Analyst: People who use cellphones to navigate find Google Maps to be most trustworthy

Strategy Analytics asked 625 automotive consumers in the US and Western Europe what they used to help them get to where the need to go, and the answer is Google Maps. Despite not having real time turn by turn navigation, or some stupid celebrity voice giving you instructions, Google Maps is what consumers trust and use the most, and I can’t say that I’m surprised. Nokia, who is trying to push Maps on Ovi, or Nokia Maps, or Ovi Maps, or whatever they’re going to call it next month, is all about shoving an endless amount of features into their solution. Nokia Maps has turn by turn navigation, the ability to leave bread crumbs, pedestrian navigation, compass support, data about points of interest provided by 3rd parties such as Lonely Planet, but the one thing that really matters, hell the only thing that really matters, search, is down right terrible.

I live in Helsinki, which is a 20 minute bus ride away from Espoo, where Nokia has their global head quarters. I can’t find that building with Nokia Maps, I have to use Google Maps. “Search Nearby” is also a feature Google Maps excels at, giving me the location of my nearest R-Kioski (Finnish corner store) or Alko (government owned alcohol shops that sell booze with > 5% alcohol). Nokia has 3D rendering of important monuments, and I finally figured out why that is, because the service is too poor to actually bring you to those monuments so you’re going to have to enjoy them on your tiny screen.

[Via: Business Wire]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

anon

This post, as it is, is pretty incoherent. I use google maps to, and find it pretty good. Why? Is it because all the other apps suck? No, it’s because there are no other apps on my phone and google maps is free and there.

When I had a Pre for a month I used Sprint Nav — it was much better than Google Maps. (No offense to google.)
joe

I suppose as long as you don’t mind being +- 1-1.5Km from where you are/want to be…
iamclayscholes

“so you’re going to have to enjoy them on your tiny screen.”

i just LOL’d.
iamclayscholes

and i have to agree.
Google Maps is simple and concise. When i use a map program i generally don’t know where i am/going or need to find somewhere. That’s what a map program should do. get you from A to B quickly and without a lot of fuss.

And on my E71 i even get the GPS lock and it follows me along.
Justa Notherguy

Can’t comment on the platform-specific map services from Nokia or Palm, etc., as I haven’t used them. But GoogleMaps on my G1 has outperformed any other web-based service and compares very favorably – despite obvious differences in functionality – with my (year old) top-line Garmin unit. Tho the Garmin’s features are neat, they rarely come in so handy as to justify the extra space and cost.

The first time I used the G1/GM combo was an interesting test that mirrors my typical use of GPS. A friend and I requested on-the-fly directions, while doing 80 on an elevated section of the PA Turnpike. We assumed our destination was best accessed via the tpke., but didn’t know the nearest exit nor the distance to it and we had no clue as to post-exit directions.

The G1/GM directions were excellent and accurate, even down to the exit numbers…all of which were changed by the state highways dept., a few years ago. And GM did a surprisingly smart thing: it assumed we were not on the tpke., as yet, automatically pointing the way to the nearest entrance. It also tracked us, as we sped along, with updated directions and distances just one click away.

Sure, the Garmin would have got us there, too. And maybe the comparison would be closer for a lone driver scenario, rather than our 2-man driving team. But the G1/GM’s ease of use is a big selling point. In fact, we grabbed the destination-address from a webpage on the G1′s browser – little or no typing. Recently, I outdid this by using Google’s ‘Voice Search’ feature. _Very_ cool.
John

I used to use Google maps. I just bought Destinator for my iPhone and it is way better. Great routing and real-time traffic overlays as well. Plus the UI is super slick. It wasn’t free, but it was worth every penny.