#google maps

[389]

Nine Eyes of Google Street View Jon Rafman

#art #photography #google #streets #landscape #street view #google maps #animals #people #urban #travel #jon rafman #u

[filmap]

Fresh Mimi Cave. 2022

Street 245 Powell St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1G3, Canada See in map

See in imdb

#mimi cave #fresh #daisy edgar-jones #vancouver #british columbia #canada #movie #cinema #phone #film #location #google maps #street view #2022

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Google Maps is worse than useless - actively harmful

Hard to overstate how enshittified and botshitted Google Maps has become. Went looking for my local locksmith on Gmaps. Maps shows 20+ fake locksmith referral scam outlets and doesn't even register the real locksmith, despite it being fully visible in Street View.

Instead, a red pin on the shop identifies it as a fake locksmith scammer. The real locksmith - which has been there SINCE 1942 (!!) and is a verified merchant - doesn't even show up.

Google has been promising to clean up locksmith scams since the early 2010s, and has completely failed. A company that can't figure this out - but still has $80b for a stock buyback! - does not deserve the 90% market share in search it spends $26b/year to maintain.

#google maps #enshittification #locksmiths #locksmith scam

[animentality]

#twitter #google maps

[melthedumdum]

Google maps new baltimore glitch that happened in 2013

#weirdcore #weird dreams #dreamcore #oddcore #liminal spaces #glitchcore #glitch aesthetic #stop liking this so much #google maps

[zegalba]

Google Maps Glitched New Baltimore Renders (2013)

#google maps #new baltimore #weird core #hell #melting #glitch #2013

[one-time-i-dreamt]

The entire west of France didn’t show up on Google Maps anymore.

#dream #text #france #google maps #geography #google #map #queueueueueueueueueueueueueue

[todays-xkcd]

"The police told me I can't be a doctor, but whenever they show up I just go into the Google Maps settings page I found and change the house to 'Police Headquarters' and then they have to do what I say."

Doctor's Office [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Beret Guy is sitting at a desk, wearing a lab coat. Cueball is walking in from the right.] Beret Guy: Welcome to the doctor! Beret Guy: We're like librarians, but for your bones and blood.

[Beret Guy is holding a thermometer attached to a device in Cueball's mouth and a bottle.] Beret Guy: Uh-oh! This beeper says you're too hot. Beret Guy: You should eat some of these little snacks that make you colder.

[Beret Guy is holding a pen, and Cueball is holding a clipboard with a crossword on it.] Beret Guy: We can make holes in you, but you have to fill out this form first. Cueball: This is a New York Times crossword. Beret Guy: Don't worry, it's a Monday, so it's not too hard.

[Beret Guy is now dragging in machine labeled "MRI" on a dolly.] Cueball: This is a doctor's office, right? Beret Guy: Yeah! It used to be my house, but I found the setting on Google Maps to change it. Beret Guy: Hey, wanna help find out what this box does? I bet it's loud!

#xkcd #xkcd 2850 #doctor's office #webcomics #beret guy #google maps

[spectrometrie]

#mongolia #google maps

[screenshotsofdespair]

#submission #google maps

[blogtodayys]

