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Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

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Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#101

Post by orang2tang »

tantalor wrote: post #94
giga_chad wrote: post #26

Google has us all by the balls. As a small business owner, in my particular market, I can't survive without their services, even though they suck and I hate them, and their entire company. My business can be destroyed by Google on a whim at a moment's notice. How did it get to be so bad?

Yellow pages has us all by the balls. As a small business owner, in my particular market, I can't survive without their services, even though they suck and I hate them, and their entire company. My business can be destroyed by Yellow pages on a whim at a moment's notice. How did it get to be so bad?

I don't have a ton of knowledge about Yellow Pages, but something makes me thing that them being in print prevented them from changing the meta at a moment's notice, and therefore being able to destroy any section of businesses at a moment's notice.

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#102

Post by grumple »

eru wrote: post #97
kiryin wrote: post #9

This is inexcusably disgusting. Reminds me of the bullshit Amazon feeds their employees about unions.

And Amazon employees are, of course, so stupid that they only even listen to propaganda and can't think for themselves.

I don't know if you've ever worked in a warehouse before, but they aren't exactly places where there's a lot of intellectual thought happening (or any thought sometimes). It's moving stuff and repetitive tasks and relatively little human interaction. So yes, they probably are more susceptible to propaganda than say, a group of knowledge workers.

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#103

Post by JohnWhigham »

tantalor wrote: post #94
giga_chad wrote: post #26

Google has us all by the balls. As a small business owner, in my particular market, I can't survive without their services, even though they suck and I hate them, and their entire company. My business can be destroyed by Google on a whim at a moment's notice. How did it get to be so bad?

Yellow pages has us all by the balls. As a small business owner, in my particular market, I can't survive without their services, even though they suck and I hate them, and their entire company. My business can be destroyed by Yellow pages on a whim at a moment's notice. How did it get to be so bad?

Weird analogy since Google killed the yellow pages.

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#104

Post by JohnWhigham »

eru wrote: post #97
kiryin wrote: post #9

This is inexcusably disgusting. Reminds me of the bullshit Amazon feeds their employees about unions.

And Amazon employees are, of course, so stupid that they only even listen to propaganda and can't think for themselves.

Yeah, if only those stupid warehouse workers would listen to me, the enlightened tech worker who is making many multiples of what they are. I know what is best for you!

You realize how disgustingly patronizing you sound?

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#105

Post by commoner »

Nextgrid wrote: post #90
commoner wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HERE WeGo is a great alternative to Google Maps. It works on Android, iOS, and web. Business data is pulled from TripAdvisor. (The app store ratings for HERE WeGo are a bit low because they recently rewrote the app and the first few versions were unstable. The rewrite added lane guidance, which is a useful feature to have for driving directions.) - HERE WeGo (web): https://wego.here.com - HERE WeGo (Android): https:/…

Watch out - it has Facebook malware in it. The app constantly pings Facebook in the background and includes device data (and potentially location data?).

Are you referring to HERE WeGo? I just did a network monitoring test run and I do see that it connects to 157.240.19.19 (Facebook) when the app is opened, but it doesn't seem to make any more connections after that. That is interesting and something I haven't noticed before. Thanks for mentioning it.

Exodus says that HERE WeGo has 1 tracker (Facebook Login):

- Exodus report for HERE WeGo: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.here.ap...

Organic Maps, OsmAnd, and Magic Earth have no trackers:

- Exodus report for Organic Maps: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/app.omaps/l...

- Exodus report for OsmAnd: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/net.osmand/...

- Exodus report for Magic Earth: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.general...

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#106

Post by stronglikedan »

YetAnotherNick wrote: post #62
giga_chad wrote: post #26

Google has us all by the balls. As a small business owner, in my particular market, I can't survive without their services, even though they suck and I hate them, and their entire company. My business can be destroyed by Google on a whim at a moment's notice. How did it get to be so bad?

That's an odd way to frame it. "even though they suck" they don't suck in giving you free traffic though and your complain is that they could stop giving it?

They can provide services and still suck (and do), if there's not a viable alternative way to acquire those services. No flaw in OP's logic.

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#108

Post by kibwen »

henvic wrote: post #74
charcircuit wrote: post #18

Good. The government shouldn't be getting in the way of companies trying to make great products and services. It seems like if you are too good at playing the game people will want the government to slap you with things like anticompete / antitrust to try and give you a handicap since you are too good at being competitive.

Guess what... The more regulation, the harder it is to compete against too-big-to-fail well stablished corporations. It's like no one here ever heard what regulatory capture or lobby is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture Google is right in this case, but people will fail to recognize it, and ask for more state overreach that will end up making it harder to have multiple options in the future.

Competition is important for the well-being of consumers. However, it is in the nature of markets that over time they will experience consolidation and centralization, due to the benefits of network effects and economies of scale. This consolidation reduces competition, harming consumers. It is the necessary role of government to occasionally step in and break up such companies, to forcibly reintroduce competition. That's the form of regulation that we need right now. Break these megacorporations up.

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#109

Post by Nextgrid »

commoner wrote: post #105
Nextgrid wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watch out - it has Facebook malware in it. The app constantly pings Facebook in the background and includes device data (and potentially location data?).

Are you referring to HERE WeGo? I just did a network monitoring test run and I do see that it connects to 157.240.19.19 (Facebook) when the app is opened, but it doesn't seem to make any more connections after that. That is interesting and something I haven't noticed before. Thanks for mentioning it. Exodus says that HERE WeGo has 1 tracker (Facebook Login): - Exodus report for HERE WeGo: https://reports.exodus-priva…

I have captured traffic from the iOS app a couple years ago or so and saw frequent contacts to Facebook domains; this is indeed due to the Facebook SDK which contacts FB regardless of whether you use Facebook features or not (I definitely did not).

It may have changed since then and if so that's great!

Re: Google sends anti-regulation propaganda to small businesses using Google Maps

#110

Post by commoner »

Nextgrid wrote: post #109
commoner wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you referring to HERE WeGo? I just did a network monitoring test run and I do see that it connects to 157.240.19.19 (Facebook) when the app is opened, but it doesn't seem to make any more connections after that. That is interesting and something I haven't noticed before. Thanks for mentioning it. Exodus says that HERE WeGo has 1 tracker (Facebook Login): - Exodus report for HERE WeGo: https://reports.exodus-priva…

I have captured traffic from the iOS app a couple years ago or so and saw frequent contacts to Facebook domains; this is indeed due to the Facebook SDK which contacts FB regardless of whether you use Facebook features or not (I definitely did not). It may have changed since then and if so that's great!

I had missed some information on my network monitoring app (RethinkDNS[1]) and updated my last comment before seeing your reply! You're right about the connections to a Facebook server, though I'm only seeing the connections when the app is cold-started on Android. I haven't had the chance to test on iOS.

The Facebook Android[2] and iOS[3] SDKs are source-available.

From a privacy perspective, when someone compares Google Maps to HERE WeGo, the question is whether using Google or HERE (plus the Facebook SDK) would be more of a privacy violation. I don't have a good answer to this question.

But from a market share perspective, HERE WeGo is a minor player compared to Google and using it instead of Google Maps would help curb Google's market dominance in mapping.

Of course, if a free and open source OSM-based app is viable for your area, I would go for that instead.

[1] https://f-droid.org/it/packages/com.celzero.bravedns/

[2] https://github.com/facebook/facebook-android-sdk

[3] https://github.com/facebook/facebook-ios-sdk

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