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.
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 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 solution, of course, is to become an OSM contributor.
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.
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.
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 !
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 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 am far to busy to take afternoon strolls. If I am going out, it is for a specific reason. Otherwise I am job hunting or volunteering on human rights campaigns. This is just not something I can contribute to right now.
Also, the only map app that I have seen that gives me proper walking directions that actually pays attention to the many footpaths which can shave minutes off the walking is Apple Maps. I certainly do not have time to train some other map app on the most efficient walking route via experimentation when Google won’t even do it.
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.
💀💀💀💀
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?
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.
If ‘every so often’ is 30s every 60s youd be right.
As much as you and I often bicker with you I am inclined to agree that it’s unreasonable for someone who needs a daily driver navigation app on their phone to be told “go mark all the spots so you can have it!”
However, they are right that for you to say you are “too busy” given how much time you spend around here is also ridiculous.
It takes me 30 seconds to look at a tab on my laptop when taking a break (something I haven’t actually done for hours now). It doesn’t take me 30 seconds to stroll around.
Maybe you don’t actually know what I do all day? Maybe you’re the world’s slowest typist and responding to someone on Lemmy takes you the length of a stroll?
You would be making a valid point if that 30 seconds you take wasn’t happening every other minute of every day.
Anyway back to bickering I guess.
I’m in the us and it doesn’t even recognize street names on my city. Labeling buisnesses doesn’t matter.
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.
Guys this isn’t activism, this isn’t protest, this isn’t going to stop fascism. Go outside.
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.
Yes, it’s excellent. OSM will very likely accept the new name as well over time.