Hacker News Reader

Comment by aherz | Hacker News Reader

As manipulative as Google can be, we should keep in mind that Google Maps is incredibly useful and we get to use it for "free". Yes we pay with our data and privacy and Google can do a better job of making that transparent but we can only get so upset when we don't get the full version of a product when we don't want to give our data.

View on HN

Yeah no, I rather pay a fee for that

OSMAND is pretty good.

It uses Openstreetmap and can work offline.

A paid version would be great but Google would have to figure out how to judge traffic levels without location data.

There are other suppliers of traffic data outside Google.

In fact, some of Google's traffic data is based off things like police reports.

Yeah I'm not saying is easier for google, but would be a net gain for everyone in the long run

There are plenty of paid-for satnavs. Tomtom Navigation GPS Traffic (Android)/ Tomtom GO (iOS) get good reviews for motoring. Citymapper is free and great for public transport. I'm sure there are many others.

The satnav in my car is pretty good, and doesn't violate my privacy.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find one for walking around. All the battery powered ones seem aimed at hikers, so they're loaded with great wilderness maps, but won't help me find a coffee.

I wouldn't. I also would rather not pay a fee for wikipedia. I would rather not pay a fee for Google searches.

I'm willing to pay a fee for many things but these three services redefined the entire world's productivity levels. Maps, Search and Wikipedia are world-changing (and miraculously, Wikipedia is a non-profit and still manages to exist and be stable. Please donate if you have the means, etc.). The reason they are world-changing is because they're free.

Free: Available to everyone, everywhere, without payment or account gating. It's a huge fucking deal for the world that they are and remain free.

You want to change the world? Make something massively useful to the planet. Then, make it free.

Maps is not free - as you mentioned, you pay with data.

However, there are FOSS and privacy respecting alternatives, most are based upon OpenStreetMap - wikipedia style map of the world. Some data is still lacking, but at least you yourself can fix it if you want to.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com