Comment on google's getting pissy about using their shit while logged out
tal@lemmy.today 8 hours agoThere’s OpenStreetMap. I’m not saying that it’s as suitable as Google Maps for you, but it’s a possible option.
The’re not a commercial service, and the database backing it is freely distributable, so it won’t get cut off.
titanicx@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
I have tried open street maps it didn’t even have my address correct. It was absolute trash. There are very few things that actually work and work well when you need them to work. I would never trust that service to work well. It relies far too much on individuals to fix everything wrong with it. I had to submit my correct address to it which took several weeks to correct. And that’s just one address that I looked at that’s a standard address no big deal shows correct on every other map out there but if I were trying to rely on that for life-saving services hell no.
forbiddencherry@lemmy.today 3 hours ago
I agree with all your points. Just wanted to add that for bicycling, the OsmAnd app is superior to Google Maps, simply because the Google Map app doesn’t honor modified routes.
On the desktop, Google Maps lets you map bicycle directions, but they’re absolute trash. Dangerous routes when it could have preferred a bike route or greenway, not understanding that sometimes you have to become a pedestrian for a few feet and use a crosswalk, or cross a patch of dirt, etc. And you have to force it into a safer route by adding the “drag to change route” dots and dragging them to the roads it should have used. However, if you share that route URL with the Google Maps app, it ignores all the changes and reverts to the bad route.
So instead I have to put that URL into GPS Visualizer and convert it to a GPX which OsmAnd honors. There are other GPX conversion websites too, but I’ve noticed subtle changes to my route when I was using those other sites.
All this could be avoided if the Google Maps app would just honor the desktop URLs, but it’s been this way for years so I doubt it will ever happen.
wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe 7 hours ago
The service is as good as the community who updates it. The more people using, the better it becomes. Be the change you want to see.
titanicx@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
I don’t want to be the change to make it happen. I don’t want to be the beta tester of a product that’s supposed to be getting me around. What I want is I want a product that works I want something that functions when I need it to. When I go to an area that I am unfamiliar with and I’m using maps to try to find a house location a business whatever it is I don’t want to have to go in and beta test somebody else’s shit. That’s how Matt’s work.
takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
Then stop whining about a community project and fucking buy a physical map.
tomatolung@sopuli.xyz 3 hours ago
An ironic twist to the tragedy of the commons.
Separately, you should read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_Like_a_State and look at the context of why things are unfamiliar in the first place.
Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Well we also have to take solar flares and GPS satellites into account.