A follow-up of Ovi Maps vs. Google Maps

I compared Ovi Maps and Google Maps in my last blogpost. I thought give a follow-up regarding it because I borrowed Nokia N97 from my colleague and installed the newest version of Ovi Maps (v3.03 10wk01).

It seems that I was right and basically there isn't any difference between Ovi Maps v3.01 and v3.03 regarding the search results. The only difference was in searching R-Kioski. v3.03 showed only one result when there are almost 30 in Espoo area, v3.01 didn't find anything.

Picture 1. Ovi Maps v3.03 found only one R-Kioski.

Although search results aren't impressive, Nokia managed to improve usability; at least little bit with only one search option which means you can search companies or addresses same time.

Picture 2. Ovi Maps v3.03 improved home screen.

Picture 3. You can now search businesses and addresses using same search.

Nokia has added some sociality to new Ovi Maps, you can share your location to Facebook where it is shown as a normal status update as well a zoomable map.

Picture 4. Facebook status update using Ovi Maps.

Picture 5. Ovi Maps application in Facebook shows your location.

Nokia has also introduced some advertising to the new version, you can see your nearest McDonald's and their ads. These are only shown in Weather and Events categories, not in Lonely Planet and Michelin.

Picture 6. Weather category shows some ads as well as the nearest McD. "Hae lähin McDonald's" means "Search for nearest McDonald's"

Picture 7. You can get weather forecasts from Ovi Maps.

Picture 8. Clicking ad in picture 6 takes you to the landing page and shows more information. Here you can see an ad regarding 1€ cheeseburger.

Picture 9. You can see your nearest McDonald's on map, call there or check their webpage.

Like I mentioned in my previous blogpost, location-based advertising is one of main things in 2010. It seems that all major players are involved in this, e.g. Mashable reported that Apple had said to it's developers that they shouldn't use location-based ads. It indicates that they are planning something by themselves. Mashable also reported that Google Maps is suggesting places you might like.

In my opinion you can see hints that Nokia is soon introducing SportsTracker features to Ovi Maps. When you are travelling somewhere, you can see dashboard regarding the trip.

Picture 10. Dashboard in Ovi Maps which hints that soon SportsTracker features are included to Ovi Maps.

All in all, Ovi Maps v3.03 doesn't include that many new and useful features compared to v3.01. The biggest difference is the free navigation. Time will show how well Nokia can monetize Ovi Maps and it's features.

Ovi Maps vs. Google Maps

It's been a while since last blog post, or actually even longer than a while. I could give a blog post full of reasons, but I'm not. After all, when we started this blog, we agreed that we write stories that are interesting for us and if we have time.

Now to the real topic: Ovi Maps versus Google Maps. Like you probably know, Nokia announced some time ago that they are offering navigation for free starting right now with limited number of devices. They also promised that they will add the support to some older models as well as to all new phones shipping with Ovi Maps. Google is already offering free navigation to Android phones, and bunch of different location-based services to other phones.

I must agree with most of the people and say this is an interesting decision from Nokia. I'm guessing that they are trying to get some profit from in-device advertising as well as increased phone sales. In-device advertising is a challenge for both Nokia and Google and we (or at least I) haven't seen any good results from this. One could say the winner of this battle is the one who gets more users to the service and offers better search results. Good search results are vital part of the Ovi/Google Maps usage, because why to use a service, even for a navigation, if it doesn't find anything? This gave me an idea of comparing these two map products. I've been using both of them, so in the following tests, I'm re-creating some of my recent searches .

Test equipment:

• Nokia N96 (v30.333)
• Ovi Maps (v3.01 09wk44) (Not the newest version, v3.03, because it is not available for N96 but I'm assuming that both versions are using the same data.)
• Google Maps (v3.3.1 (#0))
• Location: Espoo, Finland. Near Helsinki (and Nokia HQ)

Test cases:

• R-Kioski (a popular kiosk)
• Apteekki (pharmacy)
• Nordea (a bank)
  
• Otto (a brand name for ATMs)
• K-Rauta (a hardware store)
• Rautia (another hardware store)
• Bauhaus (another hardware store)

Scoring:

• 1 point from a good result.
• ½ point from a result that could be improved.
• 0 points if there are no results.

1. Search - R-kioski

Picture 1. Ovi Maps doesn't recognize "r-kioski".

Picture 2. Google Maps shows the nearest R-Kioski.

Picture 3. You can all search results a list, nearest place is on top.

Picture 4. Google Maps, you can see search results also in the map.

Result: Ovi Maps 0 - Google Maps 1. It is really disappointing if you cannot find anything.