SMMPANELTR - ÖZEL

SMM Paneli veya Sosyal medya bayilik paneli olarak tanınan Smmpaneltr.com, kullanıcılara çeşitli sosyal medya hizmetleri sunan bir platformdur. Bu hizmetler yüksek miktarlarda ve sürekli olarak takipçi, beğeni, görüntüleme, yorum ve diğer etkileşimlerin satın alınmasını kapsayabilir. Platform, özellikle sosyal medya varlıklarını ve etkileşimlerini hızlı ve verimli bir şekilde geliştirmek isteyen bireyler veya işletmeler için faydalıdır. Smmpaneltr, Türkiye'de şifresiz, güvenilir hizmetler sunan popüler bir SMM Panelidir. Bu paneller Instagram, TikTok, YouTube ve Twitter dahil olmak üzere çeşitli sosyal medya platformlarında mevcuttur. SMM Panel, kullanıcıların sosyal medyadaki varlıklarını ve etkileşimlerini geliştirmelerine yardımcı olacak bir dizi hizmet sunar. Bu hizmetler, diğerlerinin yanı sıra beğenileri, takipçileri, yorumları ve görüntülemeleri içerebilir. Instagram paneli, Instagram ve diğer platformlar için takipçi, beğeni ve görüntüleme sağlayan hizmetlerden biridir. Yüksek miktarlarda sosyal medya hizmeti satın alması gereken kullanıcılara daha uygun fiyatlar sunuyor. SMM Panel, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook ve diğer sosyal medya platformlarında takipçi, beğeni ve görüntüleme sağlayan en güvenilir sitedir. Bu hizmetler her düzeyde ve her platformda farklı şekilde çalışır, ancak hepsi kullanıcıların sosyal medyadaki varlıklarını geliştirmelerine ve daha geniş bir kitleye ulaşmalarına yardımcı olmayı amaçlamaktadır. Sosyal medya pazarlaması için bir SMM Panelinin kullanılması bireylere ve işletmelere çeşitli avantajlar sunar. Öncelikle bu paneller takipçi, beğeni, izlenme, yorum gibi en yüksek kalitede etkileşimleri sağlar. İkinci olarak, hızlı teslimat ve müşteri dostu fiyatlar sunarak kullanıcıların bütçeleri dahilinde kalmasını kolaylaştırırlar. Üçüncüsü, bu hizmetler kullanıcıların daha geniş bir kitleye ulaşmasını sağlayarak sosyal medyadaki görünürlüklerini ve katılımlarını artırır. Son olarak, sosyal medya varlığını ve katılımını iyileştirmenin kullanışlı ve etkili bir yolunu sunarak kullanıcıların zamandan ve emekten tasarruf etmesini sağlar. Bu hizmetlere ilişkin ödeme seçenekleri farklılık gösterir ancak çoğu panel, kullanıcıların hizmetleri satın almasını kolaylaştırmak için birden fazla ödeme seçeneği sunar. Daha fazla bilgi için web sitemizi ziyaret edebilirsiniz.

#SMM Panel #Sosyal medya #Instagram #Tumblr #Twitter #X #Google Maps #Takipçi #Follow

[filmap]

È stata la mano di Dio / The Hand of God Paolo Sorrentino. 2021

Villa Villa Giusso Astapiana, Via Camaldoli, 51, 80069 Vico Equense NA, Italy See in map

See in imdb

#paolo sorrentino #È stata la mano di dio #the hand of god #filippo scotti #toni servillo #teresa saponangelo #marlon joubert #luisa ranieri #campania #vico equense #columns #movie #cinema #film #location #google maps #street view #italy #villa #2021

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

If you're running a business, you can either invest at being good at your business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love you – but they won't be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the latter. And if you're going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in quality at all?

For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about "lead gens" – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps (these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (especially a locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They'll take your call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo to come out and charge you four times the going rate for substandard work:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html

Some of them just take your money and they "go back to the shop for a tool" and never return:

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/when-a-fake-business-used-a-real-st-louis-address-things-got-weird-32087998

Google has been promising to fix this since the late aughts, and to be fair, it's a little better. There was once a time when a map of Manhattan showed more locksmiths than taxis:

https://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/18/google-maps-proves-more-locksmiths-in-nyc-than-cabs/

But GMaps is trapped in the enshittification squeeze. On the one hand, the company wants to provide a good and reliable map. On the other hand, the company makes money selling "ads" that are actually payola, where a business can pay to get to the top of the listings or get displayed on the map itself. Zoom out of Google's map of central London and the highlighted landmarks are a hilarious mix of "organic" and paid listings: the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican, the London Eye…and a random oral and maxillofacial clinic in the financial district:

https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie/status/1764711667663831455

Hell of a job "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful," Big G. Doubtless the average Londoner finds the presence of this clinic super helpful in orienting themselves relative to the map on their phone screens, and it's a real service to tourists hoping to hit all the major landmarks.

