Apple Maps is way better than Google for the wandering pedestrian. Google hides so many restaurants and bars that don’t pay them for prominent display. Apple Maps shows every place near my location. Obviously hasn’t mattered recently, but I always go to Apple naps for nearby browsing.
Google Maps's heuristics for displaying POIs are nothing short of bizarre. I've seen it decide that weed dispensaries are the most important thing to display in an entire city. It's also really aggressive about displaying home businesses on the map, even if they aren't open to the public.
Does anyone know for sure if there is a way to pay to get your business to show up? It seems so unnatural it must be an advert. While zoomed out on my city it just shows icons for hospitals and pizza hut.
> Google hides so many restaurants and bars that don’t pay them for prominent display
Is there public info on the pricing for sponsored POIs, e.g. is it auction-based, for a period of time? Does the listing get dropped from the map after the business stops paying? How does Google get around the FTC requirement to label sponsored content?
