Google has decided to rename Lake Ontario in the US. Please uninstall Google Maps.
While I understand they’re pulling data from the US government, they have no actual legal obligation to comply. This is entirely a choice an executive at Google made.
Did you know: When you click a link on Google and then go there Google tracks your location and links it to all your ads. This feature is called Local Search Ads, and you can hit Google’s pocketbook directly in protest by not having Google Maps installed.
When you have Google Maps installed Google is always tracking you. That tracking data feeds into a lot of products: things like mapping cell and wifi networks to geolocations, ads, recaptcha, search, and more. Google stores a profile of who you are, where you live, where you work, who you visit, etc.
If uninstalling is too much for you go to your Google account and disable Location History in privacy settings. Alternatively, click your user profile icon and turn on incognito mode, which disabled tracking and other features.
This will reduce the data linked to your profile (though, in reality, there’s no assurance this does anything, like when that disabled Nest camera was used by the FBI last year).
Browsing without an account does not have the effect. If you simply log out you have no privacy limitations enabled.
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PSA: one way to boycott #GoogleMaps is to append your SSID with
_nomap. This opts out of Google using your access point for navigation.TIL, thank you!
What a shitty solution though… I hate this “opt out of invisible thing nobody notified you of” bullshit.
I should also mention if you boycott Apple (thus Apple’s maps), the SSID must end with
_optout. If you want to boycott both Apple and Google, Google’s optout tag must be at the end of the SSID and Apple’s optout tag can only be followed by Google’s optout tag. So something likefoo_optout_nomap. At least that’s my understanding.(edit) FWiW, I’ll cite the source for Google if anyone is interested. AFAIK, Apple’s opt-out flag is just a rumor.
Pure insanity.
Just degoogle entirely. There were plenty of reason to do so already.
I’ve been using OSMAnd for a while now. Having locally download maps is pretty nice imo. It also has better directions imo, showing the lane to use, the street name or exit, and even shoes the bext upcoming direction. I’ve had google just say “take the next exit.”
It doesn’t have traffic data, but that makes sense, so no updated detours if there’s roadwork or rush hour, etc. Unless I’m just new and don’t know how to add that yet haha. But I believe this is a big one for most foss alternatives.
Another one is that I can’t set it as a default response when in browser so clicking “directions” from a search won’t prompt OSM. Just have to manually add the address.Small update: I just learned about GeoShare. It can redirect google map link coordinates from a browser directly to your map of choice (OSMAnd, CoMaps, etc)
I wonder how hard it would be to make traffic tracking in an OSM map app.
Obviously you need a backend, but the app Transit does a good job demonstrating that you only need a few people in an area reporting location to set time estimates.
Traffic correlates with people, so it’s easier to get critical mass than you’d think.
Construction is still the hard problem.
Magic Earth provides traffic services. It is a yearly subscription, but it is already available.
if you want people to quit something, you better offer alternatives.
- OSM (OpenStreetMap https://openstreetmap.org/ ) is a good candidate but it lacks some essential features, including satellite view and public transport routing.
Live traffic updates is a big one that all the foss alternatives are missing.
True. I’m using CoMaps wherever I can and switch to Here we go when I need live traffic updates.
OsmAnd which is OSM-based has both satellite view (which you can also save for offline viewing if needed) and primitive public transport (good enough for dense cities with rapid transit). It’s not easy to set up and get used to but if you’re ok with computers, give it a spin.
Otherwise there’s mapy, which also has those features but is much easier to use and more polished. Not FOSS though.
I’m currently on a long weekend city break in a European capital using only OsmAnd+ offline for navigation & tram/metro public transport. As normal it’s been absolutely flawless.
Gives us options on tram numbers to take & shows the tram final destination so we can easily tell direction of travel at the tram stops.
OsmAnd+ offline Wiki is also a goldmine as a tourist in a foreign city. Combined with Joplin notes about everything we might like to see & we are all set for exploring with no wasted time.
Joplin top tip for travel: Set up a checklist note for packing. Tick items as you pack to leave. Untick as you pack to come home. Ensures you never forget anything
I can’t seem to click on any icons for information on the browser. I’m not expecting reviews of stores, but it’d be nice to be able to see the name and address. Am I doing something wrong?
I tried OsmAnd in the past, I paid for it and it’s still installed in my phone, but I keep going back to Google Maps for “default” maps. OsmAnd is missing the Cycle Map layer of openstreetmaps.org and is not super useful in my case. And we all know Google Maps is very bad for cycling too, but it’s good at finding places, so I just make my own route instead of using the four lane artery it suggested me to cycle on.
