Apple has introduced a public beta version of Apple Maps on the web. This marks a significant expansion for the service, which has existed exclusively in the form of the Apple Maps app on iOS and Android for nearly 12 years.
The new web version of Apple Maps is available now at beta.maps.apple.com. It works in Safari and Chrome on Mac, in Safari on iPad, and in Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs.
You can use Apple Maps on the web for all the same things you can in the app: getting driving and walking directions, looking up places to visit, getting info on businesses, and viewing curated Guides. Apple says it’ll add more features to the web version in the future, including Look Around.
The web-based version of Apple Maps is currently available in English, and Apple’s promising to add support for additional languages, browsers, and platforms in the future.
Developers can use Apple’s MapKit JS tool to add web-based Apple Maps to their own sites, and there’s a developer portal with documentation available for sites that want to integrate Apple Maps.
The move to the web comes a few months after Apple added Apple Maps to the DuckDuckGo search engine, and it’s a direct shot at Google, which has long offered Maps in web-based form. The question is whether people are interested in non-Google Maps: DuckDuckGo says Apple Maps is now its default mapping provider, but Google Maps is still the big dog in the search business.