Inosky11h ago
Global Museum
How Google Maps is shaping where we eat.
Josh Toussaint-Strauss discovers that great restaurants are disappearing on Google Maps, despite having lots of reviews and high ratings, so he sets out to get to the bottom of it and finds out that what Google Maps shows us isn't necessarily what we want to see
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2026/mar/19/how-google-maps-is-shaping-where-we-eat-video?utm_source=globalmuseum #globalmuseum #googlemaps #restaurants
5:05pmWeb
Show threadMason Loring Bliss14h ago
@globalmuseum My simple solution here is to not use Google Maps ever, for anything. If I need directions to a place, I'll use MapQuest.
Show threadHenrik Pauli8h ago

@mason @globalmuseum But do you know of the place using MapQuest (OpenStreetMap, whateverelse)?

One of my biggest obstacles with degoogling my maps experience hasn't even been route planning (although that too, many places only have public transportation presence on corporate maps), because I can certainly get from A to B with any map that actually has the locations; but that there's often not nearly as wide a spread of useful POIs as on Google :/

Show threadMason Loring Bliss7h ago
@phl @globalmuseum You can ask for recommendations on the Fediverse. There are review sites like Yelp. There are options.
Show threadHenrik Pauli7h ago

@mason @globalmuseum That's a very different MO from how I do my exploration with restaurants, which is more like "I'll be in this area, let's see what kind of interesting stuff is there by some definition of nearby*" (and maybe ask some friends who happen to know the city or whatever). Pictures and reviews help, and having to switch back and forth between map and yelp is painful

*"nearby" can be indeed as little as a few streets away or on the other side of the Yamanote Line for all I know :D

Show threadMason Loring Bliss7h ago

@phl @globalmuseum Well. You might be stuck with Google, then.

Sometimes inconvenience is the price of breaking free from surveillance capitalism.

Show threadJacen13h ago
@globalmuseum organic maps for me 💪
Show threadj13h ago

@thejacenallen @globalmuseum

If you find some restaurant missing you are welcome to add it.

If you are using Android, I can highly recommend using Streetcomplete, where you can add restaurants through the Places overlay.

If you enable all the restaurant-specific quests, you can add
* opening hours
* Whether they have vegetarian/vegan/halal/kosher food
* whether they have outdoor seating (and what kind)
* how one can pay there
* whether they have AC
* wheelchair accessibility
* toilets

Show threadj13h ago

@thejacenallen @globalmuseum

And i'd say adding the data to OSM is way better then just working for free for Google as some people do ;)

And if you want to add pictures, you can do that through mapcomplete (they upload it to their panoramax). As far as I this is not used by OrganicMaps/CoMaps, but maybe this will be added at some point. Anyhow such pictures are very useful for other people.

Show threadSchneckbert 🐌13h ago
@globalmuseum #enshittification
Show thread🇺🇦🇪🇺 cweickhmann13h ago
@globalmuseum Use OpenStreetMaps and their myriad of apps instead. Contribute, update opening hours, contacts etc. and tell restaurants they can put their website in there for free. Also: donate if you can, infrastructure doesn't grow on trees. 😇
Show threadCurioso 🍉 🇺🇦 (jgg)9h ago

@cweickhmann @globalmuseum

It's like Wikipedia, but for maps.

I find information on OpenStreetMaps more complete than Google Maps; I don't understand why people is still using other kind of maps for anything that OSM can solve.

The idea of somebody creating her own restaurant map reeks of not knowing OSM even exists.

Show threadHenrik Pauli8h ago
@jgg @cweickhmann @globalmuseum If you open Lauren's map site you can see that it's based off of OSM. It's right there in the bottom right corner.
Show threadmaexchen113h ago

@globalmuseum

Überraschung!

Show threadluca12h ago
@globalmuseum Everything that Google touches transforms into gold what's in some billionare pockets. I can't think on any real good for everyone else.
Show threadKinene⭐🐻12h ago
@globalmuseum Organic maps, for me. Off line, less clunky.
Show threadJan Vlug12h ago

@globalmuseum If you like vegan or vegetarian food, better go to VeggieKarte:

https://www.veggiekarte.de/

Veggiekarte - Find vegetarian and vegan places

A map to find vegetarian and vegan restaurants in your city.

Show threadGlobal Museum11h ago
@janvlug No I am not... I just enjoy all cuisines
Show threadBernard11h ago
@globalmuseum I've recently moved to #MagicEarth for navigation, ditched Google Maps and Waze and use Open Street Maps for all the task you are refering to.https://www.magicearth.com
Magic Earth

Where smart navigation meets open roads. Privacy first, by design.

Show threadFlaming Cheeto11h ago
@globalmuseum if Leon is off to the East then there is a clear field of view to the fine restaurant. Too dangerous.
He won't hit the McDonald's: too many kids.
Show threadHTPC NZ11h ago
@globalmuseum wait till Captain Gemini eventually takes over, whatever the nonsense Copilot is doing now will be like child's play in comparison. Yet everyone is very relaxed about it, guess as long as its their corporation team - "Apple", "Google" etc is the ones doing the evil, then it is all good.
Show threadArty10h ago
@globalmuseum check @organicmaps
Show threadF4GRX Sébastien10h ago
@globalmuseum OSM is much better than gmaps at this point. And it's a digital common so everyone can contribute and benefit from it.
Show threadDogiedog6410h ago
It would benefit the world immensely if the Google monopoly on so many things was shattered with the iron boot of the government. Unfortunately, they've effectively bought out the government.
Show threadPieter10h ago
@globalmuseum I can't see the content because of The Guardian's stupid "pay or okay" cookie wall 😕
Show threadGlobal Museum10h ago
@superblox I just ignore it. Read the story and delete cookies from my PC
Show threadFabian ¯\_(ツ)_/¯10h ago
@globalmuseum Nice video! However, how they fail to even mention OpenStreetMap is beyond me..
Show threadideogram7h ago
@globalmuseum
Interesting criticism of Google, but deciding that one woman's website, who used AI to weight Google reviews in one city is the way to go rather than use, idk, OpenStreetMap, or yelp (though yelp may have it's own problems) to look for food is frankly bizarre.
Show threadToast, Anonymous Fedi Fungus3h ago
@globalmuseum I stopped using Google Maps because things I KNEW were there disappeared. It really did stop showing me anything I wanted.
Show threadfan boy 🪭3h ago
@globalmuseum
If I went out to eat more than two times a year this might interest me.