It's not just Maps users who'd noticed the rampant enshittification. Even the original design team is so horrified they're moved to speak out about the moral injury they experience seeing the product they worked so hard on turned into a giant pile of shit:

https://twitter.com/elizlaraki/status/1727351922254852182

Now, when it comes to locksmiths, I'm lucky. My neighborhood in Burbank includes the wonderful Golden State Lock and Safe, which has been in business since 1942:

https://www.goldenstatelock.com/

But you wouldn't know it from searching GMaps for a locksmith near me. That search turns up a long list of scams:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/locksmith/@34.1750451,-118.369948,14z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu

It also turns up plenty of Keyme machines – these are private-equity backed, self-serve key-cutting machines placed in grocery stores. Despite Keyme calling itself a "locksmith," it's just a badly secured, overcaptilized, enshittification-bound system for collecting and retaining shapefiles for the keys to millions of homes, cross-referenced with billing information that will make it easy for the eventual hackers to mass-produce keys for all those poor suckers' houses.

(Hilariously, Keyme claims to be an "AI" company):

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200114005194/en/KeyMe-Raises-35-Million-to-Further-Its-Mission-of-Building-the-Premier-Locksmith-Services-Company-in-the-Nation

But despite the fact that you can literally see the Golden State storefront from Google Streetview, Google Maps claims to have no knowledge of it. Instead, Streetview labels Golden State "Keyme" – and displays a preview showing a locksmith using a tool to break into a jeep (I'd dearly love to know how the gadget next to the Slurpee machine at the 7-Eleven will drive itself to your jeep and unlock the door for you when you lose your keys):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/KeyMe+Locksmiths/@34.1752624,-118.3487531,3a,75y,350.19h,90.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssHrtqjqvgFir3NBauMy13Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x80c2959cd65dbb1b:0x4b3744cf87492a71!2sBurbank+Blvd+%26+N+Hollywood+Way,+Burbank,+CA+91505!3b1!8m2!3d34.1750025!4d-118.3493484!16s%2Fg%2F11f37_3lq8!3m5!1s0x80c2951cedbf4d39:0xe8ff9fd5872e66e9!8m2!3d34.1755176!4d-118.349!16s%2Fg%2F11mw7nr4fx?entry=ttu

It's pretty clear to me what's going on here. Keyme has hired some SEO creeps and/or paid off Google, flooding the zone with listings for its machines. Meanwhile, Golden State, being merely good at locksmithing, has lost the SEO wars. Perhaps Golden State could shift some of its emphasis from being good at locksmithing in order to get better at SEO, but this is a race that will always be won by the firm that puts the most into SEO, which will always be the firm that puts the least into quality.

Whenever I write about this stuff, people inevitably ask me which search engine they should use, if not Google?

And there's the rub.

Google used predatory pricing and anticompetitive mergers to acquire a 90% search market-share. The company spends more than $26b/year buying default position in every place where you might possibly encounter a new search engine. This created the "kill zone" – the VC's term of art for businesses that no one will invest in, because Google makes sure that no one will ever find out it exists:

https://www.theverge.com/23802382/search-engine-google-neeva-android

That's why the only serious competitor to Google is Bing, another Big Tech company (Bing is also the primary source of results on Duckduckgo, which is why DDG sometimes makes exceptions for Microsoft's privacy-invading tracking):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Controversies

Google tells us that the quid-pro-quo of search monopolization is search excellence. The hundreds of billions it makes every year through monopoly control gives it the resources it needs to fight spammers and maintain search result quality. Anyone who's paid attention recently knows that this is bullshit: Google search quality is in free-fall, across all its products:

https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think it has a problem. Rather than devoting all its available resources to fighting botshit, spam and scams, the company set $80 billion dollars alight last year with a stock buyback that was swiftly followed with 12,000 layoffs, followed by multiple subsequent rounds of layoffs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

