Hahaahah! I'd heard about that!

Hope it will stay afloat this go round!

Love stone homes, there are a lot of people that now hate Apple and Google. I think Mapquest made a brilliant business decision.

Saw that news as well - I think Mapquest knows which way the wind blows 🙂

"I think Mapquest knows which way the wind blows "

Or certainly where all the hot air is coming from!

I must be really dense...Could someone explain? I see the lake Ontario thing, but what is the connection to apps?

food, here's the thing as I see it:

When there's more than one app available for a given task, isn't the best approach to choose the one that's found by experts to be the most effective and useful? Not in anyone's lifetime has that been or will that be Mapquest.Google Maps has long held the #1 spot. Apple Maps is still playing catch-up.

PCMag, an expert IT site, which independently reviews various technology tools, rates Google Maps #1. Apple Maps #2. Waze, #3. Mapquest - not mentioned.

The Best Navigation Apps We've Tested for 2026 | PCMag

They're all free. No one knows what others use (unless riding in their car when it's in use). Changing the app handicaps one's ability to navigate and accomplishes nothing. For a silent protest over something of really no consequence? Doing that seems dumb, dumb, dumb

I've read different things about whether Apple changed the name. Some say they refused, some say they caved. I often use mapquest when looking for directions because I really hate google maps. I don't know if I can use it in my car, which seems to default to Apple maps, which I do like. Guess when I find out what Apple decided to do, I will decide whether to try to figure it out or not.

Olychick - Apple did cave.

Elmer - I’m hesitant to expend too much effort on a thread that’s likely to get pulled but you ask some good questions so I’ll do it anyway.

As far as there being one best and that should be the one to use, for one thing you mentioned ”opinion shopping” for best routes on the now-deleted thread, so clearly you yourself see value in apps beyond Google. As do I. I really don’t like Google Maps, and it’s by far the least used of the three on my phone. Nothing against Google, I simply don’t like their maps.

I just asked AI what the best map app is and no surprise they said it depends on what you’re looking for. As you saw, Google, Apple Maps, Waze were the top three. I’ll pick and choose some of the things they said:

“Google Maps remains the industry gold standard due to its unmatched, massive database of local businesses, user reviews, and public transit schedules.” If that’s the primary reason they’re #1, I don’t use any of those features. Well, obviously I use Google itself for searches/reviews but when it comes to nav, I’ll type the address into Apple Maps rather than simply click into Google Maps. That’s how much I dislike their graphics and directions. AI mentioned, ”The interface can feel heavily cluttered with ads, sponsored business pins, and promotional recommendations.” Maybe that’s part of what I don’t like, but I honestly avoid it so much I can’t say for certain off the top of my head. I can say that too often, I find their graphics and instructions unclear in congested areas or more complex roadways. That’s why I rarely use jt.

“Apple Maps has undergone a massive evolution, offering a minimalist interface and the most aesthetically advanced mapping engine available.” They go on to mention ”incredibly precise lane-guidance arrows.” Yes, yes, yes! I find Apple to be the most clean and clear, by a lot. That’s why it’s my favorite for straight nav, especially for going somewhere new or along trickier routes.

“Waze runs on a hyper-active community-driven network where millions of drivers crowdsource real-time road conditions.” No suprose there. Or with, ”Highly reliable alerts for speed cameras, potholes, debris, and police hidden ahead.“ Yep, I use it for cops. I’ve typically got Waze on in the background even when I’ve got no active route on. It’s my most used nav app, though I prefer Apple.

As for ”silent protest”, I suppose it’s a matter of opinion how valuable or effective protests are. I won’t debate it here but I’d likely largely agree with you anyway. It’s hardly silent though when it’s on top of everyone’s app store and it’s making the news. It’s interesting to read that while Mapquest’s downloads increased over 6000%, their use has just gone up 50%. But 50% is 50%, and their revenue is usage based (ads) so maybe they’ll see a temporary bump. Good for them. Maybe even more than temporary if their app is any good. I can’t speak to that, I’ve not looked at Mapquest since AOL days but hey, maybe they’ll become part of my opinion shopping.

Oh, one last thing from the deleted thread. I believe it was TV who said she wanted to avoid companies that use AI. Did she download Mapquest? “MapQuest is owned by System1, an AI-powered marketing and digital advertising company.”

Since there is no legal requirement for the name change, maybe the swing in popularity will cause the more used apps to revert to the proper names for geographic locations....not those made up by some sharpie-wielding man-baby.

Isn't the OP what's known as an indicator?

And for Indigo Rose - Map Quest has left the name of that great lake unchanged - unlike its rivals - and it seems people are appreciative...

😄 I just read that they all folded like an old roadmap, except Map Quest.

eta Hopefully you can get it back to the way it was, or want it to be. Good luck!

