Mapping Google’s FUD | Hacker News Reader

Mapping Google’s FUD

counternotions.com

Google Maps is a huge technical achievement that Apple's new maps cannot possibly hold a candle to straight out of the gate. That is a statement of fact, not FUD.

If Google Maps and x competitor were roughly equal, all things considered, as in the quoted DR-DOS example, then you could call Google's boasts about their service FUD.

Until then... try finding anything on Bing maps. Yikes!

Competing with a product so refined such as GMaps will be very tough for Apple, but regarding your Bing example, if past experience is of any indication, the fact that Microsoft couldn't do something is an excellent indicator that Apple will do it well and make a boatload of money off of it.

I think Tim Bray said it best:

"Kontra genuinely loathes Google right down to the ground."[1]

Why this should matter to anyone is a bit of a mystery. But he seems to have something of a following so I'm posting this because it's the second time I've seen a post of his show up on HN and as well as the axe-grinding I'm again seeing willful misdirection and misrepresentation of facts.

The funny thing about this post is that the only thing I actually learned from reading it is that Google Maps is pretty great (thanks for the bullet points!)

[1] http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/05/30/Feelings-A...

So the way to counter FUD is... a boatload of ad-hominem, and downplaying some really sweet features of the best mapping tool on the web?

This is the sort of drivel that attaches the word fanboi to the Apple community.

"Vic Gundotra is a sleazeball" - my Google exit questionnaire.

[edit s/My/my/]

This is stupid, especially since the author failed to note the demos of this software, or the fact that some of those things are already in the hands of consumers and are just leaving beta stages.

Not to mention that's not what FUD is, and currently day Google doesn't resemble Microsoft in any form. Who are the 7 people that thought this was HN material so far?

I really like how the author pointed out the manipulative strategies behind the fact that we get a lot of useless information.

Seriously, who cares if Google Maps used a snow mobile? But, read the article. See what's behind that.

We generally gobble up information like a cow sucking on a teat, and often secondary aspects don't occur to us. This is proven over and over again by politicians. Fear mongering and manipulation is more common than you'd think. I put this in italics because it's fear mongering itself. The thing is, quite often people communicate in such indirect manner they completely forget they are operating on the level of emotion and other subconscious facilities, whereas the words are just a medium, and convey no meaning on their own.

I think the lesson to take away from the article is that when reading publicizing materials it's important to ask yourself "why am I actually being given this information", and if you can't answer that immediately an alarm should ring in the back of your head.

Love the comment about clip art. Vic "Vaporware" Gundotra. Yes I remember it well. Google is the new Microsoft. No joke.

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