- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary
Google Maps has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico after backlash over renaming it “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, following a Trump executive order.
Critics accused Google of censorship after it removed negative reviews. Google defended the move, citing policies against off-topic content.
Mexico’s President Sheinbaum opposed the change and may take legal action. Apple Maps also adopted the new name.
The controversy adds to concerns over tech companies aligning with Trump, following Meta’s rollback of fact-checking and diversity initiatives.
Just downloaded Organic Maps as a replacement. No ads/tracking plus it’s open source and uses OSM. Seems pretty cool so far.
OSM community may add a locale metadata for Gulf of America for en-US.
Magic Earth is a great companion for turn-based driving GPS. I just need these apps business search and discovery to be better. For example, it’s really easy to find coffee shops and compare quickly using google maps and it’s basically impossible on open source methods. Wider adoption should help but it feels years away for normal people with short patience to try.
I was going to mention that if you’re out and about, StreetComplete and Every Door and MapComplete are excellent for gamifying casual contributions. OsmAnd has savable custom searches.
But if you’re wanting to compare, I’m gussing you might be wanting more than opening hours and cuisine, perhaps reviews?
I like organic maps but if you are not in a pretty densely populated area that people update regularly, you’re straight up just not going to have some things on it for years. Even in major cities you need to get used to knowing the exact address to input, as well as understand that it is not giving you an optimal route that takes into account things like traffic or road construction or other variables. It basically just gives you what it thinks is the shortest distance from point A to point B, which is more often than not not the best route.
I like it, I use it for probably 30-40% of my navigation. But you have been warned. It’s akin to pre-loaded car navigation from 15 years ago.
I am in a more remote area. Coverage is good in towns but not on residential streets.
I use StreetComplete as I walk around new areas and try to fill things in. It gamifies it a little bit with “quests” but you can do your own thing.
Its great seeing the fast feedback loop into Organic Maps at the next update.
So street complete fill outs OM?
The dataset (“what you have on it”) and the quality of navigation are two very different things. For the first you can help directly to address it, for example with the app StreetComplete.
The solution, of course, is to become an OSM contributor.
Totally useless for me, unfortunately. I’m in a new town and a new country and the lack of information on it compared to either Google or Apple makes it something I have no reason to use.
I hope it gets better so I can switch. I really don’t have a choice right now if I want to get around and just do basic things like find out what shops are open.
Register an OSM account and be the change you want to see in your local map!
How can I be the change I want to see when I don’t have the information I need in the first place?
I only fill things in for places I’ve been or am already familiar with.
You can also check websites for places. You can get the site from Google Maps, of a web search, and start to fill things in you see missing.
I don’t mean that you need to enter info there that you don’t have. But - you found a new shop? Cool. Enter it in OSM. Or checking it’s correctly in OSM. Or append their opening hours to the data set or…
For some easy edits, there’s e.g. the android(?) app StreetComplete which will show „quests“ on OSM in your area to complete datasets. Like „is this street lit?“ „what surface does this road have?“, „are there board walks?“, „what’s this house number here?“, „what’s name of this street?“ and so on.
You can do such things on an afternoon stroll in your area and it will help you learn your surroundings and discover things.
I’m in the us and it doesn’t even recognize street names on my city. Labeling buisnesses doesn’t matter.
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Bro, you have 3600 posts and almost 30.000 comments in 1.5 years on this platform, I see you in almost any instance and in countless communities.
Please, take an afternoon stroll.
💀💀💀💀
He’s also an active mod in a few
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And it takes me seconds to make them in between searching for the jobs I’ve only been searching for in the last three weeks.
But sure, count the entire 1.5 years.
Amazing how people just assume because you can take 30 seconds of time every so often to look at Lemmy, you have all the time in the world. What the fuck else am I supposed to do when I’m taking breaks, stick my finger in my ass?
If ‘every so often’ is 30s every 60s youd be right.
You don’t have to explain yourself, I was just poking fun at the discrepancy of “no time for a stroll” and a rather prolific online activity, because a stroll in my definition is also not super time consuming.
Sorry if I was overstepping or being insulting there, that wasn’t my intention. Just wanted to make some fun of it. I usually appreciate a lot of your input and posts.
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Yeah I tried to get past bad naming but it’s just very annoying to have all the places in your town named as if they are in the next town over the river in a different province !
Yes, it’s excellent. OSM will very likely accept the new name as well over time.
No. Don’t give up the fight this easily. Google will eventually allow reviews again once this whole thing calms down. And that’s when we strike again.
If you really want to stick it to Google, the best way to do so as an individual is by dropping their products. Better to support products/companies you can trust than to try to bully a soulless corporation into acting like it gives a shit again.
Guys this isn’t activism, this isn’t protest, this isn’t going to stop fascism. Go outside.
I can’t go outside. I’m surrounded by MAGA hats that want me dead.