Dumb blonde here, Elmer (at least I was until I went grey). I sincerely doubt changing the app will handicap my ability to navigate. On my way to visitation at a funeral home recently, Google Maps directed me to turn the wrong way onto a one-way street. The same Google Maps took me 10 miles out of the way to get me (late) to lunch with friends this summer. I was happy to switch, and happy to make a gesture in support of MapQuest.

food, some interesting comments though I'm not sure all of what you found are valid.

First, my input is always oral or touching the "recent trip" in history, if present. I almost never type in a destination.

The "massive database" comment is this - If you're driving to a new place - Maria's Pizza on Oak Street 40 minutes away, the Train Museum in Hesterchester, or whatever, the "massive database" has those as Points of Interest destinations and its address is immediately accessed.It's been doing that for years, I know nothing about what happens in the boiler room where the work is done, but there's no AI intervention visible to the user.

If you do a search in a browser to look at a place before going, touching an address field should you decide to go transfers that address to the Google Maps app. It couldn't be easier. I suspect if Apple Maps is the default, perhaps it would work the same way. I don't know.

I've never seen any ads in the Google Map app. I'm not sure what that refers to.

My "second opinon" activity is almost exclusively when I drive through Los Angeles, whether north to south or east to west. There are two main choices, one that takes a somewhat more direct route but goes past Dodger Stadium, through downtown and then busy industrial zones and Disneyland to the east. Or the other that keeps a coastal proximity but goes by UCLA/Beverly Hills, the airport and other busy areas. In the dead of night, it would be a toss-up. During the day, it depends on traffic, accidents, road work, events at major venues, etc., and can change daily or even hourly.

What I get a second opinion for is comparing to what my car's onboard nav recommends (it too does dynamic re-routing based on constant traffic updates). A sanity check. Otherwise, I use it mostly. It too takes verbal commands, and has an app (also with verbal input) that uses Google information to find destinations.

My nav system also has lane guidance arrows.

Waze is owned by Google. The crowd-sourced info about cops, debris on the road, etc., is shared with and visible on Google Maps.

The User Interfaces among the choices do vary. I don't care about that. Other than the cartoonish Waze display that I find a bit displeasing, what's most important to me is capability and ease of use. We all differ in which appearance is more acceptable but I would never sacrifice appearance for functional excellence. In that domain, there is no horserace and never has been.

alisande, your experiences are quite interesting. I've been using Google maps for a long time, long before Car Play/Andoid Auto facilitated. onscreen displays. I've never had a similar experience with it.

But I once had a similar experience with a handheld GPS device (a Garmin). Remember those?

We were in France visiting the Champagne region (highly recommended). We were staying in a cute little town, surround by vineyards and little family wineries. The owner of the place where we were staying recommended a restaurant to us. Looking at the map, it looked like the trip involved driving two legs of a triangle instead of a direct route. The Garmin gave us a direct route, like a hypotenuse. We started off sceptically. When the road paving ended and we were driving along a dirt path through a hillside vineyard, I decided the Garmin had taken things a bit too literally. It may have gotten us to our destination but I didn't want to continue, I turned around (that wasn't easy), drove back down to where the nearest "leg of a triangle" was, turned on that, and the Garmin eventually caught the idea and direct us through a more normal path.

I've never had a similar experience with Google Maps but I accept it does happen. If you think of the hundreds of millions of data elements any system has, if it has a .005 error rate (one half of one percent, pretty good), that's 500,000 errors for every 100 million pieces of information.

Elmer - I’ve got Google on now and I do see some sponsored locations such as CVS and Arby’s but I’ll say it’s not obtrusive. Again, I don’t have anything against Google (I believe you’re not a fan of Apple?), I pay them for home services, but their nav has never been my favorite, either in giving best directions or in guiding me precisely through local turns. You declaring ”no horserace” won’t alter my lived experiences. My only dog in the fight is getting from point A to point B.

And Mapquest has a sense of humor

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcooSnhB0Ub/?igsi=MXM5OWQ4aDNpNXV4YQ==

Those aren't all sponsored locations and I personally don't consider such small notations to be "advertising".

I have some neighbors who work from home (as their prinicipal business location) and those are indicated on the map. So too is the location of "basketball court" at a nearby school, just as an example. They don't distract me as I follow road graphics and ignore peripheral info. I can see where some may prefer to not see them. In Google maps, there's a way to set up your own "custom map" (simple instructions easily found with a search) and leave all the commercial locations out.

Google Maps also has a VERY handy feature for those going out into the boondocks or other areas where cell reception may be unreliable. The feature is called "offline maps". You indicate with a rectangle superimposed over an area, what area you want to download a map for. It downloads the information for that area quickly and then that map is available for use. No traffic info is available when doing so but it works reliably with no cell signal. Also, with no data usage for anyone on a data-limited plan. .

For those who travel to National Parks or remote areas, this feature is invaluable. I've been to Death Valley a few times - no cell reception anywhere other than at the few commercial spots and there, spotty at best. It was incredibly useful for driving to the various points of interest in the park. When in that mode, the user experiences nothing different from having a live cell connection.

