This assume Google can't do anything about it. But it can.
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...
There's nothing wrong with OSM but you can't pretend it is on the same level as Google Maps. Where is streetview? Business opening times? Reviews? Phone numbers? Directions? Turn-by-turn navigation? Live traffic? Historical traffic?
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.
> Where is streetview? Business opening times? Reviews? Phone numbers? Directions? Turn-by-turn navigation? Live traffic? Historical traffic?
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):
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.
You are completely missing the point. This is not a critic of the OSM project. Most of the commenters love that it exists. It's just that if you click on your mobile on google map and osm map, you get a vastly different experience. It's objective.
Open street map don't tell you to go to the left ride of the lane so you can take a better right turn in 100m in real time, then inform you that you have to alternatives to your current trip given the current traffic spike if you wish.
By itself, OSM is just a geo database so it's somewhat misleading to state "what it doesn't tells you".
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.
> there's no fundamental problem in achieving feature parity
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.
If there is a choice between having to watch annoying ads and not having those details, then I go for the more basic system that is ad free. (I do use openstreetmap for 99% for my navigation, mostly because I care about open navigation systems)
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.
I don't think you can compare the ad tracking that Google does now, and what the OSM website used to do years ago. That wiki page is almost 10 years old, with the website mentioned (mappam.com) no longer working.
Though since OSM predates Google Maps, it makes sense that OSM would have another first :P
After being driven through very convoluted paths a bunch of times in the name of saving time and realtime updates, I'd say I very much prefer the consistent sane paths created by months old openstreet maps on my SD card (using mapfactor Navigator)
The first time I tried OSM there were only a couple of roads in place of nearby towns, tried again a couple of years later and everything was there, even more detailed than google's maps
"It's possible that we see a migration from youtube."
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.
But google search has gotten lot worse to find reputable information. Eg try find that is sugar bad for you. I at least get tons of sensational click bait articles instead actual reputable information.
I'm getting an infobox summarising https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-su... when searching for [sugar health]. Then, the first result is the decidedly non-hypolically titled "Is Sugar Really Bad for You? It Depends" from The New York Times
Meanwhile, Bing gives me "10 reasons why sugar is bad for you" and "Sweet Poison: Why Sugar is Ruining our Health".
And this here is exactly why I don't like Google Search. It will return 100 different results for 100 different people all searching for the same string.
The only thing that seems to have worsened is image search, when search by image was first added it was easy to get other copies of an image, now with AI magic it seems to find results in the same category better but not the exact image you're looking for.
It's true that Google search has some fancy features that DDG doesn't have, but I have found that the core search results are very similar. DDG has become a solid search engine with some of its own more specialised fancy features.
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.
"In fact, DuckDuckGo gets its results from over four hundred sources. These include hundreds of vertical sources delivering niche Instant Answers, DuckDuckBot (our crawler) and crowd-sourced sites (like Wikipedia, stored in our answer indexes). We also of course have more traditional links in the search results, which we source from Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex."[1]
One way to look at it: consumers don't spend any money on Google products. So they can continue to use youtube, gmail, search, maps, etc. Maybe just less if ads get too annoying. At the same time, Google's real customers (advertisers) are not tied to any of Google's products. They can place ads where it has most effect.
most ads on youtube really annoying,sometime extra loud to get your attention. There are some creative ads i do enjoy watching. All this means that you can't pepper people wish shit visuals and expect respect. google text adverts - good thing, everything else tries to goad me into acting - feels cheap dirty. I gather they have to tone down their ads and respect their audience? After all and they vying for our attention
>most ads on youtube really annoying,sometime extra loud to get your attention.
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.
>>It can deny the use of it's services to people using ad-blockers.
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.
I don't know how clearly they are on top. I switched to DuckDuckGo more than a year ago and I rarely use Google these days, mostly for the occasional programming-related search that DDG doesn't get right.
For a mum from Spain, the difference would be even smaller. She probably wouldn't even notice she was using a different search engine, the results would be pretty similar to Google's.
I've been using Apple Maps in the UK for the past year after buying a car with CarPlay. I also used it in hire cars in a couple of other European countries. It's pretty good.
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.
The only thing I dislike about Apple Maps is its screwed up hierarchy of importance. Local trains stations, leisure centres, schools etc seem to be afforded the same level of importance as the local nail bar. It's horribly cluttered.
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...
Apple Maps in Singapore is perfect since they added support for public transportation (bus system is a little confusing in Singapore). Now it's so easy to take a bus home when you got lost.
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...