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Comment by dhragoon | Hacker News Reader

"Apple Maps"? This is shameless.

Not sure how to reconcile that with the seemingly mandatory PRISM invocations, the post was almost stomachable up until the Apple cameo especially with the recent privacy headlines. At Least recommend something that isn't a huge downgrade in functionality, an OSM client or something.

I'm sure that Apple adding DDG to Safari is the reason for this thinly veiled reciprocity.

Privacy or not these are people selling their wares and they are willing to be sleazy about it, this is not unlike the bullshit post about the fake cell antennas and the magical ROM that detected them that is making the rounds, it's disheartening.

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I find it most interesting that he doesn't use some map provider using OpenStreetMap data because that's what embedded in the DuckDuckGo search results: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=amsterdam

Excellent though it is, they're using MapBox, which really only caters for the embed-a-map use-case, and not general purpose browsing/route planning.

Apple Maps does use Open Street Map data.

If you use Google maps on iOS, the location information can be used to track what stores you visit for ad tracking purposes. Does Apple Maps do anything like this? Apple makes most of its money from product sales rather than advertising.

http://digiday.com/platforms/google-tracking/

>But Google can also constantly track the location of iPhone users by way of Google apps for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is just behind Android in U.S. market share with 38.3 percent of users, per eMarketer. Nearly 17 percent of the American populace uses an iOS smartphone.

>When an iPhone user stops using an app, it continues running “in the background.” The user might not realize it, but the app continues working, much in the same way tabs function on a Web browser.

>Google’s namesake iOS app — commonly referred to as Google mobile search — continues collecting a user’s location information when it runs in the background. This information is then used to determine if that user visited a store and whether that store visit can be attributed to a search conducted in the app. Store visits can also be tracked via Google’s other iOS apps that use location services. If iOS users open their Chrome, Gmail or Google Maps app in a store, their location can be deemed a store visit

How they use the data is independent from whether they collect it. Both products log that data. Is the usage of that data to display more relevant ads really such a terrible thing that you would use an inferior product?

I updated the post to clarify I use OSM via DuckDuckGo for places. On mobile, I use iOS over Android and for turn-by-turn directions I've found Apple maps to be the best alternative to Google maps. That's the long and the short of it. No conspiracy.

Isn't DDG showing places from Yelp?

I've tested a few searches and things that are definitely in OSM don't show up.

> I'm sure that Apple adding DDG to Safari is the reason for this thinly veiled reciprocity.

It seems unlikely that anyone other than Gabe could be sure of his intentions. At any rate, I assume he also uses Apple Maps for directions... if you know of any good non-Google/Apple competitors for that I would be very interested to hear about them.

Here by Nokia (the independent company, not the division sold to Microsoft):

http://here.com

Excellent maps and navigation in my experience.

I find them far superior to google maps (for cities in India)

Thanks for that. Looks good. Pity there's no HTTPS though.

Do you know/can you recommend any other OSM providers? Here.com is one of the best I've come across, but I'm wondering if there are any others.

For a good laugh, look at Tokyo on here.com:

http://here.com/35.7115098,139.7902388,13,0,0,normal.day

The largest city in the world apparently has about five streets (and note that even the extremely tiny amount that gets shown is actually wrong)! ><

Here maps certainly has its fans, but it's clear they have a long way to go before they're a real alternative to Google maps...

There is a deeper legacy there. People were complaining about coverage in Japan after Nokia bought Navteq in 2007 (Here was born out of Navteq).

I would expect Navteq had stayed away on some strategic basis and Nokia just kept doing that (I guess Nokia was never a huge brand in Japan).

Bing?

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