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DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

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Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#231

Post by lucb1e »

Erik816 wrote: post #41
scrooched_moose wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have the !g option in their search though. If you aren't happy with the results, append your string with !g and it will send you to google results. You do lose the privacy layer though. From a purely privacy standpoint this isn't much different. There are a ton of other bang options here: https://duckduckgo.com/bang ?

I was under the impression that a !g search was somehow anonymized. Was that just wishful thinking?

I had the same expectation of them proxying my query. Imagine my surprise when I first tried that oft-mentioned feature and landed on the great tracker.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#232

Post by lucb1e »

buzzerbetrayed wrote: post #62
Erik816 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that a !g search was somehow anonymized. Was that just wishful thinking?

It surprises me how many people think this. I'm not sure where it comes from. All it does is redirect you to Google. So `!g hello world` just redirects to ` https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hello%20world` I'm can't see how that could possibly be more anonymized then just going to google.com yourself.

> I'm not sure where it comes from

I guess because it makes zero sense the way it is. What's the point? Might as well have gone to Google directly. And what DDG user would ever want to be redirected to Google? They're using DDG for a reason (and for 99%, it isn't the search engine quality). It just makes no sense.

> I'm [sic] can't see how that could possibly be more anonymized then [sic] just going to google.com yourself.

DDG could proxy the traffic the way startpage does.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#233

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

piyush_soni wrote: post #230
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not saying it’s clearly better than Google If privacy is worth something to you, it’s clearly better than Google. I, too, use Apple as my primary map. In many cases, Apple Maps is better Google. The ones in which it’s behind are more than made up for by Apple’s values.

The only 'values' companies have is to make money. I am surprised people actually believe all those "Mission, vision, values and objectives" statements of big corporations.

I believe in Apple taking their privacy concerns seriously where it makes them more money.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#234

Post by janbporterb »

piyush_soni wrote: post #230
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not saying it’s clearly better than Google If privacy is worth something to you, it’s clearly better than Google. I, too, use Apple as my primary map. In many cases, Apple Maps is better Google. The ones in which it’s behind are more than made up for by Apple’s values.

The only 'values' companies have is to make money. I am surprised people actually believe all those "Mission, vision, values and objectives" statements of big corporations.

I agree with this, but do not think it contradicts the parent. Apple has reasonably set themselves in a position where if they were caught violating privacy in any of the ways that [ad company] is incentivized to do, they would lose a ton of money and suffer monstrous brand damage. So I think you are both right.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#235

Post by lucb1e »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #109
solarkraft wrote: post #24

Why support proprietary Apple Maps instead of Open Street Map? Is the data a lot more precise? Is the viewer smoother? Is it just another step towards aligning with Apple for an eventual buyout/search engine standard? That said: If privacy is the only concern Apple seems to be a pretty good ally, as the only major player with a significant interest in it.

Open Street Map is not remotely usable in many parts of the country. Picking largely at random: South Minneapolis is pretty much unpopulated other than parks/schools/churches: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/44.9256/-93.2303 Same in a good chunk of Memphis: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/35.1364/-89.9691 and some major suburbs of Atlanta: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/33.7077/-84.2708 It appears…

Please pick truly at random, not three places in the USA.

I once picked 100 random coordinates on land (by picking random coordinates and filtering out those that landed in water). OSM is by far the best. It's not even a competition. I still have to do a writeup of that some day, posting just the stats and methodology (scientific paper style) won't interest most people, and I forgot to capture screenshots, so I basically have to redo it completely.

It's almost certainly different if you select random points biased by population centres, but at least know that "not remotely usable" is a very local issue (see the sibling comments about the Netherlands) and that it depends on your use case.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#236

Post by gog »

burlesona wrote: post #40

This is cool to see, and I think should be a virtuous cycle. As I understand it, maps is the kind of thing where more usage really helps make the map better, and while DDG doesn’t bring the scale of being the iphone’s default map, it should be adding a non-trivial amount of traffic. I’ve used Apple Maps as my primary map since it came out, and I’ve only gotten a wrong location one time in literally thousands of searc…

Apple Maps maybe works in the US, but in Europe, at least in my country, it's not even close to Google Maps.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#237

Post by manuelmagic »

vkaku wrote: post #182

What I'd want is Apple Maps and Here Maps to enter into a technology/business collaboration agreement. Here Maps have excellent tech and offline packaging and Apple has the reach. Put all this together with DDG, we have a winner.

I absolutely agree! I'm kinda disappointed that nobody else talked about Here Maps in the comments. Nobody use it?

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#238

Post by drawnwren »

gog wrote: post #236
burlesona wrote: post #40

This is cool to see, and I think should be a virtuous cycle. As I understand it, maps is the kind of thing where more usage really helps make the map better, and while DDG doesn’t bring the scale of being the iphone’s default map, it should be adding a non-trivial amount of traffic. I’ve used Apple Maps as my primary map since it came out, and I’ve only gotten a wrong location one time in literally thousands of searc…

Apple Maps maybe works in the US, but in Europe, at least in my country, it's not even close to Google Maps.

The gap only grows in the less developed parts of the world. Apple Maps is completely worthless in Indonesia/Thailand.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#239

Post by Mindwipe »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #219
zshbleaker wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is. Apple Maps uses various POI info providers including Yelp, Foursquare, TripAdvisor and even more in global. Yelp has to track user data as their business model required, but nor Apple. The integration of Yelp app is made by Yelp, through the open system API by iOS, which is definitely not exclusive to Yelp.

Nice! Its awesome to see Apple use their market power to help their customers rather than exploit them. It doesn't happen often.

Lol, using their market power to help customers such as using their signing of the OS keys to force all default mapping applications to a proprietary location service that doesn't know where things are because of their own desire for power and control.

Re: DuckDuckGo Expands Use of Apple Maps

#240

Post by kabacha »

I'm still so perplexed why they didn't go with OpenStreetMaps which are not only floss but also infinitely better. Apple maps are absolutely useless in my region, while osm has always been at least toretable experience wherever I went in the world. Actually OSM is often better than google maps - the only thing it really lacks is better user review ecosystem.
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