Adjusting Tactics

I’ve done a fair bit of traveling in my life both domestically and internationally. I’ve moved from paper maps to Mapquest and now rely mostly on Google Maps for directions and information about locales. Although Google is far from perfect, and although their use of customer data is quite suspect (despite their original motto of Don’t Be Evil), it is overall quite reliable. Specific driving or walking directions can be a bit wonky at times but their information on locations is generally good.

Except for Hanoi.

At least, that’s the place I’ve noticed a disjunct thus far.

Places Google Maps provides me information on (and reviews) don’t exist any longer when I try to use a ride-hailing app to get to them. Other places the ride-hailing apps tell me are in existence don’t appear on Google Maps. For the first time I’ve had to cross-reference many things in Hanoi between the two apps to try and discern what reality is. Post-covid this has been a reality more with hours of operation, and holiday hours are always uncertain. But it’s the first time I haven’t been able to trust Google Maps’ basic information, and on multiple, multiple occasions here.

I don’t know if that’s the result of censoring or other activities that might vary from country to country. Or perhaps Google just isn’t as big a deal here and people don’t bother to update information or register. At the very least it’s a curiosity, and one I need to remember as I travel to other locales as well.