[lucb1e]

> I think gmaps excels at mapping businesses because that's where the money flows, but doesn't give a single damn about useful things like water fountains because water fountains don't buy ads.

I think it's rather the other way around: people that operate those businesses want their information to show up correctly on Google Search (or as many non-tech people call it: the internet).

It's not that Google can sell ads about those businesses so much as those businesses having a financial interest in being accurate on Google search and, which then became big due to being tied in, google maps. It seems like the very definition of using your monopoly in one market to also dominate another, but TomTom (and whatever other commercial services came before Google's map) don't seem to agree or I imagine they'd have taken action.

Meanwhile OSM sucks at this compared to benches/fountains because it's so ephemeral. People do map businesses, but it's out of date so fast, it's easy to stop bothering. Half the stores I mapped in a town near me went out of business in the past few years. Wooden unmaintained benches in a forest last comparatively longer.