Original toot in Spanish says: “OK, so I need some alternatives to Google Maps, because I just decided seconds ago to stop using it after I got proposed a trip with a completely unnecessary detour which adds two extra minutes just because it pass by a gas station that sponsors this trip.”
The picture suggests that there was an ad that suggested a stop at the sponsored gas station, if the user clicked on the suggestion / ad, then the route would be modified.
IMO that’s massively different than the detour being added by default. If they actually did / were doing that, it would be a huge scandal, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. Instead, it’s just an intrusive, annoying ad.
You’re right that this is not generating monetary gains
But it’s generating outrage towards Google when what you accuse them of doing isn’t the reality, that’s pretty disingenuous
Not defending Google as a whole, but let’s keep honest about the current developments
The day sponsored trips are the default is the day I’m dropping Maps
Might be. It’s indeed hard to tell by the picture, but the user seems to knows the place so I don’t know. What seems about right is the title is misleading so I’m going to change it.
Please change “added a sponsored detour” to “proposed a sponsored detour” and it won’t be as misleading anymore
Anyone seen this? One post from one user with no verification behind it seems like nothing to get upset over.
I have experienced something really similar. Not a detour, but, well…
In early 2019 (or maybe late 2018), whenever I used google maps and the route took me over on a certain stretch road, it would announce the location of an Auto Zone regardless of bearing on the route.
It was just a straight section of road with no confusing areas that needed any clarification. Yet the navigation voice would announce “In a quarter mile, continue past the Auto Zone” followed by “Continue past the Auto Zone on the right.” (Or left.)
It was so jarring and offensive that I also wanted to stop using Google Maps.
It does that because it thinks there’s a bend in the road or some silly shit. Mine tells me to turn after the Taco Bell into a place because the turn in isn’t a named road. I don’t think it’s trying to advertise to me. That’s just where the turn is.
Nope, but I did move from Waze to Google Maps and now settled on Apple Maps because of increasing enshittification and ad bloat.
Guys, try some OpenStreetMap-based alternatives and get rid of Google Maps:
I tried OsmAnd, but sometimes when I try to set a course I get a message that the destination is not reachable… And honestly, the pathfinding is not great on those. I hate to like Maps’ algorithm, but I do think it’s way better than the alternatives.
last time I tried to use it on a 700km trip it would not even find the path, it would just calculate seemingly forever.
You need to download the maps in order to make it work. The default maps it comes with kinda suck. It’s not intuitive but I was able to go from California to Wyoming that way.
The one big draw of Google maps for me is the real-time traffic info. I don’t think that anything else had the ability to gather the same amount of info (except maybe Apple?)
Waze. Google Maps literally gathers a large part of it’s traffic real time data from Waze (which they also own).
Maybe, but I suspect that Waze has a small fraction of the gmaps user base, so if it has compatible traffic info, it’s because it draws on Google’s data.
I like osmand for off-grid motorcycle type stuff but I’ve found it to be somewhat useless for final mile navigation especially ironically in the city. I still use it as it’s awesome and allows pre-planned offline routes but I also still use gmaps as well. When I drove trucks for a living I found that the Garmin (truck specific but buy what you need) GPS to be quite amazing and will probably buy one of those for my car someday.
Google surely cannot be that stupid. Early Aprils fools joke I presume.
They already have sponsored location pins for retail stores. Even if I don’t have a route active it shows me icons on the map for Chick-Fil-A and some outfit called “Homesense” I’ve never heard of before even though I never asked it to. Even if I’m zoomed out far enough that it’s not showing me POI pins for any other businesses I still see these. And they’re actual icons of the store’s logo, not just the usual generic fork-and-knife or shopping cart pins like other businesses get. So I guarantee you they’re getting paid to do that.
Even if this isn’t true, as some here suggest, it still points to an idea that might or might not come to Google Maps in the future. What would prevent them from suggesting multiple routes, where the first route is an advertised one, and we’d have to explicitly scroll a few pixels down to get to the non-advertised one. It’s the same with the Google search results.
So, we should really think of an alternative before it’s too late.
I’ve noticed Waze (owned by Google) sometimes suggests a route I don’t feel like (eg I’m on the highway and not in a rush so I don’t feel like taking an exit Waze suggests), but when I ignore it and it recalculates, the estimated time goes down.
On the one hand, I know that it has to explore the alternative routes from time to time to know which ones are fastest and that if it’s directing a sufficient portion of the overall flow, it has to use multiple routes or else any single route it suggests will become bogged down with too much traffic, but I gotta wonder if there’s other motivations, especially when it’s a highway exit.
If they can’t monetize, they drop. In business terms that makes sense. No profit? Stop the bleeding.
In a wider sense though, Google has done a tremendous job at showing me I can’t rely on them for almost anything. I’ve begun moving email, search, browser, cloud storage… Within a few months Android Auto will be the only thing I can’t undo, except to use my car’s nav. Maybe I’ll do that too.
How has your email transition been? I have been moving away from Google slowly for a few years/intentionally avoiding onboarding with Google services. I don’t use Chrome, no google search, haven’t used messenger ever, that sort of thing.
But moving away from Gmail is hard. Would love your thoughts.