2. Search: Apteekki

Picture 5. Ovi Maps knows how to suggest search results.

Picture 6. Ovi Maps lists nearest results and also shows them in map (picture missing)

Picture 7. Ovi Maps shows coordinates, phone number and even weather of a search result. Phone number being one to most important.

Picture 8. For some reason Google Maps doesn't show the nearest pharmacies.

Result: Ovi Maps 1 - Google Maps ½. You shouldn't need to choose the nearest place by yourself, especially if you are in unfamiliar place.

3. Search: Nordea

Picture 9. Ovi Maps doesn't find a single Nordea from Finland, only ATMs in Estonia

Picture 10. Google Maps finds some Nordea's but not all, there are also places that doesn't have branches, only offices.

Picture 11. Nordea's listed. Results could be better.

Result: Ovi Maps 0 - Google Maps ½. Really poor results from Ovi Maps, but Google Maps could also improve.

4. Search: Otto

Picture 12. Ovi Maps suggesting results, actually nice and convenient.
Picture 13. Ovi Maps shows search results in map, just like described in picture 6.

Picture 14. Poor results from Google Maps, not even one real hit and others are totally wrong.

Result: Ovi Maps 1 - Google Maps 0. Totally wrong results give bad impression.

5. Search: K-Rauta

Picture 15. Ovi Maps doesn't find anything and suggest wrongly.

Picture 16. Also Google Maps shows phone number.

Picture 17. Google Maps shows sometimes also result's homepage.

Result: Ovi Maps 0 - Google Maps 1. Totally wrong results give bad impression.

6. Search: Rautia

Picture 18. No results when searching Rautia with Ovi Maps.

Picture 19. Google Maps finds "Rautia", but most probably doesn't show the nearest first.

Result: Ovi Maps 0 - Google Maps 1. No results, no points.

7. Search: Bauhaus

Picture 20. Ovi Maps suggest that I should head to Germany...

Picture 21. Google Maps shows reviews in some results.

Result: Ovi Maps 0 - Google Maps 1. Totally wrong results, no points.

Final result: Ovi Maps 2 - Google Maps 5. These result show that Google Maps is better in finding places, which makes sense because Google is so big in search area. This also indicates that Nokia needs to improve it's company database, because companies are usually searched; address, phonenumber, etc. I still keep on using both of them because in some cases Ovi Maps gives better results.

There are lots of areas that makes a difference when these two companies are fighting for the users and their money. Just to name few, these are:

• Sociality. Social services are also important in search business, because users want to see where their friends are and if they are suggesting some places. Google Maps has Latitude which shows where your friends are, but that's it. New version of Ovi Maps has Facebook-integration which seems interesting, but there needs to be more to come.
  
• Tracking. Nokia terminated it's successful Nokia Sportstracker but most probably will add similar features to Ovi Maps, or at least I hope so. Tracking is important for users who are exercising and how they are developing.
• Sharing data between computer and mobile phone. Most of the users are using Ovi Maps and Google Maps both with their computers and their mobile phones. This is why it important that one can store information using computer and then access the same information with mobile phone. Both companies are supporting this method, as long as you've signed in.
  
• Usability and ability to suggest results. Usability is really important in each service, also in Maps. If you are searching something based on the address, Ovi Maps suggests nicely different street addresses.
  

Picture 22. In Ovi Maps, you need to decide if you are searhing based on address or place.

Picture 23. Google Maps offers only one Search-possibility which makes searching sometimes easier.

Picture 24. Suggestion works nicely in with Google Maps, but it doesn't suggest street names, only recent searches and some commonly known places, e.g. kensington.

• Downloading maps. When you have your maps in your device, usage can be little faster but the data can be old which results as a poor results. Downloading maps beforehand to your device means that you don't need data connection which means your battery last longer. I hope Nokia would introduce a feature which allows downloading maps to your phone without Map Loader.
  

So there are lots of open questions who will be the winner in in-device advertising, but one thing is for sure; year 2010 will be interesting year in location-based services.

Mobile browsers - what's going on?

For some time now there have been multiple players in the mobile browser markets. If you are using some other phone than iPhone (or iTouch), you have the possibility to choose some other browser than the built-in one.

Multiple browsers are based on open-source WebKit engine, these browsers are among the most used ones (S60, Safari on iPhone/iTouch, Android), but there are also other players.

I've tried to list all (at least most common ones) browsers that available at the moment and also share some thoughts about them.

