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maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

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Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#261

Post by vanilla_nut »

dotancohen wrote: post #170
mngnt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a OSMand user and OSM contributor. However, sometimes I hate the routing OSMand provides, taking me through narrow streets with awkward turns. Wish they used GraphHopper... A nice feature in OSMand is that even if you get the free version off the Play store, if you log in with OSM and are active, you get free map updates and all the "plus" functions. And on top of that, the full plus version is available off F-Dr…

Maybe you know. I've been told twice that OSMand can show the altitude above sea level of a location, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how. Have you any idea? Thanks!

On iOS, I have mine configured to show the altitude in the top right corner of the map view. The settings are admittedly confusing but if you just poke around in the map display settings you should find it!

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#262

Post by qwery »

nolok wrote: post #211
dpryden wrote: post #195

I recall from my time in Google Geo years ago that the idea of integrating Search and Maps was a big part of the "New Maps" release that happened around 2014. The rumor I heard was that someone (possibly even Larry himself) wanted to be able to have interactive maps directly on the search results page, so that the navigation from a search query to a map wouldn't involve even a page reload. So the big Maps frontend re…

This makes perfect sense product wise, if I'm searching "bakery" on my mobile phone I probably want the ones around me and not the generic location-agnostic google search of it, just like I would if I was searching on map. Matter of fact, this is actually something I do a couple times a month, search then clic the maps tab to see localized results then from them click the website result to find their webpage. As a te…

> if I'm searching "bakery" on my mobile phone I probably want the ones around me

Only when you're using a phone? Only if you're not at home? What if you want to find out what a bakery is?

(Apologies for rapid fire, I'm not having a go at you, just curious)

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#263

Post by jsnell »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #256

They did this with Gmail years ago. Same scheme, I warned everyone that gmail.com would change over to a google related domain, and it didn't take long. And I tried to explain how it meant every email could be directly related to your internet traffic. "What do I have to hide?" was always the response...

I don't believe your alleged change happened. Gmail was hosted under google.com literally from the day it launched [0].

[0] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-...

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#264

Post by dopidopHN »

sk0g wrote: post #251
titzer wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is achievable with geolocation based on IP address, which is how it works on, e.g. a desktop web browser.

"Achievable" is quite charitable from my experience. With the previous ISP I would get located in a city some 2000kms away, sometimes the scam ads would detect my location as null. Maybe it's more effective in places like the US.

No, I’m randomly placed 2 states away. A solid day of driving.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#265

Post by rrwo »

It makes sense to use geolocation for search. It's not just for searching for businesses, as the meaning of a word you are searching for will depend on where you are.

IP-based geolocation isn't very reliable. And if people are using VPNs then it's useless.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#266

Post by RobertRoberts »

jsnell wrote: post #263
RobertRoberts wrote: post #256

They did this with Gmail years ago. Same scheme, I warned everyone that gmail.com would change over to a google related domain, and it didn't take long. And I tried to explain how it meant every email could be directly related to your internet traffic. "What do I have to hide?" was always the response...

I don't believe your alleged change happened. Gmail was hosted under google.com literally from the day it launched [0]. [0] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-...

It did, I watched it explicitly for this reason, but I guess unless it's documented somewhere, oh well. It was even googlemail.com for awhile.

Edit: It's possible my concern was the subdomain and my memory is off. It moved from a subdomain to a /gmail at one point (or something similar). That is when I swore off it.

What clearly recall is that there was something wrong, either it was how it did a redirect to google.com first and then back or shared cookies in a very sneaky way that alerted me. (I was building sites at the time and I was privacy conscience early on in my career)

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#267

Post by rrwo »

titzer wrote: post #228
nolok wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes perfect sense product wise, if I'm searching "bakery" on my mobile phone I probably want the ones around me and not the generic location-agnostic google search of it, just like I would if I was searching on map. Matter of fact, this is actually something I do a couple times a month, search then clic the maps tab to see localized results then from them click the website result to find their webpage. As a te…

This is achievable with geolocation based on IP address, which is how it works on, e.g. a desktop web browser.

IP-based location is mostly usable for country. I've rarely found it gets the city right, often it doesn't even get the county right.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#268

Post by jsnell »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #266
jsnell wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe your alleged change happened. Gmail was hosted under google.com literally from the day it launched [0]. [0] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-...

It did, I watched it explicitly for this reason, but I guess unless it's documented somewhere, oh well. It was even googlemail.com for awhile. Edit: It's possible my concern was the subdomain and my memory is off. It moved from a subdomain to a /gmail at one point (or something similar). That is when I swore off it. What clearly recall is that there was something wrong, either it was how it did a redirect to google.c…

Sure, this is what that Wikipedia page says:

> As of 22 June 2005, Gmail's canonical URI changed from http://gmail.google.com/gmail/ to http://mail.google.com/mail/.

As you can see from your own source, the canonical URL has always been under google.com, not under gmail.com.

Edit: the parent post was originally linking to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gmail, before being edited

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#269

Post by vanilla_nut »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #250
coffeeblack wrote: post #233

This is actually something that browsers can mitigate. Allow users to give tracking permissions not only for subdomains, but also for paths. Deny: google.com/* Allow: google.com/flights Something like that.

Yeah but, the biggest browser is Chrome, by Google; they have an incentive to allow tracking and access across their services.

Indeed. If you use Chrome, you should just assume that your location is shared with Google at all times, since they likely collect it via telemetry anyway.

If you use Firefox, assume your location is always shared with Mozilla via telemetry... and likely indirectly to Google as well, since they use Google Analytics for so much of their infra.

Likewise for Apple/Google/Microsoft collecting data from iOS/macOS/Android/Windows. And of course your cellular provider.

As far as I know the only way to ensure your personal data isn't shared with your browser publisher is to use a verifiable, open source browser that has telemetry disabled, like Iceweasel or Librewolf. And an open source, verifiable OS with telemetry disabled, like... Fedora, maybe? Manjaro? But you're being spied on by your ISP or cellular provider anyway, and the US government indirectly through your ISP and cell provider. And let's be honest, foreign governments through some combination of ISP/cellular provider/govt backdoors.

Oh, and if you've read "Trusting Trust" you'll know that even OSS isn't necessarily verifiable unless you wrote the compiler yourself from scratch.

So I'm not sure there's much benefit to any of it?

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