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What is the best alternative to google maps, not for navigation, but for business discoverability and reviews? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 weeks ago by neo2478@sh.itjust.works to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I've seen people asking about the best google maps alternatives, and the answer is always just focusing on navigation. For that we have plenty of great apps like CoMaps.

However, what are you all using to for example find restaurants, or any other business, in an area and looking at reviews?

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[-] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 98 points 3 weeks ago

when business owners believe that potential customers are using Openstreetmap based apps, they'll add their businesses. until then, we're stuck adding them ourselves. maybe an outreach program would help

[-] Undearius@lemmy.ca 58 points 3 weeks ago

https://osmforbusiness.com/about

There are some tools to help with this

[-] MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, community-sourced is what I would want anyways, so ...

[-] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 25 points 3 weeks ago

IMO we need these business owners to be part of the community bc otherwise the task is too big to map and update all these millions of places with a small, ideological group. i don't think they should have any control over reviews or anything though

[-] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 9 points 3 weeks ago

That raises the question moderation regarding reviews. There is some needed since there is some dubious reviews prsctices.

[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 55 points 3 weeks ago

I've come full circle with this and concluded that the best source is local people. I've spent so much time messing around, hungry, on the internet. Now I try to just ask a random person or two for a recommendation.

[-] godsammitdam@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 weeks ago

This is the real answer. Community.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 41 points 3 weeks ago

I believe there are a few proposals of integrations of different open source review systems into OSM, but they haven't been finalized yet.

Totally agree this is the number one thing missing from open source maps rn, and it should be top priority years ago.

[-] omigibson@aggregatet.org 19 points 3 weeks ago

Happy Cow is good for restaurants.

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

For vegan [friendly] restaurants BTW. Still a cool resource.

[-] neo2478@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

That's the only thing I use for restaurants!

[-] Shamyase@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I'm also gueninely interested for an open-source alternative, but I'm pretty sure Happy Cow is not, right ?

[-] omigibson@aggregatet.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

No I don’t think it is unfortunately, it is just Not Google

[-] makeitwonderful@lemmy.today 16 points 3 weeks ago

I'm interested in the answer to this as well. I navigate exclusively with comaps but I still have to keep google maps to discover restaurants, hotels and attractions.

[-] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I do not think that you can beat Google Maps in that case, as pretty much every business adds themselves to Google Maps voluntarily and also regularly update the entry. No business cares about OSM afaik.

Until Google Maps dies, this will continue happening. The network effect.

[-] themediocrist@piefed.social 6 points 3 weeks ago

The most important part of a review system is the number of users, which currently resides on the big websites like google maps and yelp. For any review app to be useful it needs to have a lot of users to make the reviews, but no one will use that app unless it has enough reviews to be useful.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

A big point of the fediverse apps is building the infrastructure now, so it's ready for a "moment" potentially that would bring more users

[-] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Unfortunately being the big sites that have the reviews and the revenue it brings they are motivated to skew the review results.

So back to square one.

[-] aura@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

yeah, that's my main use for gmaps on an average day, so I also wasn't able to replace it unfortunately

even if they are listed in other apps, I'm often looking for things like open hours and pictures, which are outdated or missing in open source apps

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 5 points 3 weeks ago

I didn't know people used map applications for this.

[-] Sxan@piefed.zip 9 points 3 weeks ago

What do you use? How do you find þe closest one?

[-] Nfamwap@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago

Please dude. Just use th. It's cringe AF.

[-] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 20 points 3 weeks ago

Dude that’s never gonna be a thing. Just spell correctly.

[-] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 3 points 3 weeks ago

[-] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm not an English speaker, what's that symbol? Why is it causing some reactions?

[-] SCmSTR 8 points 3 weeks ago

It's the way some people are choosing to replace the letters "th". I don't know why. A lot of people find it annoying and/or cringe inducing.

More than that, I have no idea. Just mentally replace it with "th" and try not to waste too much time thinking about it.

[-] captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

It is the sound of ”th”.

[-] hunnybubny@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

narrator voice

It is not.

[-] black0ut@pawb.social 6 points 3 weeks ago

It is, it's just that "th" encompasses many sounds. The th in "the" is þ, while the th in "father" is closer to ð. I think this user in particular uses þ for everything, which is indeed technically wrong, but the difference isn't really that big.

[-] SCmSTR 3 points 3 weeks ago

Isn't it, though?? Why do you say it isn't? And I swear to fucking god if you respond "because it isn't"... Smartass lemmings.

[-] captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

That is how the above poster use it and the answer to the above question.

[-] cone_zombie@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

I don't use anything. I see things while out and try them, or maybe ask someone I know. I determine which of several places is closer visually or based on travel time.

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[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

Where I live even Google Maps sucks for this. Most businesses are on it but opening hours are usually wrong or missing and they have few reviews. Keeping this info up to date is a lot of work and few people do it. Businesses only care about google maps.

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[-] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago

I believe you are asking for a service, not an application, let alone it being open source or not.

Please, could you post it on a community more fit to your topic next time?

[-] neo2478@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago

Very helpful comment. Thank you for your contribution.

[-] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, try some community like asklemmy instead, seriously. You people are spamming this community with unrelated content. Just because we may happen to know the answer to your question, does not mean this question fits here.

[-] Sxan@piefed.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Huh. I'd be looking for an app, too. "service" to me implies someþing I can connect to wiþ code. A web app (eg Google Maps) is still an app.

[-] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 1 points 3 weeks ago

[-] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah? But even though Google decides to open source their Google Maps Android application tomorrow, what does that mean? Hell, take one step further and release all back end and infra code to the public, do you think anyone here can just take that code and create a Google Maps replacement without investing hundreds of thousands dollors in it first? What machines will those back end code run on? What map does the application renders without map data? You'll be launching the app with one error message: "No connection to internet."