Global Museum3d ago
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
Show threadMason Loring Bliss3d 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 Pauli2d 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 Bliss2d ago
@phl @globalmuseum You can ask for recommendations on the Fediverse. There are review sites like Yelp. There are options.
Show threadHenrik Pauli2d 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 threadNemo
@phl
sure, but as the article indicates, Google is not doing what you think it does.
@mason @globalmuseum
Mar 22 at 2:17pmWeb
Show threadHenrik Pauli2d ago
@iinavpov @mason @globalmuseum Yup, and I've seen stupid (merely buggy? slopcoded? misguided? actively malicious? who knows) behaviour from it myself. It's just that so far the alternatives have not managed to fill the gap in my use cases.
Show threadNemo2d ago
@phl
what is your user case, tough, if you're being fed wrong and misleading information?
@mason @globalmuseum