No better time than the present to switch to OpenStreetMap
For Android, I use OsmAnd~ which uses OpenStreetMap data and allows you to download maps to calculate routes offline, something Google Maps couldn’t do for routes by foot and by bike last time I tried.
It also has better coverage for some small paths in natural areas like forests. Give it a try!
I’ve been using it and evangelizing it for some time now. I don’t have a data plan and it works. My data, location, preferences or anything is not sold to anyone.
It can be a little overwhelming at first. It can be difficult to use at times (the search isn’t great), but in using it, I feel like I’m a part of something good and I can rest better knowing that.
This is pathetic and reeks of insecurity big time. Hope that this debacle improves your QoL, Americans.
Mexico should rename “America”
You mean Estados Unidos ? In Spanish, ‘America’ already refers to the north and south continents, not to the USA
Degoogled already! Installed /e/os on my Pixel 6a! A little irritated though as it seems like literally every app I’ve used is tied to Google!!
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Seems to be based on zoom, if I zoom in it’s only gulf of America, zooming out results in what you see.
It’s not google’s fault. It was told to do so and has. Does anyone seriously expect them not to have done this?
Every American company, or company doing business in America, needs to toe the line of an unpredictable and vindictive president, especially one as fat and tempting as Google.
Now there’ll be a disconnect in mapping between what some sources say and what others do, but anyone with a little history knowledge knows this isn’t the first time.
The renaming only applies to US federal agencies. Google is (supposedly) not a federal agency, so yes, it is their fault.
Google takes their place name data from the relevant country’s official government sources. That source data changed. This is exactly like when the previous administration renamed Mt McKinley to Denali.
They don’t have to do that, especially when the change is clearly for white supremacy purposes (like Denali being given its colonial name back). It’s their choice to be bootlickers.
I’m not in the USA, I am not a US citizen. No reason I should be seeing this while I’m in the EU.
Submit a correction. Many people should.
Look at the Falkland Islands. It does the exact same thing because the Argentinian government ordered them to. Google maps tries to stay apolitical, by abiding governments, and adding the non-globally recognised name in brackets.
Nor am I, but what’s that got to do with it?
The renaming isn’t internationally recognised, so shouldn’t be shown internationally.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of place names that are not internationally recognised around the world.
That would make sense if they didn’t also change in Europe…
How could they change it in Europe? It’s in the Americas?
(Yeah, I’m being facetious, but changing maps depending on where you read them is just adding another layer of confusion)
I will continue deadnaming the gulf with the name assigned at birth. It’s just going through a phase.
It probably had names before but what did the Mayans call it?
I’m trying to, but Proton made me throw up in my mouth a little.
Now I have the option to do everything I was doing, but poorly AND spread across 3 vendors.
What’s wrong with proton? It works pretty well for me.
CEO publicly praised Trump and the Republican party. It’s not the political alignment you’d want from the CEO of a service where privacy is their main selling-point.
True, works fine.
Then they said they didn’t log IP’s then handed over one of their users IP’s that got an activist locked up.
There there was the bootlicking incident (it’s a paywall but you get the gist before it disappears)
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/
He praised Trump publically, not a great look, but whatever, then tried to say he was not being political, while being even more political. His PR department swooped in to Reddit and started posting straw man attacks. I don’t trust their CEO at this point. If it were any other just email company, I’d be down with it, but their whole schtick is security and privacy, and apparently, they’re led by an idiot.
If I’m taking my shit out of google, I’m not taking to some place that’s positioned to be more of the same if I can help it, and they really appear to be more of the same.
Ah alright. I personally don’t care that much about the CEOs political opinions as long as that isn’t reflected in the business itself.
I had to look for more information on the IP logging thing since I didn’t know much about it. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/09/privacy-focused-protonmail-provided-a-users-ip-address-to-authorities/
Personally I don’t think it’s that bad. It was absolutely misleading but not a lie.
I mostly care about no logging policies when it comes to VPN and as long as the content of the emails are encrypted/not logged, I don’t mind that much.
CEO went full maga, was given an opportunity to correct, then doubled down. After receiving blowback he tripled down and then started lashing out at customers using official channels.
After receiving blowback he tripled down and then started lashing out at customers using official channels.
damn, i only followed the dramma for the first couple posts, do you mind posting a link to read the third one?
I’m not sure if this covers everything, I don’t have access to Reddit. https://sh.itjust.works/post/31843393
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Can someone explain the 4D chess going on here? AFAIK this was just tweet diplomacy, the US hasn’t passed anything about this. So why would google want to handle all the complaints and backlash they’ll take for this?
I think something official was actually signed in the last few days. Dumbest timeline.
So why would google want to handle all the complaints and backlash they’ll take for this?
Because it’s worth getting on trump’s “good side”, per Ajit Pai’s reasoning
backlash? where? did google received any complaint ever?
From official heads of state even: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-president-presents-letter-google-about-gulf-mexico-name-change-2025-01-30/
Time for a repeat comment: Organic Maps does everything Google Maps does (except traffic conditions), and is FOSS. Please encourage places to contribute business information to Open Street Maps.
“Except traffic” is not a little thing. It’s like putting up an ad for a house with all the features you’d expect, except a roof.
With my daily commute, there are a dozen routes I can take and traffic conditions make it so that from day to day, there can be an hour difference between different routes. It’s literally the only reason I use navigation apps over a cheap GPS unit with no live online connection requirement to navigate.
Traffic condition can only be provided if you track millions of phones. I don’t want that, so I opt out. I don’t want Google to manage traffic for me.
I think this is important. That said, traffic info is the whole ballgame for many people. People who live, work, and drive in metro areas frequently use map applications even when driving everyday routes to avoid traffic.
I don’t see Google/Waze/Apple maps getting any less popular unless there is a FOSS alternative that includes live traffic, which does not seem possible while remaining free. People will choose free every time, especially since Google maps works so well.
Personally, I would pay some amount for a privacy-minded alternative, something like OrganicMaps with live traffic. But I doubt it could ever attain the user base it would need to provide accurate traffic info.
Yea, I really wish I had more spare time. Algorithms like this are an area of expertise for me, and I’d love to build an anonymized service that works with Organic Maps. It’s annoying when I know it is something I could make that would support high volume, but just don’t have time for (mainly because of all the ongoing optimization it would require).
Talking about FOSS; I prefer OsmAnd because its licence is GPLv3, as opposed to the Apache 2 licence from Organic Maps.
To be fair:
I’m American and my phone is set up in the US with region being the US.
For me it’s extra strange. If I zoom out, I see “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”. However when I zoom in it changes to just “Guild of America”.
I’m American also in the US.
If you zoom in to 1m resolution and then slowly zoom out, you’ll see the name change back and forth several times. Very odd.
So it’s as stable as our government right now?
You have to zoom in sooo much too for it to say Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). Weird. Makes no sense why Google would do this except to schmooze up to Little-Hands Trump.
It’s the same for europeans, just in a different language.
Yes, Tim Apple bent the knee, but the company seems to be holding steadfast.
Next thing you know they’ll change Canada’s name to Not-yet-United States of America
In Taiwan it says:
Gulf of Mexico(Gulf of America)
Same here in Canada, though I get the American version with an American VPN.
Same for me in Australia
Same for me in the US!
