this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Just a log of "my transition" and what have works well.

I used Google Maps a lot. I have moved to https://mapy.com/ works surprisingly well for navigation and regular map need, not very strong in POI, but that was expected.

Google Analytics swapped for https://dashboard.simpleanalytics.com/ - should have done this way earlier, just an overall better product for my needs.

Exited Goodreads for https://app.thestorygraph.com/ - zero problems

ChatGPT/Gemini moved to https://chat.mistral.ai/ - this one is a slight downgrade on both functionality and results. (so I am still cheating a bit on this one)

Moved to here, PieFed from Reddit - not regrets.

I was using Brave and Duckduckgo/EcoSia from before. I would consider moving away from Brave for a similar private but European browser.

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[–] Fusselwurm@feddit.org 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

mapy.com looks like a rather tourist-centered rendering of OpenStreetMap ? Hiking/bicycle trails seem to be featured very prominently. Pretty :)

[–] VacekH@lemmings.world 4 points 1 month ago

They was and still are great tourist maps (also offline maps) but they added few years ago a car navigation app with live traffic notifications and reports (like Waze have). And it is really nice! I stopped using Waze and switched to maps.com.

[–] anelephant@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

fun fact: mapy means “maps” in Czech. This software is created by seznam, Czech email provider and search engine (seznam.cz). Czechs default to this software (with seznam meaning “a list”). In the past I used to dislike it, but now, with me liking non US software, I find it as a great competitor to Google and other US based companies

[–] Markuso213@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nice :)

I am still using Brave Search (just the search engine). I actually opted for it over the European alternatives. As far as I know, it is the only search engine that offers personalized ranked results, which helps ensure the feed is not flooded with American sites, which typically dominate results in European search engines as well.

E.g., I've downranked Reddit so it is less likely to appear as a top result in search.
If anyone is interested in reading about it

spoiler
https://brave.com/blog/search-rerank/

Similar features could likely be implemented by operators in other search engines (-site:reddit or similar), but I haven't explored that.

[–] p0ster@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

Cool, I did not know that. I will git it a try.

[–] broom@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Nice! If you have some webspace you could consider installing Matomo for analytics.

[–] VacekH@lemmings.world 3 points 1 month ago

Love mapy.com! I use them for years for world tourist maps but now also for Waze like live traffic reports and notifications. Also switched to ecosia.com, Mastodon and Mistral! I am open for new tips!

[–] osanna@thebrainbin.org 3 points 1 month ago

on the search front, you might like to check out SearxNG. It can be self hosted, or you can use a pre-existing site. one such site is searx.space (don't know if this instance is euro or not). It's an aggregate engine, and it collates from so many different sites that are customisable

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Maybe because I'm in Japan, but mapy is unfortunately useless. Waited 30+ seconds and it wouldn't load any map here (or even when I zoomed and moved a bit from Germany initially). Is really like to replace Google maps but it's rough (it's also what I use for public transit routes and schedules)

[–] bufalo1973@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Try with openstreetmap. Maybe it works better for Japan.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

OSM is good for some things, but is missing a lot in Japan last time I checked. It also has no transit, sadly. It also has no English (edit: for map labels, I mean) which is a problem if one's Japanese isn't native level (and even my wife who is native doesn't know how to read place names in some areas, particularly in Hokkaido).

That does remind me that I should see if there's anything I can add again, though.

[–] cageythree@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Japan works fine in Mapy and, regarding your other comment below, it does show English labels when they're in the OSM data. Image

You should investigate why it doesn't load for you (network issues, firewall, adblock, DNS/VPN etc), cause it seems to be what you're looking for, although I can't estimate how well public transit is implemented for JP.

[–] Throne@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My Google Maps alternative is organic maps https://organicmaps.app/de/ just love it

[–] abacabadabacaba@infosec.pub 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Throne@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

Thanks I didn't know that

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 1 points 1 month ago

Welcome to Piefed ! Feel free to join !buyeuropean@feddit.uk as well, it's a similar community to this one, people post to one or the other

[–] abacabadabacaba@infosec.pub 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Can anyone recommend an app for finding routes using public transport? I am currently using Google Maps, but I'd like to find an alternative, preferably not US/big tech. Tried mapy.com, it didn't work.

[–] FortyTwo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I like HERE WeGo lately, haven't really noticed differences for public transportation with Google Maps. I only have experience using it in my country, though.

[–] MSBBritain@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

From my experience public transport was super hard to find a good solution too. I ended up going with Citymapper which works amazingly well. It's a British company from London but unfortunately uses Google Maps API I believe, so not truly independent.

Haven't found anything even close to a replacement though.

[–] eltoukan@jlai.lu 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I love citymapper, however it only covers a limited number of urban areas, is UK based and most importantly got bought by Via Transportation in 2023 (US based).

It seems like many city/regional operators have their own apps, this might be an option for you ?

You might also want to have a look at the apps that use transitous.org (listed on their homepage). Amongst them is cartes.app, which is a really exciting open source gmaps alternative wannabe, hosted in France (see cartes.app/roadmap for more technical details). Although it's still a wip, they've made great strides recently and I've started using it to replace some of GMaps' use cases. The only issue is, errrr, there's no English interface for now :) It's still a small team, so they're keeping internationalisation for later.

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

It depends on where you are. Here in Germany Google Maps is kind of trash for public transport as it doesn't have every connection available. The Bahn and the local providers have better systems.

[–] tutter@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Use Elinks or Lynx directly in the terminal 😎

Is it practical? No! Does it make your life easier? The opposite. But you can sidestep the whole browser industry while feeling like the biggest contrarian hacker kiddie out there and that's a premium experience fellas