https://twitter.com/jonathanmayer/status/1044300922149588993
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/3093979
> Fix problems with home and work in Maps
> To use home and work when you search or use directions, you must turn on Web & App Activity. If can't find home and work in Maps, learn how to turn on Web & App Activity.
I hate that companies that work this way are some of the biggest and most powerful on the planet, but it’s also darkly funny if your humor runs to Kafka or Dante...
/low brow comment
- When I type “Ho” in GMaps it will first suggest all businesses — “Ho... Home Depot? House Garden? Horror House (375km)?” then cities (“Ho... Chi Minh City, Vietnam?”) and, after many tries, “Home”, the real.
- I had Web Activity and Location History registered, in France but English with a address for “Home”,
- I was using it for every return trip; They could have suggested by default without typing anything; Clearly they optimize to promote businesses or other usecases first, not convenience.
- I ended up putting a Label “XKDJF” on my home, which is more convenient (until a city starts with “XK” – hoping Elon Musk will not name a city on Mars this year).
I would say the root problem is that supplying any information to a Google app is by default assumed to mean "This should be uploaded to a persistent profile of user data."
They could just let me set a Home and Work location on my phone and leave that data on my phone (regardless of tracking preferences), or they could store it in a more private mechanism with a key that lives on your device (see Chrome bookmark sync), but they choose to not do any of that.