The only alternative for such locations would be a portable Garmin device. It has its map data already installed in memory and doesn't rely on cell signals.

Hmmm, my second house is in a dead zone so I’m very frequently on offline maps. Totally seamless. Even many miles offshore.

Yes, it is seamless when enabled. Apple maps does have that feature. Mapquest apparently doesn't.

How far offshore were you? Just sailing around or doing something else?

My 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid SE has the "MyFord Touch/SYNC 2" system with navigation map data on an SD card. Updates were available via replacing the card @ $150 each (which I did only once through the years) and ended in 2024. I have an ancient Garmin with "lifetime" map updates (for however long that continues) via Garmin Express on a PC. I also have Waze on my phone, which is of course more updated-to-the-minute than the Garmin. I primarily use Waze when I need navigation assistance, occasionally the Garmin to minimize cellular data usage.

Well, dadoes, now you know you can use offline maps on your phone with Google or Apple Maps and use no data.

For Waze, maybe not.

“How far offshore were you? Just sailing around or doing something else?”

Looking for fish. We were around 75 miles offshore that day. The color change is the mid-atlantic shelf, we were by ”the canyons” referenced in Downeaster Alexa.

Bonus pic, here’s Alexa:

What kind of fish were you after? Is 75 miles about a 3 hour or more trip each way?

(Not familiar with whatever Downeaster Alexa refers to)

Tuna. It’s an all day affair when we go that far. Leave around 3am, maybe an hour to get to the ocean, a few hours out, troll for hours and hours, back on land around dinner time. It’s a long day, but I love it.

Downeaster Alexa is a Billy Joel song.

A longtime friend of mine once owned a large boat with his brother. It was around 50 feet as I recall. Overkill for trips to Catalina but very comfortable with many luxurious features. He used it to go tuna fishing somewhere maybe 100 miles off the coast of Baja. I don't remember the name of the location but I think it included the word Shoal or Banks or something like that. My friend and his brothers grew up at the beach and with boats so it's not like he was an inlander trying out marine experiences.

About the same schedule as you describe - leave around midnight, fish for much of the day, and then arrive back at night or the morning of the second day.

His boat was relatively fast and had twin diesels. I took a few "harbor cruises" with him but never wanted to go on a fishing trip. He sold it 10 years ago so the next data point (that I remember only in approximation and unsure of the exact amount) is outdated for today but he said that after a few years, he realized that it cost him over $1000 (it may have been $1500?) in fuel just for the trip, not to mention the acceleration of the maintenance schedules for the engines, and it wasn't worth it. Friends he took along willingly kicked in some money to offset the fuel cost but the lion's share came out of his pocket. It wasn't so much fun for him as to justify the cost of ownership and running it. And he could buy fresh tuna for a much lower cost per pound of fish.

I grew up with a lot of beach and ocean time but not fishing. Is it maybe like golf is for some people, that once you develop a passion for it, that becomes an activity such people yearn to do again and again?

Elmer, my first GPS was a handheld Garmin given to me by my son for a trip I was taking to NJ. This was back when the whole GPS devices were just coming out. It got me across the state line okay, but then it mistook a giant Verizon parking lot for a road. On the way home (after dark by this time) it kept telling me to "turn left." It didn't take me long to realize it was somehow stuck--and so was I. I eventually pulled into a gas station and asked directions.

My son thought I must misinterpreted the device . . . until I was in the car with him going over the Delaware River, and the Garmin said "turn left" right in the middle of the bridge.

My version of Garmin today is a smartwatch on my wrist. It performs beautifully.

I have options for getting out of my neighborhood and I know which way I want to go. When going somewhere I need Apple Maps' help, it starts telling me how to get out of my neighborhood generally a way I don't usually go, so I ignore it and get as far as I can on my own and then start listening to the directions.

I always manually put the address in Apple Maps. I look at what is nearby so I know approximately how close I am.

I don't have anything coming up that I need help finding, so I am supporting MapQuest in spirit.

I tried Mapquest tonight. The directions were straight-forward for a straight-forward drive, after traffic so I can’t judge the real-time aspect. It was a guy with a British accent I think, google is telling me that’s a siri setting not mapquest per se. Who knows. At times I swear it sounded like he was frustrated with his job. The voice was very choppy, which apparently can be fixed but I doubt I’ll find enough interest in this app to deal with it.

Elmer - Fishing is not my deal either. I love the trip itself two or three times a year, doesn’t matter much to me what we do or do not catch. The fuel wasted is a sin. He’s got three outboards hanging off the stern and we’ll go through 225-250 gal on a trip like that. The money is his problem and he can afford it (I do chip in but not close to splitting it) but the environmental impact weighs on me. I want a motorboat for tow sports for an hour here and there when there’s no wind to sail, or to dock across the bay for lunch, and that’s enough for me.