I have gotten so sick of Google Maps that I've done the unthinkable, and have started walking around the city trying establishments at random.

It has yielded quite good results basically immediately. People (myself included) have gotten too used to living In The Box. Putting aside the time to just go for a walk around and pop into random shops and pubs has been wonderful.

I don’t think the effect Instagram and TikTok has on this attention market can be ignored. Living in a big Asian city I will check those first.

At least in central London, the "underrated gems" feature does not seem to be very good at finding underrated gems.

That might just be a feature of the area though.

Google Maps is up for the dethroning to the first competitor that has the same information and shows it all at the closest zoom level.

Dataset seems imperfect, a good local fish and chip shop shown on Google Maps isn't listed.

Interesting points tho.

It's a little funny that no one is a human face of (interface to) Google Maps, or any platform with longevity these days. Talk to the faceless pretend person if you have a problem, maybe you'll feel better.

Can anyone recommend an alternative to GMaps for searching for restaurants, services, or general "discovery" near a location?

This is incredible, thank you for putting in the time to create it.

Someone chose to ignore Google Maps terms and publicly blog about it

super interesting project. I would love to generate a similar list for my own neighbourhood