Links 2026-05-19
on the decline of the open web and its communities…
- Should you fix errors and contribute to Google Maps for free? – Daniel Aleksandersen
Google Maps is incredibly detailed and useful. But Google uses it for tracking and deliver ads. Should you contribute for free to build its monopoly?
→ with follow-up Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap for free? – Cj Malone - Why OpenStreetMap is in Serious Trouble – Serge Wroclawski
As long as this post is, it’s not a comprehensive list of all the problems with the project, only the ones I found most directly affect the project’s success and that I wasn’t able to address myself during my time on the project.
- The Third Web – tante
For anyone that wants to know what all the fuss is about and why they should care.
- Stack overflow is almost dead – Gergely Orosz
Today, Stack overflow has almost as few questions asked per month, as when it launched back in 2009. A recap of its slow, then rapid, downfall.
- The Old Internet Died And We Watched And Did Nothing – Katie Notopoulos
When we signed up for these services in the 2000s, we naively trusted them.
- Endgame for the Open Web – Anil Dash
What we are seeing is the application of the same market-crushing techniques that were used to displace entire industries with the rise of social media and the gig economy, now being deployed across the very open internet infrastructure that made the modern internet possible.
Addendum: these links are not intended to be current and up to date, but this weeks Google I/O really belongs into this list
- Ad Infinitum – Matthias Ott
Google thinks it no longer needs the Web to deliver answers. And it no longer needs ad slots to deliver ads.