S60 browser

• Available in S60 operating system as a default browser. Default browser cannot be changed.
• Based on WebKit like mentioned previously.
• Proper support for normal web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript)
• Decent Flash support, although most of the Flash pages are mostly unusable, e.g. Youtube. I don't use any Flash-based services with this browser.
• Supports WML.
• Small differences in different S60 platforms / feature packs. Starting from S60 3.2 (3rd edition Feature Pack 2), it should be possible to update only the browser, not whole OS. At the moment there hasn't been these kinds of updates.
• I use mostly S60 browser but in some web pages it just doesn't work, in these cases e.g. Opera Mini is a good choice. It is difficult to give good guidelines when to use S60 browser and when Opera Mini, usually web pages that are "complex" work better with Opera Mini.
• Nokia is porting S60 browser to some of its S40 devices, but I don't have any experiences about it.

Opera Mini

• Opera Mini is a Java-based browser that is available for multiple devices / operating systems.
• The browser is fast and doesn't use so much memory. When I was using Nokia E70, S60 browser ran out of memory quite often, but Opera Mini worked fine, even if you were listening music when you were browsing.
• Mini uses servers which handle the rendering between your phone and the web site you are accessing. This enables small traffic costs if you don't have unlimited data plan.
• Mini enables accessing your favourite bookmarks anywhere, anytime if you are using Opera Link. This is a nice feature if you lose all the information from your phone, you still have your favourite bookmarks with you.
• Mini is a stable browser that can handle any kind of web page, excluding Flash pages.
• I've had multiple times difficulties using WiFi with Opera Mini.
• You can get Opera Mini by visiting the address mini.opera.com using your phone’s default Web browser.
• Supports WML.

Skyfire

• The only non-Java-based browser that uses server between your phone and the web site you are accessing.
• You can download Skyfire by going to get.skyfire.com with your phone's default browser.
• Like almost all other browsers, Skyfire supports most used web standards.
• Has probably the best Flash support, but still not fully usable.
• I haven't used so much, but I've had quite many difficulties getting Skyfire to work properly.
• I haven't been able to update Skyfire version 0.9 to my Nokia N96.

Opera Mobile 9.5

• When I had Nokia E70, I was mostly using Opera Mobile 8.65 which felt better browser than E70's default S60 browser although Opera Mobile 8.65 wasn't providing full Web rendering.
• Opera Mobile 9.5 has full Web rendering
• When used with X1, Opera Mobile was much better than IE.
• Supports WML.

Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile 6.1

• I used SonyEricsson X1 Xperia for some time and tried it's default browser, Internet Explorer.
• If I would need to describe this browser with one word, it would be lousy.
• Although I like browsing with mobile devices, I must say I wasn't feeling like this when I was using IE.
• Zoom doesn't work properly.
• There are three different rendering possibilities (one column, fit to screen and desktop). Fit to screen is the option.
• I wasn't using X1 for so long, but it seemed that it has the same rendering engine than Internet Explorer 6.
• I must admit that some part of these lousy experiences can be caused by the device which wasn't so good either.

Bolt browser

• Like Opera Mini, Bolt is Java-based browser which uses also server between the phone and the web page you are using.
• Still in beta.
• Good URL auto-complete, just like in Opera Mini.
• Almost identical features when compared to Opera Mini.
  
• One of the biggest difference is magnifier, shown in second picture below.
• Seems fast, just like Opera Mini.

S60 browser on S40

• Like I mentioned previously, Nokia is porting current S60 browser to some S40 devices.
• Unfortunately I don't have any experiences about this browser. If you do, please share them with us.
• Nokia is not porting this browser to every S40 devices, because they recently introduced Nokia 6216 which has Opera Mini pre-installed.

Safari on iPhone / iTouch

• Like mentioned previously iPhone's Safari is based on the same WebKit engine than S60's and Android's browser.
• Another thing that everybody knows is that this version of Safari doesn't have Flash-support.
• I haven't compared S60's and iPhone's browser but nowadays it feels that iPhone's browser is faster than Nokia N96's.
• Safari supports all the necessary web technologies, like HTML, CSS and JavaScript and this makes it suitable for convenient browsing.
• Don't support WML.

Safari on Android

• Most probably quite close to S60's and iPhone's Safari because all are based on the same Webkit engine.
• I would guess that browsing is convenient.
• I haven't used Android-based phones yet, but they should be available in Finland in Autumn.

Netfront

• Mostly pre-installed to SonyEricsson phones.
• Available for S60 also.
• If I remember correctly, newest versions have full Web support.
• Used at least to be fast (when I was using Nokia E70).
• Doesn't fully support WML.

