Yesterday, Apple announced that Apple Maps is now in beta for all to use on the web. By visiting the intuitively named https://beta.maps.apple.com URL, users can get most of the functionality that one could by using the native apps. It’s only available on a subset of browsers (Safari/Edge/Chrome on Mac, Edge/Chrome on Windows and Safari on iPad), the performance is kind of hit or miss, and some of the functionality is missing at the moment. However, the announcement mentions that there’s a roadmap to bringing more browsers into the fold as well as adding more functionality.

While I don’t anticipate this is going to put Google out of business any time soon, I’m hopeful that this does a few things. First, having this available on the web will hopefully drive more visibility into the hit-or-miss nature of some of the POI data on Apple Maps. I’m crossing my fingers that we see an improvement in the quality of data on the platform. Second, I want this to see this trend of Apple opening things up continue – even if some of it is mandated by courts. Third, competition is almost always a good thing. Giving users another choice beyond Google Maps should push both companies to improve their products.