Two alternatives to Google to know where we are standing

By asking the Google assistant you get to Rome. Of course, the company's servers will take careful note that you asked, they will compare with the GPS of your phone if you were, and they will make you a few suggestions from some of their advertisers.

I've written quite a bit on this blog about the privacy nightmare that is Android (I am not talking about iOS because I have never used it. However, I had not been aware of the dimension. I am basically a user of low-end phones because I only use mobile for banking applications (which refuse to have a website ) and being able to use the inevitable WhatsApp Low-end means the Go version of Android that works mainly with web applications.

However, my mobile died and my niece gave me a Motorola G5 in good condition And, the G5 supports the full version of Android 8.1. Suddenly I came across everything Google knew about me.

One day I began to receive notifications of expiration of invoices. I never asked the assistant to let me know about that. But, since I had used my Google account to log into the websites of certain companies to find out how much I owed, Google decided to save me the work.

At some point I signed up to collaborate with Local Guides, the business information service. Now I get messages asking if I was in "The Palace of Degenerates" just because I walked past the door.

I decided that this is a good time for Google and I to take some time and meet other people (or in this case applications)

Two alternatives to Google Maps and Earth

OsmAnd instead of Google Maps

My always choice to know how to get from place A to place B was BA How do I get there?, the official application of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. Developed by none other than the creator of PopCorn Time, it is based on the maps of the OpenStreetMap project. Many cities do the same, so my advice is to look for information on the official application of the place where you live.

OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to build a world map based on volunteer collaborations. In fact, I had a chance to warn the developers of BA How do I get there? of an error in the direction of a street and after a short while verifying that the correction was already incorporated into the parent project. OSM can be checked from the web and there are also many desktop and mobile applications that use its maps.

In the browser you have basic functions such as zooming in, zooming out, overlaying maps or detecting your location.

An excellent map application to use on mobile is OsmAnd. Based on OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia, it allows you to navigate offline through the different maps that you have downloaded.

With navigation features for bikes and walkers, it provides information on points of interest, road signs, and public transportation. It also offers an auditory guide with synthesized voices.

We can do a search for sites by address, name, item or coordinates

Marble as an alternative to Google Earth Pro

This program It is one of the not so well known jewels of the KDE project. It is a virtual globe and world atlas that is also powered by OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia.

The desktop version allows you to opt forr representation as globe, atlas, satellite, street, or topographic. Addresses or points of interest can be searched both online and offline. On the project website there is talk of a version for Android, but it does not exist in the Google store and there are no links to other application stores.

Marble gives you the ability to layer information on maps such as weather, related Wikipedia articles, zip codes, photos, or real-time traffic information.

It is possible that there are no open source applications that fully replace Google services. But, undoubtedly the improvement in our privacy justifies combining several of them.