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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

#91

Post by fnordpiglet »

luckylion wrote: post #18
keyle wrote: post #8

It's a very strange move indeed. maps.google.com implies an application lives there, far better than being on the root domain. It also means that when you start typing maps.google, you'd get all your history searchable related to maps, although arguably that's useless. I can't think of a reason why this would be a good technical move for Google (ignoring the don't do evil thingie), other than simplifying... certifica…

Other things: slightly simpler external DNS surface, probably tiny speed improvements because users only need to have the IP of www.google.com, not one for maps, one for www, one for whateverelse. More possibility for connection re-use, as you'd only need to have a connection open for www.google.com, not one for each service. And security wise: ISPs can now only see that you're accessing something at google, but not…

True. I’m sure being a beyondcorp company they can’t figure out how to add dns entries. Those google guys really should learn more about the internet and it’s technologies.

I don’t buy the simplicity argument for a second. The infrastructure exists, has existed for many years, and is not particularly exotic in the world.

The only thing that matters to a surveillance and advertising company is surveillance and advertising. You don’t need to overthink this one.

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

#92

Post by Cockbrand »

npteljes wrote: post #49
bheadmaster wrote: post #6

Privacy and intimacy, As we know it, Will be a memory, Among many to be passed down To those who never knew. Living in the pupil of one thousand eyes.

I was curious where this is from, and found it's from "1,000 Eyes" from Death. https://genius.com/Death-1000-eyes-lyrics

From 1995 - prophetic, almost.

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

#93

Post by raybb »

dbrgn wrote: post #59
canbus wrote: post #7

https://www.openstreetmap.org

If you need OSM on Android, I can recommend: - "Organic Maps" (a fork of the old MapsMe codebase) if you want a clean, simple user experience - "OSMAnd" if you want a very powerful, highly customizable map application, which comes at the cost of a steeper learning curve Both apps are open source and support navigation, offline maps and POI search. The things I miss most compared to Google Maps is live traffic informa…

Lets not forget StreetComplete is a dead easy app to use to help contribute to OSM. It just asks you a few questions like "is this bench still here" or "is there a bike lane on this road" etc

https://streetcomplete.app/

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

#95

Post by aganumb »

oniony wrote: post #58
cornedor wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, do not fully rely on Google Maps knowing house numbers. Looks like in some areas (in UK for example) Google used some sort of OCR to find house numbers. There are houses and Wales with random house numbers that only have a house name; Numbering ends a few houses into dead-end alley where the Street View car didn't come; Or totally wrong numbers where house number sings are hard to read.

House names, rather than numbers, are very common in rural UK.

Searching for my address just straight up doesn't work.

Named house rather than a number, and the postcode isn't a particular street but covers a number of little tracks up to various farms.

I also don't have a road name.

The address syntax is:

Building name

Town

County

Post code

The combination of no road and no number means Google absolutely fails. It just gives suggestions of businesses nearby... Ish.

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

#96

Post by mcv »

ruph123 wrote: post #30
canbus wrote: post #7

https://www.openstreetmap.org

Unfortunately this is really not an option for (some) areas in the US. After having moved to a populous LA area from Germany I was baffled at the lack of detail in the maps. Basic things like building numbers are entirely missing. Even after adding more and more details I would never fully rely on OSM here sadly. And if it only works sometimes why even bother using it in the first place? At least this was my progress…

Interesting. In my experience, OSM's level of detail in Amsterdam is much higher than Google's. Especially in bike routes, an area that Google often sucks at.

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

#97

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

whym wrote: post #88
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #72

This made me think how much would I lose if I'll just block all *.google.com domains in the browser? I was using DDG for search and Firefox for browsing for many years without problems, but I also still use Gmail and Google docs (or whatever they are called these days, Google for Work?). Maybe, a blanket ban plus a few exceptions like mail.google.com, docs.google.com, tables.google.com and drive.google.com would not…

> (or whatever they are called these days, Google for Work?) Gmail is currently branded as part of Google Workspace, and shows the Workspace logo upon sign in. It probably has been that way architecturarly for a long time, but I think they have made it more explicit relatively recently, at least for non-corporate users. It looks like "Google for Work" is an old name of Google Workspace.

Like their chat apps, they change names so often that I just call them Google Docs most of the time.

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

#98

Post by Tepix »

gatefun wrote: post #61

As others have noticed, this is not a new move. For the past several years I've been accessing Google Maps simply by typing in maps.google.com and it has always redirected me to google.com/maps.

It's new for me as well. I hadn't seen google.com/maps before.

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

#99

Post by quicklime »

gtirloni wrote: post #63
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #15

I am having a hard time figuring out how this would be affected by GDPR.

Does the GDPR care about the concept of apps and URLs? If not, all it matters is the person/company relationship.

The GDPR does care about different “purposes”, it’s not just about the person/company relationship.

I’m not a lawyer but my interpretation of this is that consent for Google to use location data for maps doesn’t allow them to use that same location data for email.

> Consent should cover all processing activities carried out for the same purpose or purposes. When the processing has multiple purposes, consent should be given for all of them.

https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-32

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

#100

Post by phillipseamore »

luckylion wrote: post #18
keyle wrote: post #8

It's a very strange move indeed. maps.google.com implies an application lives there, far better than being on the root domain. It also means that when you start typing maps.google, you'd get all your history searchable related to maps, although arguably that's useless. I can't think of a reason why this would be a good technical move for Google (ignoring the don't do evil thingie), other than simplifying... certifica…

Other things: slightly simpler external DNS surface, probably tiny speed improvements because users only need to have the IP of www.google.com, not one for maps, one for www, one for whateverelse. More possibility for connection re-use, as you'd only need to have a connection open for www.google.com, not one for each service. And security wise: ISPs can now only see that you're accessing something at google, but not…

As you mention there are plenty of performance reasons to run everything under a single hostname. There's also one especially vital for Maps, it loads a tonne of resources and maps are used in various other services at Google. Now that caches are being siloed down to the host level, having all the resources accessible in a same-origin cache will save bandwidth and increase performance for users.
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