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Comment by mwattsun | Hacker News Reader

I've enjoyed Google Maps for many years and never paid for it. Apple MapKit appears to be free. I improve the experience for others when I help improve the maps and in turn my experience is improved by the contributions of others. It's costs Google and Apple money to provide the infrastructure for this, which they obtain in various ways such as advertising. It doesn't bother me if someone wants to advertise their store on a map I helped create. In fact, even that improves the amount of information I have about a place.

My answer to the title question is a strong "yes" in this case and I consider it akin to a grocery store putting up signs saying "Please help us keep costs down and pass the savings along to you by returning your cart to the cart stand." Giant mega corp Walmart does this if memory serves.

I like that humanity has built such an amazing thing as maps and like it when people return their shopping carts.

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> I've enjoyed Google Maps for many years and never paid for it.

You did pay for Google Maps indirectly as you were and still are a product Google sells to advertisers.

I feel like I have derived so much value from Google Maps, especially turn by turn navigation, than I don't even consider the advertisement aspects. I would happily pay a monthly fee to use it.

Before it you had to use paper maps or use those very expensive and crappy Garmin devices.

It used to be a joke that married couples travelling would fight over maps. The man was always driving and the wife was always reading the large unwieldy paper map. The man would get mad about a woman's trouble reading the map. The wife would retort "What happened to your vaunted sense of direction? Why are you such a cheap skate to wait until we are lost before buying a map at a service station?" Good times.

Good times for some, traumatic memories of childhood for others….

I used to have this daydream of a red line painted onto the road leading you to your destination. Never expected it to become real (in a slightly different form). Too late for me but another small way later generations will enjoy higher QoL. Few will realize the benefits beyond occasionally getting lost.

I remember back when we were at an intermediate stage of maps when you could type an address into Mapquest and then print out the directions to it and take that stack of paper with you.

Now days you can drop into the middle of almost anywhere on the globe and get mostly accurate on-the-ground directions regardless of if you walk, take public transport or drive. Made navigating Tokyo so much easier!

Google doesn't need you to pay, they only need you to do your thing using Android, Chrome, Google Analytics, Google Search, Google Maps, etc. They will monetize on your usage. I'm OK with the concept, but the implementation ethics can be, to put it gently, debatable - most of the time people are not aware of the privacy implications.

there is nothing like 'paying indirectly'.

did it overall cost them any money ? no

did it overall cost them any physical effort ? no

did google force them to use the service ? no

Does it really sting so much to admit Google Maps is a free to use service?

It's not free. Maybe your privacy is worth nothing -that's up to you to decide- but mine is close to priceless. So to me using Google maps would be hugely expensive.

lol, my privacy is worth same as yours but you are too technologically challenged to hide it online.

Question: if I contribute a fix to Google Maps or Apple Maps, does that fix back-propogate to OSM? My home address needs to be slightly shifted and wondering for best practice.

No and that is IMO the point of using OSM in the first place. The data is public and free for everyone and if you contribute there's the possibility of other services adopting your change. I know that mapbox integrates osm data, Google and Apple might too.

No, in fact copying from Google Maps is a violation of their terms of service:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/FAQ#Why_don.27t_you_just...

If you contribute to Google Maps then you fix private Google database.

this is not true, you fix it for everyone using Google maps (which is basically everyone)

Where I can download Google map data dataset for my own processing?

Yes, Google makes apps usable by general public but their database is proprietary - including what people contribute for free.

ok I thought parent comment meant to say it only changes your private maps, not for everyone. I see what you mean

The argument that OP may or may not have intended is that any change in Google Maps benefits a fraction of “everybody” that equal to Google Maps’ share of the market. That’s maybe 80-90%. Telling users of Google Maps that their contribution is worthless if they don’t submit it to a free & open database may be net-negative if only a small fraction gets discouraged from contributing altogether.

I have a few million edits on wikidata to proof my sympathy for Open Data. But the openness is only useful if it leads to more people having access to the data. And a proprietary service being involved doesn’t diminish the value by itself.

The answers saying “no” are not necessarily correct, but the actual answer depends on which country you live in.

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