The scams that slip through Google's cracks are sometimes nefarious, but just as often they're decidedly amateurish, the kind of thing that Google could fix by throwing money at the problem, say, to validate that new ads for confirmed Google merchants come from the merchant's registered email addresses and go to the merchant's registered website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Search is a capital intensive business, and there are real returns to scale, as the UK Competition and Market Authority's excellent 2020 study describes:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fe4957c8fa8f56aeff87c12/Appendix_I_-_search_quality_v.3_WEB_.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think that its search needs that $80 billion to fight the spamwars. That's the thing about monopolists, they get complacent. As Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the AT&T operator" used to say, "We don't care, we don't have to, we're the phone company."

That's why I'm so excited about the DOJ Antitrust Division monopolization case against Google. Trusting one company to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," was a failure:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

I understand why people want to know which search engine they should use instead of Google, and I get why, "There aren't any good search engines" is such an unsatisfactory answer. I understand why each fresh round of printer-company fuckery prompts people to ask "which printer should I get?" and I understand why "There are only six major printer companies and they're all suffering from end-stage enshittification" isn't what anyone wants to hear.

We want to be able to vote with our wallets, because it's so much faster and more convenient than voting with our ballots. But the vote-with-your-wallet election is rigged for the people with the thickest wallets. Try as hard as you'd like, you just can't shop your way out of a monopoly – that's like trying to recycle your way out of the climate emergency. Systemic problems need systemic solutions – not individual ones.

That's why the new antitrust matters so much. The answer to monopolies is to break up companies, block and unwind mergers, ban deceptive and unfair conduct. "Caveat emptor" is the scammer's motto. You shouldn't have to be an expert on lead gen scams to hire a locksmith without getting ripped off.

There are good products and services out there. Earlier this year, we decided to install a (non-networked) programmable pushbutton lock. I asked Deviant Ollam – whom I know from Defcon's Lockpicking Village – for a recommendation and he suggested the Schlage FE595:

https://www.schlage.com/en/home/products/FE595PLYFFFFLA.html

I liked it so much I bought another one for my office door. Eric from Golden State Lock and Safe installed it while I wrote this blog-post. It's great. I recommend both of 'em – 10/10, would do business again.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#vapor-locksmith

Image: alicia rae (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kehole_Red.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

--

Budhiargomiko (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wasteland.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #enshittification #locksmith scams #google #google maps #monopoly #doj #seo #big tech

[copperbadge]

Me opening googlemaps to check the drive distance on something: What the f --

Googlemaps: *puts on an Apple Maps costume* How u like me now?

Apparently Google Maps has adjusted its color palette to somewhere between irritating and unreadable, presumably in an effort to appear more similar to Apple Maps and edge them out, because yeah, that was a major threat.

I know it makes me the Old Man Yells At Sky meme but I hate everything that has happened to the internet visually since 2016.

[ID: A screengrab of the new Google Maps, with lurid blue for water and green for parkland, cream and yellow for various parts of the city of Chicago, and vivid grey streets that make it almost impossible to read the street names. Surely this will not cause problems for anyone and was an absolutely necessary change to make for reasons unrelated to Google forgetting to not be evil.]

#google #google maps #heads up #google migraine

[melthedumdum]

Another image from the same glitch on google maps in 2013

#weirdcore #glitchcore #glitch aesthetic #google maps #oddcore #dreamcore #weird dreams #liminal spaces

[realgoogleslides]

Hello :)

-@wow-google-maps

(@realgoogledocs @incognito-mode-official @yes-im-youtube-kids @void-blank-space @the-real-google)

#google slides #google slides is the best google app #google slides slideshow #google maps