Wednesday, May 18, 2016

buys HopStop transit app to beef up Maps


As pointed out by multiple outlets and tweeted by several reporters, has acquired an online navigation startup HopStop.com to improve its troubled Maps offering, Bloomberg just reported.HopStopmakes a freeiPhonndAndroidtransit app that ftures detailed subway, bus, train, taxi, walking and even biking directions.This is exactly the kind of data ’s Maps need in order to become a viable alternative to Google Maps. The HopStop software also ftures rl-time transit information via the HopStop Live service, the official transit maps, nrby station srch and station-to-station schedules in over 600 cities throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zland, including 140 major metropolitan ars…According toBloomberg: Inc. agreed to buy online transit-navigation service HopStop.com Inc., people with knowledge of the dl said, seeking to improve mapping tools after a rocky debut for its directions software last yr.The people asked not to be identified because the dl isn’t public. AllThingsD reported rlier today that Cupertino, California-based is purchasing Loionary Inc., a Toronto-based company focused on business-loion maps. has confirmed the dl toAllThingsDusing its standard boilerplate text: buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we erally do not discuss our purpose or plans.The iPhone maker in yrs past acquired mapping startups Placebase, C3, Poly9 to help make the awesome iOS 6 Maps a rlity. Since the relse of iOS 6, multiple outlets have named HopStop one of the top transit apps to use in place of Maps.Business Insider, for example, wrote last August that HopStop users“can take advantage of schedules for hundreds of regional rails, subways, buses, ferries and more”Here’s HopStop CEO Joe Meyer revling back in 2011 that nrly three out of ch four HopStop users fired up the app at lst 25 times per month, almost amounting to an average of one run per day.HopStop is the seventh most popular free navigation app in the App Store.Check out HopStop for iPad.According to theofficial website, with HopStop you can:• Get directions or find nrby subway stations and bus stops with our free mobile apps
• Send directions by email directly from our website
• Plan a trip with multiple destinations
• Estimate travel time and cost for a taxi
• Get estimates for calories ed and carbon emissions savings for your route
• Find wheelchair accessible and stroller friendly routes
• Check out Rl-Time Alerts and Planned Service Changes
• See Transit Maps and Schedules
• Do Nrby Station srchesPublic transit option, or the lack of, remains the Achille’s heel of Maps for the time being. Although the company allows for some level of limited third-party integration with iOS Maps, asking for transit directions in iOS 6 yanks you out of Maps and into whatever supported third-party transit app you may have installed.The band-aid solution has always been far from perfect and many have hoped will someday fold high-quality transit data into its Maps. With this acquit-hire in place, the next major iteration of Maps could enable built-in public transit routes to travel by foot, bike, subway and car across hundreds of cities.This – and rlier today thcquisitionof Toronto-based business-loion maps provider Loionary – should be enough to silence the critics who happen to forget how Google has spent more than sever yrs iterating and perfecting its mapping service.

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