Author seems to characterize this as an unreasonable stance to have, but I personally feel like not trusting <Insert Megacorp of choice> is a pretty good default even if it's not necessary the best for all situations.
A minor tragedy of the past 15 years of social networking is it feels like we're reaching the end of that era and, despite every opportunity for better or worse (e.g. Facebook's real name policy), we've emerged with no useful reputation system or web of trust to stem the tide of spam and SEO garbage.
There's a Moorish sovereign citizen group that has a name that is confusingly similar to the US federal government. Their office is labeled a "government office" on Google maps. Every time Google sends me some email telling me about the thousands of people who have been helped by some edit I made years ago, it spurs me to try to correct this location. It's always "not accepted" and it keeps on showing up as a government building. I have no idea what to do at this point, but it seems dangerous to have Google steering people towards a fake government building.
There was also a Kmart that burned down a few years back. Apparently there was a Sears appliance repair service based out of the place. Despite Google having updated aerial and street view imagery showing a fenced, empty lot covered in grass, they never accepted my business no longer exists at this location edits.
I think it is a text book example of the main difference in DNA between Google and Apple:
Google is all about crowdsourcing.
Apple is all about curation.
There only exists few companies with the financial might and margins relative to Opex like Apple and Google, and even rare a company that is controlled by a major shareholder (Meditations on Moloch comes to mind). I don’t see why or how Apple or Google would change their approach to business given the difficulty of doing so coordination wise and the opportunity cost of doing so. I can only see a company doing so if they had an assertive leader at the helm who is ready to pick up the low-hanging fruits of whatever upcoming technology is gonna make the shareholders the most money.
I think it is a text book example of the main difference in DNA between Google and Apple:
Google is all about crowdsourcing.
Apple is all about curation.
Description of how to add a place to apple here: https://www.reddit.com/r/applemaps/comments/gruew8/comment/f...
Google Maps has lots of fictitious locations and routes.
Apple Maps doesn't have biking directions in most places.
Google Maps tells you to bike down the pedestrian line. Or cross through a street with no crossing. Or turn left onto a tunnel that's crossing perpendicular 2m under you (e.g. penetrate through 2 metres of solid ground). I've even had instructions to just bike onto the highway *in the wrong direction* for a few hundred metres.
Google Maps is okay for finding places that don't show u anywhere else, but dangerous for directions and routing.
Organic Maps is surprisingly good with biking directions, but is missing a lot of venues and public transit.