I am using https://openstreetmap.org and have no problems with it.
Google Maps now has a live busynessometer for some businesses. And 3D models of entire cities, even non-London ones.
As a traditional paper map OSM is fine, but Google Maps is now far more than that.
Traffic and street view are hard, and expensive, to do because you need to drive around the place to take photos, or to have enough data points for traffic information.
Reviews are hard because they are subjective, and how do you deal with spam, with moderation, with fake reviews, etc.
The other things? They're in OSM (to varing degrees of completness):
* Business opening times: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:opening_hours * Phone Numbers: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:phone * Simple 3d modelling: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/3D * Directions/turn-by-turn has existed for a long time, e.g. on the main website itself, or software like Graphhopper or OSRM.
Yes OSM is has much less features than Google, but the OSM Foundation only has income of about £97,000 per year. Google has considerible more financial strength.
(BTW there isn't one osm map app for mobile devices)
Far from perfect, but it exists: http://openstreetcam.org/map/
In fact, OSM is perfectly capable of representing lane restrictions (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Lanes) and some of the existing OSM clients (such as OsmAnd) offer 'lane assist' (arguably, it might not be as good as Google's but there's no fundamental problem in achieving feature parity).
And while the GMaps feature of offering you route alternatives based on the current traffic is nice, the "price" you are paying for it is unconditionally sharing your location with google while the GMaps app is running (or even at all times, depending on you settings). I personally don't feel comfortable with that compromise.
Sure, but if you're going to make that argument, all software is equivalent, because you can just implement the stuff you want and delete the stuff that gets in the way.
No doubt, real time traffic information can be developed for openstreetmap. But if and when it happens depends on where others drop the ball.
For example, current navigation systems built into cars tend to be completely out of date and mostly unsupported long before the car itself is end of life. So this is an area where openstreetmap might take over.
Though since OSM predates Google Maps, it makes sense that OSM would have another first :P
So it can definitely change.
I have been using DuckDuckGo as my search engine for a couple of years now, and I don't miss Google at all. bang! and instant answers are fantastic.
Funny you say that because I don't use any of Google's services save for YouTube. I'm a musician and that's simply where the musicians are. Other than that I don't use any other Google products or services - no search, no maps, no docs - nothing. Only YouTube.
Search anything in another language than english, and it works.
Search something in a very specific area of expertise that is not computing, and google will find it.
Search for something with a very weird, contextual explanation with terrible typos, still works.
Ddg, as much as I like it, is very far away from delivering this experience.
I used ddg for a year, but realized I ended up typing !g for most of my queries.
Besides, the HN crowd is very tech saavy, they can do without the Google magic. Most people don't even know what a URL is.
Meanwhile, Bing gives me "10 reasons why sugar is bad for you" and "Sweet Poison: Why Sugar is Ruining our Health".
It's not even close.
Sometimes DDG feels less convoluted. Not just because of Google's excessive ad overload, but also because Google guesses too much for my taste. They think they know me better than I do and that turns out to be incorrect often enough to be annoying.
Where Google does have an unassailable lead is in maps. Their "explore" feature is extremely useful for finding places to eat & drink. Directions are great. Google maps is simply excellent.
True. The insane loudness of youtube ads got my girlfriend to install an ad-blocker for the very first time even though she is not opposed to relevant ads at all.
This would be a good way to finish off Google search and Gmail, and Calendar, and Drive.
> google map, because it has absolutely zero decent competitor
Dedicated navigation device from Garmin in the car and Openstreetmap for everything else.
As Openstreetmap, the debate is already active in other comments.
Many news websites in India did this recently. Of which many have rolled back. Why? There is always a competitor to which your customers can go. And when they do, you lose users to them, may be even permanently.
Sooner or later you realize its better they come to you, instead of going to competition.
Isn't this the whole point behind Android? You want your OS to run on most of the worlds mobile devices, even if you give it away for free, you still get traffic in return.
Pirating is free, instant, with no DRM and no waiting time.
But when a service offer a tremendous value, it can't be quited easily.
Search engine wise they are clearly on top. On the other hand, do enough social engineering and people will start using a worse product regardless.
Youtube could of course force ads on its users, but that would also make those users less interested in youtube compared to competing platforms.
This is not overly simple.
Who do you think click on ads, you or her ?
Apple map ? Outside of the US, not even close.
Google search, just forget about it.
Traffic is accurate, although it is be a little slower to update than Google Maps (it seems to be ~5 mins behind). Directions are spot on and the UI (at least in CarPlay) is clear and detailed. The only thing that's poor compared to Google Maps is the search but it's certainly a decent alternative and it's come a long way since it was first released.
I can speculate that outside of Europe its even worse.
I'm in the UK I use both Apple maps, Google maps, OpenStreetMap and Bing maps regularly (in addition to the built in nav system in my car) and for me the only noticeable strength that Google has is streetview. The "satellite" view in Google Maps where I live is actually so old (12+ years) that it's actually becoming useful for researching historical stuff...
Bing now controls 33% of the search engine space, and Google's share of the market is in decline.
Google has a monetization issue, not a product issue. People love their products, but they hate their ads.
It can deny the use of it's services to people using ad-blockers.
It's possible that we see a migration from youtube. Maybe some people will be ok with migrating from gmail (probably not the majority though. I did it and it was HARD). But very few people will stop using the search engine or google map, because it has absolutely zero decent competitor. I tried them all for months, fairly. Their are not even on the same planet.
So apart from a few geeks, people will just disable the ad blocking software if google decide to force their hand.
Besides, wait for the W3C DRM standard + webassembly to be used to hack very hard to block ads...