Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again

alephnerd

Take that Cory Doctrow [0] [0] - https://boingboing.net/2019/10/10/do-webrings-next.html

ChrisArchitect

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49510969

wlonkly

They'll get their 15 minutes, but there's no _there_ there. They're owned by System1, a bottom-of-the-barrel advertising company where 1990s web brands go to die (Metacrawler? Startpage.com?? Dogpile?!?!). Their maps are OpenStreetMaps maps. People think they have their back (because OSM is showing Lake Ontario), but it's just marketing.

chrononaut

> In 2019, Verizon sold MapQuest to internet advertising company System1. It's ad companies all the way down.

pmdulaney

On the back of a cocktail napkin, I drew a map of you...

egberts1

Once again, private equity ruined another fine company ... with incessant advertisements

Varelion

Finding MapQuest on the PlayStore was a quest all on its own. More specifically, it does not exist on my PlayStore, and I had to install it on my phone remotely through the browser PlayStore. Review wise, it sits firmly at a single star, so it's possible that Google burried it, although I would not put it past them to rig things.

standeven

I think a lot of people are desperate for tech giants to stand up to the current US administration.

organsnyder

I tried it out for a trip yesterday. I wanted to love the app—it has a great retro feel, and an ad-free subscription option—but it gave me weird routes and the audio was extremely stuttery.

gnuplustoejam

It still says Ontario because there's no one left at MapQuest that knows how to change it.

ghostoftiber

I feel like it wasn't defiance as much as "we need to come up with a story why we don't have any developers who know how to update this".

RajT88

I enjoy how Bing Maps (and Bing in general) are so unloved that it's not even part of the debate. (Bing Maps hasn't changed - yet - but probably will eventually, since they caved on the Gulf of Mexico)

afavour

I get why people want Apple and Google to push back but ultimately there isn’t any logical approach for them to operate that isn’t “name things as the relevant governmental bodies name them”. Otherwise what source of truth is there? The responsibility here is with a spineless government. An executive order is not a law and a congress that did its job would quickly contract these kind of mad king declarations.

yndoendo

I've dumped Google Maps for OSM over three years ago and have not looked back. Did this as one of my de-Google steps by choosing a Fairphone. Looking at a FuriLabs FLX1S to start the next phase by switching to a Linux phone. I've become a sunk cost to Google by not spending anything on their products or services and always use Ad-Block solution in a private session if I must.

stickfigure

In other news, Canada will be renaming Lake Michigan to Lake Epstein. (saw it on the internet, had to share)

guywithahat

Sad to see the WaPo wishcasting with no clear benefit