The exception is when I’m hiking or walking long distances and need to find/record my position on a map, relative to a pedestrian path or hiking trail. For this I’ve always used AlpineQuest. I don’t know if it’s made by Americans though. AlpineQuest also has the Cycle Map layer, so it’s my second favourite map app, but I mainly use it when I’m in a big park, or not in a city.
Still, openstreetmaps.org with the Cycle Map layer is wonderful for planning cycling and hiking routes by yourself. Unfortunately it’s just absolutely bad at making any kind of route by itself.
I’ve just heard about CoMaps recently. I also don’t know if it’s mainly American, but it’s open source, community driven, and based on OSM data, which is important. It has adresses and seems like a promising alternative to Google Maps for my “default” searches, so I’m going to give it a try. However it’s just an app and there doesn’t seem to be a simple website matching the mobile experience, so I’m kind of guessing that I won’t try it for long.
CoMaps is missing so much information in my area and only navigates you to the address block if done by address. Also navigating by address means I’d have to find the address of the place first probably in Google maps and then put it in.
Cycloroute and Brouter can be added to OSM. I’ve never gotten brouter to work though. Cycloroute seems the best for my area.
I’m not familiar with Cycloroute nor Brouter, and can’t find much about them. What are they?
OsmAnd is missing the Cycle Map layer of openstreetmaps.org and is not super useful in my case.
Do you mean CyclOSM? If so, you just have to configure some settings, although I agree it’s non-obvious.
No. I can get CyclOSM on OsmAnd but I really don’t like it because it’s too busy and difficult to tell the difference between types of bike paths. Also, CyclOSM has always been very slow in a browser on any of my computers, having tiles taking a few dozen seconds to load. Cycle Map is the layer next to CyclOSM and to me, it’s very useful because it highlights major paths, by national, regional and local. A bit like showing the highways for bikes. Both layers are useful but given that CyclOSM is very very slow, and lacks those highlights, I prefer Cycle Map.
For reference, CyclOSM looks like this when there’s no tiles missing:
And Cycle Map looks like this:
Digging around, it looks like that cycle map source was removed from osmand due to API costs, which doesn’t apply to the browser version for whatever reason (or openstreemap.org are paying for it).
EDIT: I’m guessing you already tried it, but the built in “bike routes” option is less busy in my location. It seems to only work with the offline vector maps though, so I couldn’t quickly test how it looks in Montreal. Although testing another city it looks busy enough to be problematic for you I suspect.
I’ve tried but I can’t find shit on there, sometimes even when I directly paste the address. Magic Earth is still not as good but much closer.
If you combine ME with the apple maps web beta you can get closer to the functionality of Gmaps.
I understand that both of these aren’t as good for privacy as OSM.
can’t find shit on there
Acastus is what solved the Problem for me. Yes, it’s a second app which is a annoying, but it works vers well.
Does it do addresses or also names? Google is very good for I want to go here and it takes you there. You don’t have to find the address and type it in.
Yes, it also does points of interests. So you can just enter “Museum of Fine Arts” and it will work.
The workflow is: Enter location name, click on results, the app automatically leads you to OSMAnd, it takes some seconds and your marker is there.
Here’s Google’s blog post on how they’re fecklessly obeying
https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/gnis-lake-ontario-lake-america-name-change/
Remember, if they do this, what else are they surrendering to the US administration?
While I haven’t looked into it, OSM might also have a discussion up about adding the “lake america” label as a regional alternative name. They did that for a previous trump tantrum too.
However, I find that my feelings towards each organization depend on the intent behind the action. When OSM adds that label, it’s being done for cartographic reasons and I don’t mind that. When Google does it, especially this quickly, it feels like it’s being done for appeasement reasons.
Also with Google, everyone in the US sees that name. Whereas with OSM, you would be choosing to use the trump tantrum labels.
As a side note, the funniest possible reaction that Canada could have here would be to rename Lake Michigan to Lake Inferior
Rename the other 4 lakes some variation of “Lake Legal Adult Citizen,” so that the pedofile won’t touch them.
Lake Erie -> Lake Epstein
I hear you, but I worry that would make him want to actually own it or visit it, or something.
Maybe he’d bomb it if it was Lake Epstien Files…
My first impression with CoMaps: Wow!
Same, it’s nice, I like that the maps are offline… Google and Apple both have had me driving through stretches of white background because they don’t even bother to download your route.
Same here too. First time learning about it and going to more heavily test this week, but so far it looks pretty good :). Great tips in this thread.
OsmAnd~ is also good like that, you can download the various map styles for overlay
Maybe I did something wrong but I used Comaps to go to a very big, very clearly marked government building and it directed me like, two blocks over even though the address was right. Any thoughts on that? Should I just use it more? This specific example was downtown in a very big US city, so maybe that’s part of it?
