Earlier quoted context omitted.
NewPipe on Android solves this handily.
or just paying for youtube premium ...
With uBO on desktop and YouTube Vanced on mobile, you get the exact same experience AND save $12/month.
Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
251–260 of 442 posts
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#252I really want to use Apple Maps full time on my iPhone, just because of how much clutter Google Maps has accumulated on the screen. If anything tells me Google is losing the ability to innovate it's the newly added pill buttons for pre-set searches and branded POIs on the map. I remember when this was added to MapQuest circa 2010, and was the transition from trying to have an excellent mapping experience to just addi…
>I really want to use Apple Maps full time on my iPhone, just because of how much clutter Google Maps has accumulated on the screen. Apple Maps UI: A big map, with a search bar at the bottom. Simple and nothing but the essentials. Google Maps UI: A page full of ads, a map full of ads and ads masquerading as recommendations. Plus five tab bar buttons at the bottom to not accomplish very much. I've switched to Apple Ma…
Apple Maps navigation used to do things like take me to vacant lots in major midwestern cities instead of the correct property which was several blocks away. Sounds like it works reliably well outside of California now?
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
NewPipe on Android solves this handily.
or just paying for youtube premium ...
I'd sooner stop using YouTube altogether.
If paying for Google's services acted as an opt-out from their surveillance then I might consider it; but they'd never give users the opportunity to not have Google looking over their shoulder.
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#254I really want to use Apple Maps full time on my iPhone, just because of how much clutter Google Maps has accumulated on the screen. If anything tells me Google is losing the ability to innovate it's the newly added pill buttons for pre-set searches and branded POIs on the map. I remember when this was added to MapQuest circa 2010, and was the transition from trying to have an excellent mapping experience to just addi…
8 years later, Apple Maps still doesn't show buildings in Russia, even in largest cities. So it's essentially useless for actual navigation. It's okay-ish when all you want is to see a point on a map in a city you know, and that's about it. Out of other companies, Yandex and Google have by far more detailed maps.
This leaves me with one question — why does Apple reinvent it anyway? Why can't they just use ridiculously detailed OpenStreetMap data (with appropriate attribution) and call it a day?
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can make up as many fictional backstories as you want, but gmail was launched because signed-in users enjoy vastly better search quality and prior to gmail there was no reason to associate your identity with Google.
You don't need to be signed-in to track someone with a cookie and provide targeted search results.
You do to be tracked consistently across different devices and browsers.
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also _want_ to like Apple Maps. But I always need to double check business hours using Google.
I actually don’t really trust business hours on google anymore, I have to go to the restaurant directly or just call since I’ve been burned so many times looking forward to dumplings/teriyaki/pizza and then having the restaurant be closed.
This has become an even bigger problem recently, with COVID forcing businesses to suddenly change their hours.
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, they now have the same detail OSM had five years ago. Who knows, maybe some day they will be on par.
That was my first thought when I just saw "sidewalks" & "crosswalks" too. But AFAIK OSM doesn't have anything remotely like that level of sidewalk shape data. And while stairs on paths are mapped, I don't think outdoor building stairs are mapped.
Stairs on Google are often the result of leveraging Captcha questions, i.e. Google made the public do the work but then locked up the data under a non-public license.
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#258I really want to use Apple Maps full time on my iPhone, just because of how much clutter Google Maps has accumulated on the screen. If anything tells me Google is losing the ability to innovate it's the newly added pill buttons for pre-set searches and branded POIs on the map. I remember when this was added to MapQuest circa 2010, and was the transition from trying to have an excellent mapping experience to just addi…
To me, Apple Maps still doesn't feel as good for searching obscure things as Google Maps did 5 years ago, but neither does Google Maps. An example: I recently searched for "photography repair" in my area and Apple gave me film developing places and local event photographers, Google gave me (I kid you not, first result) McDonalds and Best Buy. The latter I can understand, they sell photography equipment and they do re…
> An example: I recently searched for "photography repair" in my area and Apple gave me film developing places and local event photographers, Google gave me (I kid you not, first result) McDonalds and Best Buy.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but your results might have been more satisfying if you had searched using the term “camera repair”.
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#259I traveled to Beijing and Shanghai and Google maps was effectively worthless. Apple Maps on the other hand was accurate and included accurate mass transit directions.
Perhaps has to do with Google not really being a thing in China coz ethics.
China forbids crowdsourced or foreign-corporate mapping. It is considered a national security risk. There are local approved sources of cartographic data. Apple presumably could buy them, but Google either could not or chose not to.
Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can make up as many fictional backstories as you want, but gmail was launched because signed-in users enjoy vastly better search quality and prior to gmail there was no reason to associate your identity with Google.
Ha! GMail offered the most free space, by an order of magnitude over its competitors, and that's the primary reason it succeeded in drawing users initially. Email search wasn't the draw initially, and wasn't even all that much better; there was serious controversy over search, years later, as it was tied to ads that reflected the content of private communications. Hotmail, Yahoo et al had reasonably good search for t…
Your argument is about why users moved to gmail. jeffbee is saying Google created GMail to have users signed in so that they could give better search results through personalization.