5 ms·
Yeah, google does awful shit every day but it's worth remembering that Maps, Search and YouTube are world-changing resources. All three have their problems (es
by scrollaway 5y ago
Yeah, google does awful shit every day but it's worth remembering that Maps, Search and YouTube are world-changing resources.
All three have their problems (especially that third one) but they have done an incredible amount of Good in the world and they continue to do so every day.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoThe world changing resource is OpenStreetMap. Google Maps is just an asset to better track users. As for YouTube, it is technically marvellous, but since they started censoring and silencing one side of a political spectrum, YT turned into a propaganda machine, no less.
- scrollaway 5y agoI love OSM but without Google Maps it would not exist. It’s just not all black and white.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoActually, OSM was launched before Google Maps, in August 2004, while Google Maps were launched only in February 2005, six months later.
- scrollaway 5y agoI enjoyed your pedantry :) that’s fair enough, but I maintain that without Maps it would not exist in its current state as a reliable alternative to it. Just like I maintain that without Google Search we would not have Bing.
- QuizzicalCarbon 5y agoNow you’ve got me missing AltaVista.
- denton-scratch 5y agoHardly pedantry - scrollaway's observation is that OSM cannot have been a response to Maps, because OSM launched before Maps. GP said: "without Google Maps it would not exist." It's not pedantry to note that's the opposite of the truth.
- scrollaway 5y agoIt would not exist "as you know it today", which is a valid version of "it would not exist". Like i said, i appreciated the comment, it was pedant for a very valid reason. Yours, less so.
- pygy_ 5y agoNeither are being pedantic. There's a pretty large difference (a complete categorical one, actually), between not existing and having been influenced. Your dismissive tone all around is pretty jarring too. You were factually, categorically wrong (twice now). That happens. You may want to accept it gracefully it and go on with your day.
- scrollaway 5y agoIf "that's fair enough" is dismissive to you, I hope I never end up having to break up with you! You're not the person I was replying to, I don't have to justify myself to you. If you want me to be graceful, you can come watch me at the rink instead.
- pygy_ 5y agoI didn't expect justifications. I just wanted to point out how wrong you were, and how petulant your reaction was when it was pointed out (several times), just in case it may help open your eyes. Obviously it didn't.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoWell, I disagree. The first web client that OSM had been, of course, very different: there wasn't smooth scrolling, etc, which were added after Google Maps did it. However, a nice and smooth client with drag and zoom was a rather obvious thing to do: a lot of computer games had maps in them as early as in late 1980s, like Sim City and many others, where you could zoom, drag along etc, and it wasn't done in OSM rigth from the start mostly due to pitiful state of web browsers and web standards of the time. So I think that even without Google Maps, OSM would have evolved to have great usability, just as it did in our timeline.
- quixoticelixer- 5y agoWhat side of the political spectrum did they silence?