I still use gmail and drive for work but otherwise I'm never logged into anything google at home. Today when I tried to expand on a restaurant's hours it wouldn't let me see them without logging in, although it still worked in incognito. This restaurant screenshot is just a random other example I tried, but for the one I was actually checking google had the correct hours while the official website hasn't been updated in awhile and had the old ones (website said they're still open for dinner but they've only been doing lunch for a year or so now)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 116 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Sure, go ahead irritating me when trying to use your service. Pushing me to log-in is THE way to drive me to other services. They have nothing to offer that's worth/can justify logging in. nothing.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 27 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    They probably don't care if you use a different service if you don't log in to use theirs. If you don't log in they can't easily monetize you by tracking your data and building a portfolio. Otherwise you use their resources at a cost and they don't make money.

    So threatening to leave for other services isn't exactly a threat.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 19 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    For a long time google existed without an option to create an account

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Except the government wanting this information didn't exist. That's the future, you ID will be tracked (it already is) and the government will know exactly what you say, where you go, and what you do. Throw it at an 'AI' for 'normalcy' and you have Minority Report in a much sadder way.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Man, this is accurate, but I tested Mapquest recently. I like that I can make my position icon a cute little rainbow unicorn, but also it couldn't locate the second Walmart in town. I get the pharmacy at one and the tire place at the other. And the store itself for neither. Like, I really want to know the pharmacy hours here Mapquest.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago

    There is two options: either you have a corporation so everything and they require a way to pay their employees (and most will want some profit), this is the Google way. Of course you can switch to an alternative of a less evil corporation, but you will still be part of that system. The other option is crowd sourced, where everyone who uses also provides a bit. If you use an app based on data from OpenStreetMap, you will find local information lacking. But the beauty is, you can easily contribute. I think Wikipedia is the biggest example of how this system can work. Personally I use CoMaps. Can recommend it, but there are similar options that are just as open source.

  • source
  • parent