No Apple Maps On The Mac? Use GMap To Bring Maps In An App To The Mac

We live on an increasingly small planet. It may be small, but it’s also increasingly congested.

Finding our way around is a challenge made easier by Google Maps in a browser window. It’s difficult to argue with simplicity, but there are two more ways to use maps on your Mac. One is free and very good, the other is not so free, and not as good.

Free vs. $1.99: Choose Wisely

When it comes to maps, there’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. Apple’s iOS Maps app is stuck with the ugly monicker for awhile.

Mac users have Google and a few other choices, including my favorite eMaps which is an app with maps.

eMaps brings you a few features and performance options not available with Google Maps in a Mac browser.

Instead of relying on Google’s arcane maps toolset, eMaps lets you create your own customized maps toolbar (just like any Mac app).

Zooming in and out, moving from map to satellite view couldn’t be easier or faster. There’s even a Street View.

Does this look familiar? It’s like having Google Maps in an app.

Not bad, right? And eMaps is free. What’s not free is GMap. At $1.99 it’s not expensive, but it’s no eMaps.

If anything, GMap seems to imply that the mapping data is from Google. If so, that’s the last of the good news.

It appears that a Mac app developer with more Mac apps than you have apps on your iPhone decided to put a Google Maps-like map in a limited functionality browser-like window, and slap a price tag on it.

The result is maps, but it’s not pretty, and it’s less functional than eMaps which is free (and proud, apparently, to use Google Maps).

There’s both maps view and satellite view. Searching for destinations is easy– just like in a browser window.

It features bicycle routes, traffic flow maps, and can print out directions. What’s difficult to figure out is how GMap is better than Google Maps in a Mac’s browser window, and why it has a price tag.

Mac or iPhone, Google Maps is hard to beat. Even better is the free eMaps with the customizable toolbar that’s easier to use than a browser. As to GMap, it’s always good to have choices.

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