Does the building appear in the correct location on the map? If so, then it might be a bug. I haven’t had that happen myself
If not, then it’s possible that the data was entered wrong, and you can fix it for everyone. I’ll wait for someone else to share better instructions, but in short it’s
- make an openstreetmaps account
- use the website, or another openstreetmaps editing tool and enter the data
- once the data is uploaded, comaps pushes it out to everyone on the next maps update (weekly or bimonthly I think?)
If you watch it sends you to address blocks not the address.
there’s just no alternative for user ratings, that’s the only thing keeping me from deleting google maps
The ratings on googlemaps are known to be tampered with. I worked in a restaurant and my boss took down 1 star reviews weekly, by just sending a “non-relevant information” report on the unfavorable reviews. It sits at 4.8 currently…
Use HERE We Go as an alternative.
It’s based in Germany.
loads very slowly for me. lots of people checking it out rn?
otherwise seems to work fine for me.
I will def try it out
why doesn’t china just make an official proclamation declaring taiwan and hong kong are chinese territories? by this logic, google would have to rename it.
Most of the world recognizes that China already owns Taiwan.
The main countries that don’t are USA and Israel
I mean Taiwan is much more complicated then people want to admit, cause they like simple black and white situations. And the China Taiwan issue is anything but that.
They’ll only rename geography when it’s uncomplicated and simply wrong.
In what way is Hong Kong not a Chinese territory? Did someone sleep through the 1997 handover?
Google is already kinda not available in china
People didn’t bother when The Gulf Of Mexico was changed, and that ones displayed globaly.
Lake Ontario is only displayed as Lake America in America. Canadian’s still see Lake Ontario, and the rest of the world sees both (though I’ve not seen a screenshot of both displayed yet, besides in this article)
I doubt very many people will care enough to change habbits.
That said, I’ve been slowly transitioning to Organic Maps, which uses OpenStreetMap data. Just as part of a general ‘fuck America and it’s products’
This is one of those “the second best time to plant a tree is today” situations for me.
People didn’t bother when The Gulf Of Mexico was changed, and that ones displayed globaly.
Really? https://lemmy.ca/post/39089906
I doubt very many people will care enough to change habbits.
Many might but likely not the majority of people, its still good to encourage so why downplay on a post trying to achieve that?
The Gulf of Mexico also shows both names internationally with Gulf of America in parentheses
I share the sentiment about people reacting differently, but I’m up for anything to reduce google’s popularity. Time to advertise comaps and other foss ones!
My issue is traffic data is very very helpful. Last time I used Comaps I spent over an hour longer stuck in traffic cause a highway was closed.
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What service would you recommend I use instead? I use it a lot for restaurants and pathfinding on bicycle in Copenhagen
Comaps seems pretty good and is widely suggested, it has an outdoor mode which might go well with your cycling (including height contour lines)
I’ve used Apple Maps for a long time
I also came here to recommend CoMaps. It’s an offline map service (you download the regional maps you need) and they’re privacy-focused. I installed it through F-Droid, just to further avoid Google and their Play Store.
CoMaps uses data from OpenStreetMap, so it’s community-driven content. Missing information on the map? Go add it on OpenStreetMap and it’ll eventually populate on CoMaps. As well as other public maps.
I noticed my quiet countryside neighborhood didn’t exist on any maps, which made receiving mail/deliveries tricky (my neighbors regularly received my packages, and vice versa). So I added the streets and houses in my neighborhood to OpenStreetMap and now my neighborhood pops up on Google and Bing maps. Haven’t had a delivery issue since!
Thanks, will check them out! For a long time Apple didn’t have bicycle routes in Copenhagen but I see they have it now as well.
HERE We Go
Looking at these replies, I really wish it was one of those situations where dozens of nerds were arguing over a dauntingly huge list of great solutions.
Instead we’ve got a few FOSS solutions missing major functionality, especially if we’re already protesting climate change with public transit and cycling.
I already changed from Google Maps. I think if you are using google fiber now would be the time to find a new provider. There are probably local isp alternatives in your area.
The irony is Lake America is the smallest of the Great Lakes.
Block ads. All the benefits of google services without increasing their bottom line.
How do you block advertised locations on Google Maps on Android?
But what map would my car use for Android Auto?
https://www.comaps.app/support/how-to-use-android-auto/
Comaps has Android Auto support
OsmAnd too. But only when installed from Google Play for both of them.
It works if installed from Play store not from being installed any other way.
I don’t know how Android Auto works. CarPlay allows different maps, so hopefully Android can do the same
