[*Scotty*]

By using Safari's bookmarking function a shortcut to a web-page can be placed on your home screen.
The first step is to navigate to Google's site and click on the more arrow at the upper right corner of the page.
A drop down menu with the Google Maps icon will appear. Clicking on this icon will bring up Google Maps.
Using the search function in Google Maps, place a search on your general area, in my case Washington, D.C. , in the search bar.
This will bring up a map of your general area.
Use Safari to bookmark this page.
 Depending how you hold the phone when you do this, vertically or horizontally, you may need to scroll to the second page of the bookmark options and you will find Add to Home Screen as an option.
Click on Add to Home Screen to place a shortcut to Google Maps containing your location. After doing this you can then drag Apple's sorry *ss excuse for a map app to the last page at the back of the phone or stash it into a sub-folder of seldom used apps.
Scotty

[sts9fan]

What's so bad about it? Is it just different?

[*Scotty*]

Apple's Map app is bad enough that it made the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Because Apple just started the process of mapping the entire world they are missing vast amounts of information and has errors that have not been corrected. Much like the maps from the Middle Ages, if someone hadn't been to a place there was a blank spot on the map.
Apple's Map app has a lot of blank spots where Google Maps have detailed information.
Links to articles explaining the shortcomings of Apple's new map app.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-apple-maps-backlash-idUSBRE88J19U20120920
http://gizmodo.com/5945014/why-apple-maps-wont-get-better-anytime-soon
Scotty

[murphy11]

This app feels very much like beta which would be OK if they labeled it as such and left Google Maps on the phone but Apple chose to do neither.

I was in a strip mall earlier today and opened the app for the first time. At first glance it looked fine and showed a few nearby restaurants. One restaurant was Szechuan Lei Lei about 200 yards from where I was standing. I wanted to see how search worked and typed Szec because many will not know how to spell that word. Maps jumped me up to Staten Island, NY approximately 100 miles from 19026 and showed me a few hits that exactly matched Szec. Seems to me search would be smart enough to find near 'hits' in maybe a 25 mile radius. Unreasonable assumption? The other minor complaint is the restaurant when it first appeared before I searched had it spelled as Szecuan without the "h". Not a huge deal but it seems amatuerish to me.

I did a similar search for McDo (deliberate to mimic search when in a rush) looking for a McDonalds which was about 500 yards from where I was standing. I got taken to Mcdo in New Brunswick NJ over 80 miles away.

This new major feature feels like Siri in the early days. Really disappointed they screwed up a very important app. I had Mapquest app on my phone which I will use in the meantime while they fix this app. Really hope this doesn't become the norm for this company.