I thought Gruber was getting more balanced. I guessed wrong.
Maps don't improve by themselves. They improve by complaints, feedback, input.
They also don't degrade by themselves. Unless Gruber et al are under some amazing assumption that Google now has no investment in Maps, is not getting street data, topographical data, traffic data any more.
Though, mind you, this assumption isn't far fetched. Much as some of these pundits live their life in the Apple ecosystem, they seem to be blissfully (or willfully) ignorant of the fact that "mobile Maps" is but one segment of Google Maps. Millions of people rely on it, daily, on their desktops.
To be fair: maps do "degrade by themselves", simply because the world changes and they must be updated to prevent being wrong in the future. Obviously that's no more or less true of any data source, so Gruber still isn't making any sense...
Maps don't improve by themselves. They improve by complaints, feedback, input.
They also don't degrade by themselves. Unless Gruber et al are under some amazing assumption that Google now has no investment in Maps, is not getting street data, topographical data, traffic data any more.
Though, mind you, this assumption isn't far fetched. Much as some of these pundits live their life in the Apple ecosystem, they seem to be blissfully (or willfully) ignorant of the fact that "mobile Maps" is but one segment of Google Maps. Millions of people rely on it, daily, on their desktops.