up the neighborhood, and the damn thing is constantly ringing because, idiotically, the calendar alarm is on by default. The worst thing a business handset can be is intrusive and noisy)

back to maps: My other problem is the way I need to transfer the activation every time I swap SIM card. That is usually at the airport in a foreign country, when you swap to local SIM. When you need the maps the most! On my recent trips abroad, I was able to activate maps at Helsinki airport using Saunalahti pre-paid SIM, Whereas in Stockholm I was unable to do it with a newly purchased Swedish Tele2 Prepaid and was unable to use maps until I found WLAN access.

Hello,
The value of pre-loading when going abroad is something I hadn't considered, so thanks all of you for pointing that out.

I'm not going to repeat everything everyone else said here, but just wanted to add my voice to the comment on preloading.

I too, live in Germany, and will never use Google maps outside of Germany because of data roaming charges.

I was in London a year or so ago, and got lost. Didn't have a UK map preloaded, so went online to find my way to a tube station from where I was.

within minutes, I got a message saying my data roaming charges had reached EUR 35. I had not downloaded much at all, and simply for that reason, I'll never use Google maps abroad.

Since I have an unlimited plan, I've used Google Maps. It invariably gets closer to my actual location faster than Ovi Maps. It's as if Nokia has no clue how to implement aGPS. My N97 got better after installing Map Booster, but why does it take a 3rd party to do what Nokia should have done?

I've tried to use preloaded Ovi maps in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Vietnam and parts of Thailand without a data connection while traveling.

There was very little utility, because 1) there is no free routing, 2) very few recognizable points of interests, and 3) most importantly, many street names were either untranslated or did not use the English names.

I ended up using a combination of Ovi maps and a physical English map, where Ovi maps essentially told me "you are here."

Has anyone tried Quo Digital Mapping software available from Quo?
You can pre load UK Maps from Ordnance Survey to your device.
Take a peek at www.mapyx.com

Nokia
1.. should make ALL their software open to Symbian handsets .. this would include Samsung and SE and anyone else who might want to build such devices.

2.. should invert the aGPS model and use network positioning (fast-fix) first with the supplement of real satellite GPS information.

Google
1.. should implement a proper method of offlining maps, they really do have good maps. Better(high resolution) for most parts of the world than Ovi (Nokia) Maps

2.. collaborate with Nokia to allow use of either mapping solution on the huge market share of mapping devices sold.

Unregistered wrote:All because Google want to track where we are.

Ovi wins hands down. I find Google good for finding things (PoI) then save it and its available in Ovi Maps and then I dont need an always on connection. And whats the point if Google cant navigate? Why say it might in the future? Might as well say Ovi might be better at searching in the for PoI in the future.

As for Google being better at locating you thats a joke unless you are in Europe. Here in Australia its often 1.5km off target while Ovi A-GPS gets you within 20m almost straight away

Without pre-loaded maps Google is next to useless when there isnt coverage within 100km!

8989 wrote:Ovi wins hands down. I find Google good for finding things (PoI) then save it and its available in Ovi Maps and then I dont need an always on connection. And whats the point if Google cant navigate? Why say it might in the future? Might as well say Ovi might be better at searching in the for PoI in the future.

As for Google being better at locating you thats a joke unless you are in Europe. Here in Australia its often 1.5km off target while Ovi A-GPS gets you within 20m almost straight away

Without pre-loaded maps Google is next to useless when there isnt coverage within 100km!

Perhaps my testing context was limited as I spend all my time in a UK urban environment. I couldn't afford a trip beyond EU boundaries just for this article 😃

Here's an idea though, who would like to post here a recasted version of my article for their own location?

It's nice to be good in cities like London and Berlin. But try Google Maps in the 3rd world outbacks for a change. If it works at all, you probably won't get anything but the motorways. Ovi Maps on the other hand works really quite well in those places, and even within smaller towns it gives you hotels (+ telephone numbers) and such.

I dont agree that Google Maps wins in Navigation as currently its just doesnt have voice guided navigation and many other features which OVI maps gives.
Though these features are premium , at least there are available. Hence OVI maps is definately winner in navigation.
So for me its tie with scoreline 2.5-2.5. I think that sums up all, both are incomplete solutions and I find using them both depending on requirements.
I must say though Google is bringing new things much faster than Nokia.

rvirga wrote:Judging from this and similar comments on this site, it looks like Google has replaced the government as the tinfoil-hat crowd's #1 bogeyman.
It will interest you to know that by default the assisted GPS functionality of your Nokia handset is handled by Nokia's SUPL server. So every time you cold-start the GPS, either by using Ovi Maps or by taking a geotagged picture, Nokia knows your position. I know what you're going to say (that's because I'm using Google's patented mind-reading technology! 😉): at least after the cold-start, Nokia doesn't keep track of my position. You couldn't be more wrong. Open Ovi Maps, go to Tools>Settings>Navigation, scroll to the bottom to "Maps Improvements". It's enabled by default. With this option turned on, whenever you use car navigation your phone records your route, and then it silently sends this information back to Nokia the first time you connect to the internet through wifi. Yes, it's true: Nokia has been keeping an eye on you for a very long time, my dear Mr. Unregistered, and they told me you've been up to no good 😃.

Thanks, good information. This means that Google maps have no excuse for being so crap. At least I can turn the Ovi maps option off, oh - and I've never used it for car nav.