Hard to overstate how enshittified and botshitted Google Maps has become. Went looking for my local locksmith on Gmaps. Maps shows 20+ fake locksmith referral scam outlets and doesn't even register the real locksmith, despite it being fully visible in Street View.
Instead, a red pin on the shop identifies it as a fake locksmith scammer. The real locksmith - which has been there SINCE 1942 (!!) and is a verified merchant - doesn't even show up.
Google has been promising to clean up locksmith scams since the early 2010s, and has completely failed.
A company that can't figure this out - but still has $80b for a stock buyback! - does not deserve the 90% market share in search it spends $26b/year to maintain.
@pluralistic nothing will get fixed until companies that offer communication services to scammers start being held liable for them.
Every phone company that accepts forged phonecall headers that mislead callers to the provenance of a scammer's call.
Every ad company that pushes ads for malware.
Every public index like Maps that redirects requests for specific, legit businesses into scammers.
If you're assisting a scammer because you did zero diligence, you need to be held liable for it.
@flxtr That would be a hilarious lawsuit.
"We're suing Google because we got de-listed from their search engine after a Google ad hosted malware on our site"
"So you're suing Google for de-listing you?"
"No, Google can list who they want in the Search Engine."
"But you said you're suing Google."
"No, we're suing Google Ads for reputational harm with the Search Engine."
"The Google search engine?"
"Yes."
"So you're saying that Google embarrassed you in the eyes of Google."
"Yes."
@flxtr @Pxtl That happened to us in 2013. Not only that, giant black-screen 'attack page!' warnings came down to anyone who tried to access our sites. We found the malicious code and deleted it within hours. Google was still libelling us one week later despite claiming we would be cleared quickly by their bot.
I even found a site it was “warning” people about seven months after it was cleaned. Needless to say, Google killed that business.
Seven months after Google blacklisted our websites over false allegations of malware, I can say that the traffic to some has not recovered. And to prove that Google continues to publish libel based on its highly dubious systems, here are two screen shots from my browser tonight, which I saw when trying to access bjskosherbaskets.com,
@flxtr Totally, having a human inside helps. I had an issue with something I was helping a friend on, and once we identified someone inside Google, the issue was fixed within a few days. It had languished on the support forums (the “proper channels”) for six months prior, with Google cultists stonewalling and gaslighting.
It was so bad, Techdirt did a story on it.
It probably was never "most of the web". It was the tiny part of the web most people were expecting to see.
@unikitty @pluralistic The actual indexes, (if I'm remembering correctly, yahoo had one?), that categorised and listed websites might be due for a comeback now that searching has failed.
Things like the curated "awesome lists" on GitHub seem to learn in that direction, and reddit in its prime also seemed to be kind of heading in that direction with voting on links grouped by topic.
Google maps no longer works with the Brave browser. The search box won't accept text.
I'll stop using Brave on IOS when some other browser adblocker becomes available that works as well as firefox+ublockOrigin does on other platforms. Meanwhile, neither Brave nor the ad sellers and trackers make any money off me.
@artemesia @wonka @pluralistic
Have you tried #Vivaldi ?
I haven't used Brave for some time so not 100% up-to-date with it's blocking capabiliities but Vivaldi does have some Ad and Tracker blocking abilities (probably as much as Brave due to iOS Webkit requirements).
Worth a look anyway just to get rid of Brave.
@pluralistic Someone here is currently writing about this - the locksmiths are a huge, organized scam, and the operations sprawl through multiple countries and I don't know what else I'm allowed to say about it rn.
They started showing up at Missi Ryan's door in June, asking about a garage door repair company. There was an older woman who said she'd paid $39.99 for a service call that never showed, and a man who had paid the $200 quoted to him by a repairman.
Impressive.
@holyramenempire @pluralistic " Ryan says the police seemed completely uninterested. In an interview earlier this week, she said that she tried to file a police report about the ongoing fraud, but claims that she's never been able to speak with a detective, even after she waited for hours at her local precinct. "
Pigs not doing their job is a large chunk of problems everywhere and I am not shocked by this.
@martin_fff @holyramenempire @pluralistic
It’s the same with white pages. To find anybody using the Net you have to pay. It’s a good thing I have info like that written down in my journals going back decades.
