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.
if you want people to quit something, you better offer alternatives.
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 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.
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.
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?
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.
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’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.
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.