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OOH, Google can do what they want. Why can't they campaign for or against stuff, enlist their customers, and such. OTOH... Google are the gate to online information. Google "lobbying" is not like a normal company lobbying the public.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Going for a walk in your neighborhood and adding all the POIs to OpenStreetMap is fun btw.
Some people are even using google street view to do this - not sure what the licensing rules if any are there.
Morally speaking, any information you derive from a photograph taken in a public area should not be encumbered in any way, but Google's pockets are a little too deep to risk a lawsuit for OpenStreetMap.
Related: “How can we tame the tech giants now that they control society’s infrastructure?” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/06/how-ca...
Slightly off topic. (I left Facebook et al., threw out all Echos, try to minimize Google) People treat this as something new. The new is the global. In the past the local newspaper had total control over your business. It might have been easier to deal with the local newspaper than with Google though (from my experience deeling with Google as a small business). On the other hand in a lot of small cities (in Germany),…
I think you gravely overestimate the power that local newspapers had.
I cannot comprehend how the developed world gave up the POI landscape to one American company. Without a fight or second thought.
Going for a walk in your neighborhood and adding all the POIs to OpenStreetMap is fun btw.
This is inexcusably disgusting. Reminds me of the bullshit Amazon feeds their employees about unions.
I may be wrong since i'm not american, but it seems like unions are generally a controversial topic in the US.
If a company of 100 people fires a worker, they lose 1% of productivity. If a worker loses their job, they lose 100% of income. This fundamental asymmetry makes me support unions.
On top of that, the corporation can afford paying to shift people's opinions.
My business can be destroyed by Google on a whim at a moment's notice. How did it get to be so bad?
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?
I do have hope. It seems that there has been a lot of new enthusiasm for these tools lately, and some of them have key features in development.
Two low hanging fruits: 1) location bookmarking features that can be synced between mobile/desktop with third party sync tools. 2) Link conversion features that can take Google Maps (or other map links) as input and open the location in OSM tools, and vice-versa.
The real-world information directory is a much bigger challenge, but if the low hanging fruit features are developed enough that the average person could easily use open source / OSM tools for everything except a modern phone book, while still coordinating with peers who use Google Maps, then we'd have a much better foundation for tackling the issue.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slightly off topic. (I left Facebook et al., threw out all Echos, try to minimize Google) People treat this as something new. The new is the global. In the past the local newspaper had total control over your business. It might have been easier to deal with the local newspaper than with Google though (from my experience deeling with Google as a small business). On the other hand in a lot of small cities (in Germany),…
That's not true. The local newspaper didn't have control over the paper maps people had and tourists bought, They didn't control the phonebook, they didn't handle your mail, they didn't track every store you entered and article you opened. I think you gravely overestimate the power that local newspapers had.
YMMV but growing up in the 70s and 80s and working in the 90s in several startups in Germany, the local newspaper and their clique in smaller towns (50-100k people) controlled business perceptions and could make you fly or crash.
I'm happy for Google reviews today, because Google has an agenda, but not about ratings on your businesses - not like the local newspaper which is controlled by the pals of your competition.