@spacebot3000 Define "good".
Depending on your needs and location, #OpenStreetMaps may be good enough. I like https://osmand.net/ a lot as a frontend, especially for offline use.
@wonka
I'm trying, really hard, to truly make the switch to OSM. It's tough because I'm finding an uncomfortable amount of wrong and missing information, but I finally decided to start trying to fix the things I know the corrections for. And of course, the more people doing this, the better the system will be.
Even assuming I can fix the OSM data I need, though, I'm still struggling to find an app that uses *live* OSM data, especially one that supports navigation on Android Auto. So far, it seems like all nav apps on android have the maps built into the app offline, so the app itself has to update to update the maps.
@chronohart https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/ can, even needs to, download maps with a nice interface.
@keith
Okay, I figured out how to use online OSM data directly, so that should help a lot. Thanks! I never realized this was an option.
New to #OpenStreetMap? Here are some ways to contribute: * StreetComplete (Android) gamifies adding data to the map. * OsmAnd (Android, iOS) is a navigation app that allows adding Points of Interests to the map. * The iD editor (web) is launched by the edit button on osm.org. It's a good way to help in HOT tasks like for the Morocco earthquake. * The JOSM editor (Windows, Mac, Linux) it’s the heavyweight. * If you like JOSM, you’ll probably like Vespucci (Android). Welcome to the map! #osm
@wonka @spacebot3000 @pluralistic
I've used Maps.me for many years, which also relies on OSM.
Being old, I just wanted a map that functioned akin to paper, and offline to boot. It seemed popular among folks working in remote Canadian camps with no internet.
It became an annual subscription a couple years' back, which is reasonable (but out of my budget on a disability pension).
Basic features work fine regardless. 🙂
Oh wow, thank you very much! ❤️ This looks like it does everything I need. Downloaded and favourite maps added. 🙂
@spacebot3000 You should contribute the addresses back to osm, and they will show up in any osm based app. If there is already a list of addresses, maybe they are not available with a compatible licence.
You should contact your local community maybe they don't know about his source, and if it's compatible they can help import it, find your local osm community here: https://openstreetmap.community
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@spacebot3000 If the source is not compatible, you can add them manually by surveying the buildings. There are very nice apps for that, e.g.:
- https://streetcomplete.app
- https://every-door.app
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@spacebot3000 @pluralistic I've been using OrganicMaps which uses OpenStreetMap data for a while now and it works really well for me. True offline maps are great.
Though because its OSM, its usefulness does depend on how dense the data is in your area.
@spacebot3000 @pluralistic not an app, but in browser check out the old classics.
In Sweden the Yellow Pages website still have really good maps for example.
Can confirm a similar experience recently with plumbers.
@pluralistic Apple Maps has the same issue. A quick search brings up two of those KeyMe listings right next to each other, one inside a Target and one inside a Safeway.
It does at least list the real local locksmith
Aha! It’s just another stochastic terrorist attack or planned operation to drive the population batshit resulting in mass chaos and slaughter.
Everything these days seems to belong to works of ‘fiction’: 1984, Brave New World, 7 Days In May, come to mind (I’m old) Dystopian current novels by the armload.
The first thoughts could be the seed of one of those novels. I started one very like back in 1981. In some ways I am now living it. Luckily I only wrote a few pages.
Ian Caldwell
Cory Doctorow
Pxtl
trusty falxter 🧠
Jack Yan (甄爵恩)
Krupo
Alberto Cottica
Locksmith
Princess Unikitty
C.Suthorn 
LonM
Chiara
Artemesia
Wilfried Klaebe
Owen 🇦🇺🦘
Joseph Riparian 🏳️⚧️
GLC
NosirrahSec 🏴☠️ guillotine enthusiast
martin_fff
NoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️🌈
tx0
chronohart
Keith
Rihards Olups
Jez Nicholson
Marcos Dione
Likely Jan Lukas
infeeeee
Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑
Von Xylofon
ManMachine
benoitdd
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
My camera shoots fascists
Molenaar
Andrew
Aethelstan
Steve 
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
sunflowerinrain