Comment by socalgal2
15 hours ago
It not a completely one sided relationship. I'm using google maps for free!!! That's HUGE benefit to me. That google makes money from it is irrelevant to me. They're paying me by providing a free service that I get tons of usage out all the time.
Yeah, and you made a fix for both yourself, and presumably other people as well. Additionally, some people submit fixes for recognition, too.
This, I submit photos and corrections to maps all the time, because those photos and corrections help me as well as other people. I derive way more benefit than I personally provide but I'm OK with that and google is too.
It's not free. The cost is the information about where you are and what you're looking for basically at all time.
It's free, but it's a dependency.
I don't have sharp rhetoric for it, but I could find bipartisanship with right-wingers if they apply the "big government giving you welfare means they can take it away from you" to free web services.
OpenStreetMap is always behind on business data, but it has data that Google doesn't have, and it can't be taken away near as easily. And requires no account at all.