Man, this is accurate, but I tested Mapquest recently. I like that I can make my position icon a cute little rainbow unicorn, but also it couldn’t locate the second Walmart in town. I get the pharmacy at one and the tire place at the other. And the store itself for neither. Like, I really want to know the pharmacy hours here Mapquest.
Comment on google's getting pissy about using their shit while logged out
redlemace@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Sure, go ahead irritating me when trying to use your service. Pushing me to log-in is THE way to drive me to other services. They have nothing to offer that’s worth/can justify logging in. nothing.
AmyAye@nord.pub 1 day ago
huppakee@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There is two options: either you have a corporation so everything and they require a way to pay their employees (and most will want some profit), this is the Google way. Of course you can switch to an alternative of a less evil corporation, but you will still be part of that system. The other option is crowd sourced, where everyone who uses also provides a bit. If you use an app based on data from OpenStreetMap, you will find local information lacking. But the beauty is, you can easily contribute. I think Wikipedia is the biggest example of how this system can work. Personally I use CoMaps. Can recommend it, but there are similar options that are just as open source.
FG_3479@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It is owned by System1 who is an ad arbitrage firm that buys cheap ads at one source (e.g Facebook) for a page containing expensive ads (e.g Google Ads) so be aware of that.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
They probably don’t care if you use a different service if you don’t log in to use theirs. If you don’t log in they can’t easily monetize you by tracking your data and building a portfolio. Otherwise you use their resources at a cost and they don’t make money.
So threatening to leave for other services isn’t exactly a threat.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
For a long time google existed without an option to create an account
GalacticRobot@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Except the government wanting this information didn’t exist. That’s the future, you ID will be tracked (it already is) and the government will know exactly what you say, where you go, and what you do. Throw it at an ‘AI’ for ‘normalcy’ and you have Minority Report in a much sadder way.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Everyone is under suspicion. Criticism of Israeli genocides detected! Apply terrorism charges.
chillpanzee@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
They still know who most users are even without a google login; they can monetize just fine.
huppakee@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They don’t care, but in 10 to 20 years time they will hire consultants to figure out why their user base chose inferior products to their superior free service.