Business News

For years you have been able to provide inaccurate information or otherwise missing from Apple lists cards. The company also used the so-called personal “ground truth”, people whose job it is to verify the data of the company. Now, Apple put some of this work in the hands of companies who wish to obtain information on specific locations in the Maps application. Today, the company has quietly launched Apple Maps, a tool designed for business owners both verify and submit new information on their sites, which are discussed in detail by a phone call and PIN to business’ phone number.

Besides the usual things such as address, phone number and location, companies can add things like an official site, Yelp page Facebook page and Twitter handle. Apple already includes some of these things appear on lists of companies, but it may prove useful if several chain stores have accounts or websites of specific social media. While Search Engine Land, who spotted the new page, notes that it is currently difficult to use for companies with many locations or data agencies that do this kind of maintenance work on a large scale.

Apple has taken a lot of flack when Maps was released two years ago because of inaccurate lists, wobbly 3D imaging, and routes that have managed to leave some people in distress. The company has taken steps to improve and extend it to Mac users, is far from being as transparent about its progress as rival Google. It is also always criticized for some of its local business listings in some foreign country and not to provide public transit directions. In an interview with Charlie Rose last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company was still investing in the service, but it did not provide specific details about what the company was doing.

Crowdsourcing mapping data has become standard practice, and business of something – including Apple – to do to get traffic data in real time. It is also one of the main reasons Google bought last year Waze, since the data of its 50 million users would improve the accuracy of Google Maps as well. For its part, Apple retrieves data for maps from a number of sources, including TomTom, DigitalGlobe, Waze, and the US government.