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#google#bing#maps#name#mapquest#government#barrel#com#https#tech

Discussion (76 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

wlonklyabout 14 hours ago
They'll get their 15 minutes, but there's no _there_ there. They're owned by System1, a bottom-of-the-barrel advertising company where 1990s web brands go to die (Metacrawler? Startpage.com?? Dogpile?!?!). Their maps are OpenStreetMaps maps.

People think they have their back (because OSM is showing Lake Ontario), but it's just marketing.

nancyminusoneabout 14 hours ago
as opposed to a top of the barrel advertising company like Google
ndriscollabout 13 hours ago
Or a top of the barrel choice like just using one of the many non-profit FOSS apps that are also UIs over OpenStreetMap instead of one of the scam commercial ad-wrappers.
susiecambriaabout 5 hours ago
But what regular people know what nonprofit FOSS apps are?
MisterTeaabout 13 hours ago
That barrel rotted away a long time ago and all we're left with is a head -- the top is the bottom.
altcognitoabout 13 hours ago
There is significant differences in advertising. The things at the bottom of the barrel in advertising are often literally malware.
nancyminusoneabout 13 hours ago
You mean like software that restricts what your devices can do and collects and sells your personal information? Its the very same barrel.
soperjabout 13 hours ago
Nah, it's all malware. Some just for your brain.
reaperducerabout 12 hours ago
The things at the bottom of the barrel in advertising are often literally malware.

So… Google, then?

It's not like it hasn't been repeatedly documented that malware is pushed through Google Ads and other properties.

gruezabout 14 hours ago
>Startpage.com

I thought that was still the best way to get anonymous google index search results?

chewbachaabout 13 hours ago
I also enjoy their privacy focused email startmail.com
doubled112about 14 hours ago
Dogpile?!? There's a name I haven't heard in what feels like 20 years.

The concept of searching a bunch of search engines made sense to me.

bchabout 13 hours ago
> The concept of searching a bunch of search engines made sense to me.

It made sense to somebody else[0], too.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo

verdvermabout 14 hours ago
Ironicly this is what my agent does today on my behalf because regular search has become so bad
bigfishrunningabout 13 hours ago
Unfortunately at the other end of that websearch is a bunch of slop, your agent can't save you from it.
1vuio0pswjnm7about 4 hours ago
Doubleclick

Perhaps it would have died, too

But no

amiga386about 12 hours ago
I think people are more going on the "name it what you want" pages doing the rounds on socials, created originally for the Gulf of Mexico and now Lake Ontario, which a lot of people have seen, rather than the name presented by MapQuest's regular map which I don't think many people see.

https://gulfof.mapquest.com/lakeontario/Epstein%20Files

https://gulfof.mapquest.com/gulf/Epstein%20Files

mc32about 14 hours ago
They forgot to scoop up mapbalst!

never mind looks like they got swallowed up by bing maps (that’s where Bing got line drive from, TIL!)

gnuplustoejamabout 14 hours ago
It still says Ontario because there's no one left at MapQuest that knows how to change it.
D-Coderabout 14 hours ago
That may be, but it's still what many people want.
yndoendoabout 13 hours ago
I've dumped Google Maps for OSM over three years ago and have not looked back. Did this as one of my de-Google steps by choosing a Fairphone.

Looking at a FuriLabs FLX1S to start the next phase by switching to a Linux phone.

I've become a sunk cost to Google by not spending anything on their products or services and always use Ad-Block solution in a private session if I must.

bpyeabout 13 hours ago
What do you use on Android instead of Google Maps, OsmAnd or something else?
yndoendoabout 10 hours ago
The one provided by Fairpone with their /e/OS. Maps by Magic Lane.
RajT88about 14 hours ago
I enjoy how Bing Maps (and Bing in general) are so unloved that it's not even part of the debate. (Bing Maps hasn't changed - yet - but probably will eventually, since they caved on the Gulf of Mexico)
0x457about 13 hours ago
It’s not like Microsoft has artisanal cartographers sitting around deciding what to call every geographic feature. Bing Maps ingests its base map data from providers, which in turn aggregate a bunch of authoritative, commercial, open, and government datasets.

And for things like official geographic names, government naming databases are often one of the authoritative upstream sources. So if the U.S. government changes the name in its official geographic database, it’s not surprising for that change to eventually propagate through map providers and into Bing.

buildsjetsabout 13 hours ago
Not only did I have no idea that Bing or Bing Maps still existed, but the very fact that they ever existed at all had slipped from my consciousness.
RajT88about 13 hours ago
I guess Bing has an 8% market share, if you don't count services that use the Bing index (like DuckDuckGo does).

