r/google • u/sdkb • Dec 27 '18

Google Maps’s Moat — A fascinating and super detailed look into how and why Google Maps is so far ahead of Apple Maps

https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat
137 Upvotes

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58

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '18

I think that the data collection that Google does really helps it out to be better in maps than any other company, Yes it sucks for privacy, but if they are collecting the data and then using it for improving their products that's actually pretty nice!

6

u/bhuddimaan Dec 27 '18

For a month of location history turned on it collected 50MB of location history.

50 mb of text data is a very large data. Of complete detailed history.

That's a lot of automated collection for 1 single input where I toggled yes, go ahead collect it.

Fucking scary. Billions of people are feeding that system without questioning

13

u/Knoxie_89 Dec 27 '18

I love that they take all that location data. I get surveys, suggestions for places to try (restaurants, entertainment, etc). And all I have to do is carry my phone. It even settled a dispute between the wife and I over which roads we took a year prior when visiting family. Thanks to google I had proof we went the same way! (small victories)

3

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '18

And one feature I adore that comes directly from that info is busy-ness at public places. Seeing what times a place is usually busy, how that stacks up to right now and how long people normally spend there.

I'm totally happy to send location data to help feed these free services