Adam Engst recently took a trip from upstate New York to Vancouver, British Columbia. As always, technology made the trip significantly easier than in the past, though he found that some bits (CarPlay in rental cars and North American T-Mobile connectivity) were vastly more helpful than others (an App Clip for buying gas and Apple Maps encouraging illegal U-turns).

Internet mapping services have democratized cartography and brought it to the masses. Adam Engst has been working with maps of late and shares the most effective services, techniques, and tips that he’s found.

After spending several weeks using Apple Maps and Google Maps constantly while traveling in Switzerland, Adam Engst has a few thoughts and recommendations that could ease your future trips.

An investigation by the Associated Press and Princeton University has found that Google tracks and stores your location history even when you have disabled Location History. To prevent Google from tracking your location, also disable Web & App Activity.

Maps are but representations of reality, and how Apple and Google have interpreted that reality has led to surprisingly different representations of it. Justin O’Beirne has started a detailed comparison of the two mapping systems, looking at how each shows cities, roads, and places (points of interest, if you will). O’Beirne is careful not to anoint a winner, but a summary of his findings shows that Apple labels more cities and Google labels more roads. Plus, while the two show a similar number of places, they have only 10 percent of their places in common, thanks to Apple focusing on landmarks and Google prioritizing transit.