I wonder if Bing is worth it for them to still operate because of the people paying to use the index.

farlightabout 11 hours ago
They're one of the few remaining air photography providers for OpenStreetMap editors with worldwide coverage (much of it high quality and regularly updated), so they have their uses.
chrononautabout 14 hours ago
> In 2019, Verizon sold MapQuest to internet advertising company System1.

It's ad companies all the way down.

declan_robertsabout 13 hours ago
And this is a PR piece put out by the ad company that people eat up because orange man bad.
rjrjrjrjabout 11 hours ago
Curious. Do you think orange man not bad here?

Y’all good with a president who changes a 400 year old name on a hissy fit and spends his days shitposting at the level of "dumb teenage boy"?

expedition32about 10 hours ago
At least when China does it they come up with elaborate historical documents. This is just sad.
standevenabout 14 hours ago
I think a lot of people are desperate for tech giants to stand up to the current US administration.
declan_robertsabout 13 hours ago
As long as tech companies make a stand against superficial culture war fights like this nobody will care that they've caved w.r.t privacy over the last two decades. Sad!
mulemisterXabout 11 hours ago
People have nothing in common with tech giants. Tech giants support whoever is in power, because money. The current tech giants kicked the current President off of their platforms back in the day. Now these tech giants hang out at the White House. Funny how that works.
Varelionabout 14 hours ago
Finding MapQuest on the PlayStore was a quest all on its own. More specifically, it does not exist on my PlayStore, and I had to install it on my phone remotely through the browser PlayStore.

Review wise, it sits firmly at a single star, so it's possible that Google burried it, although I would not put it past them to rig things.

fwipabout 13 hours ago
Recommend you instead use something like OsmAnd. Mapquest pulls data from OpenStreetMaps - might as well use an open source application.

https://osmand.net/

ghostoftiberabout 14 hours ago
I feel like it wasn't defiance as much as "we need to come up with a story why we don't have any developers who know how to update this".
organsnyderabout 14 hours ago
I tried it out for a trip yesterday. I wanted to love the app—it has a great retro feel, and an ad-free subscription option—but it gave me weird routes and the audio was extremely stuttery.
pmdulaneyabout 14 hours ago
On the back of a cocktail napkin, I drew a map of you...
ChrisArchitectabout 14 hours ago
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afavourabout 13 hours ago
I get why people want Apple and Google to push back but ultimately there isn’t any logical approach for them to operate that isn’t “name things as the relevant governmental bodies name them”. Otherwise what source of truth is there?

The responsibility here is with a spineless government. An executive order is not a law and a congress that did its job would quickly contract these kind of mad king declarations.

dghlsakjgabout 11 hours ago
It’s an international body of water that has had the same name for longer than the government that tried to rename it has existed. The renaming was an overtly political act. There are many logical approaches to leaving the name the same, and there is one logical approach to changing it (appeasement)
vharuckabout 13 hours ago
What about researchers at universities? Maintain a list of experts and conduct a poll whenever an event like this happens or enough of the experts request.

Or require an act of Congress. Obviously, we can no longer rely on Executive Orders being careful, thought-out, or lasting changes. Does any mapping organization want to change names back and forth? Does any user want to see these changes?

afavourabout 13 hours ago
Right but who maintains that list of experts? Google? Aren’t we just giving the tech giants more power in that scenario?

Yes, in this specific instance it would give us an outcome we want. But in the long term we’re replacing democratic government with corporate control. Which doesn’t seem good.

maxericksonabout 13 hours ago
How are they determining the relevant government bodies?
bigstrat2003about 13 hours ago
The government has no right to name geographic features. The names are established by popular usage, not the feds. As such Google and Apple should not listen to the demands of a body which has no right to make them in the first place.
afavourabout 13 hours ago
“Popular usage” is all very well and good until you have to quantify it in some way. No way it wouldn’t be a complete mess.

For example: the body of water between the UK and France. The UK calls it “the English Channel”. The French call it “la Manche”. It has no official international name. In Google Maps both names are used depending on what country/language you are using. Choosing one via popular usage would not be a good solution.

allturtlesabout 13 hours ago
> Choosing one via popular usage would not be a good solution.

Huh? Isn't that exactly what you've described? In the UK they show the popular usage in the UK, and the same in France.

guywithahatabout 12 hours ago
Sad to see the WaPo wishcasting with no clear benefit
alephnerdabout 14 hours ago
reaperducerabout 14 hours ago
I think Cory would be surprised to see how many Mapquest referrers show up in the referrer logs of brick-and-mortar businesses.
stickfigureabout 13 hours ago
In other news, Canada will be renaming Lake Michigan to Lake Epstein.

(saw it on the internet, had to share)

egberts1about 14 hours ago
Once again, private equity ruined another fine company ... with incessant advertisements