I left out some older browsers, e.g. Services -browser which can be found from older Nokia S60 devices and Nokia S40's built-in browser that are both developed in-house by Nokia. These browsers use mobile rendering, meaning that they put all the content on the web page to one, long column.

You can divide mobile browsers e.g. to following categories

• Full Web (Almost all new browsers)
• Java-based (Opera Mini, Bolt Browser)
• Server in the middle (Opera Mini, Bolt Browser, Skyfire)
• Mobile rendering (Older browsers, but some new browsers have this as an extra feature)
  

All browsers support normal web technologies, including JavaScript that enables for example AJAX-based services. Some are still supporting also WML. Personally I don't have so much experiences about different implementations of JavaScript but the more complex services you make, the more important is to test with different browsers. "Normal and simple" services that are using basic HTML and CSS works fine with all browsers.

Although Flash is supported in some browsers, you cannot really say that Flash-based services would be usable with mobile device.

In future it is interesting to see will for example Nokia be sued because their default browser cannot be changed or uninstalled in S60. The similar situation is in Windows and Microsoft have sued for multiple times because IE cannot be uninstalled.

I've noticed that few features annoy me in mobile browsers, and unfortunately there isn't any browser that wouldn't have these features. One is URL auto-complete, in Opera Mini and Bolt it works like it should but not in S60 browser. Second is that Java-based browsers open "text editor" when entering text, not like S60 browser which works like PC-browser when entering text, just showing normally text that you are writing to input field.

If you want the best possible user experience, I suggest you learn how to use shortcuts. The problem is that every browser are using them differently.

Opera Mini has lots of shortcuts.

As you can see, at the moment there are multiple good browsers for your mobile and only you can decide what you prefer. My choices are S60 and sometimes Opera Mini and I might start using Bolt as well.

The ways I'm using Twitter and Facebook

I thought to tell you how I'm using Twitter and Facebook, if you are interested.

Nowadays quite many have combined their Twitter and Facebook updates, but I'm not going to. Reason for this is that I use Twitter as a microblog; I share my "geeky thoughts" there, and not what I'm doing (except geeky things). In Facebook I usually share everyday life things although I'm losing interest to Facebook.

I don't use aggregator services, like HelloTxt that enables updating multiple social service simply because I don't want to share my credentials.

I usually tweet using Dabr with my phone or TweetDeck if I'm next to my computer. In TweetDeck I have some work related searches configured.

Picture 1. With Dabr, twittering is easy.

Picture 2. TweetDeck offers good twittering experience on desktop. You can also configure different searches.

So, if you want to follow my "geeky thoughts", follow me in Twitter. If you are more interested in my personal life, follow me in Facebook.

Saving Private Phone

Have you ever lost all your contacts and/or calendar and you don't have backups available? I have. I have also good news for you. Nokia and Google have been offering contact synchronization for some time now. Obviously, you have to have Google account to be able to use Google Sync and Nokia Account to be able to use Nokia's Ovi services.

I'll show you how it is done in both cases so that you can deside which one you want to use. I'm not personally using these synchronization services because I have company-confidential data in my phone. I suggest that also you think twice before start sending information to Google or to Nokia although these services should be secure.

There is also another aspect than security why to avoid these online-services. What if Google or Nokia would be down for multiple days? Or even start charging suddenly for the service? It is not so long time ago when Gmail was down for some time. Remember, this can happen to any service.

Google Sync

It seems that to be able to use Google Sync, you have to set up it manually following these detailed instructions if you have S60 3rd edition phone. If you have some other phone, you should start from here.

In general it seems that Google is not offering automatic synchronization, so you have do everything manually. This of course makes it more difficult for the big audience to start using the service, although atleast S60 specific instructions were really detailed.

Ovi Sync

Unlike Google, Ovi (or Nokia) is setting up sync profile as automatically as possible. You can setup synchronization profile either using only your mobile phone or then with a desktop browser. The procudure is exactly the same with mobile browser and desktop.

1. Log in to Ovi.com
2. Choose your device pre-selected for you and enter your phone number
3. Ovi sends you a SMS with sync information
4. Open SMS and save sync information
5. Start syncing

As you can see this is really straight-forward. Here are screenshots from this process.

Picture 1. Log in to Ovi.com.

Picture 2. Choose your phone model that is preselected and enter your phonenumber.

Picture 3. Wait for SMS.

Picture 4. Open SMS and save Sync settings.

Picture 5. Everything is set for syncing.

Picture 6. When ever you want to sync your device, you just need to press Sync.

After you've synchronized your phone, you can access the information even if your device would get lost or stolen.