But that’s a good example. Google Maps’ biggest competition is probably Yelp, which Apple Maps leans heavily on for review content. Yelp has been involved in some very, very unsavory practices. Yelp has basically extorted small businesses for positive reviews. It did so, presumably, because on its own it’s a very hard business to be in. Yelp’s sales team is under pressure to generate revenue in a way that Google Maps’ sales team, frankly, is not.

Google Maps, for all its faults, does not seem to have the same widespread abuse problem that Yelp does. But it might if you break it off into its own business.

As for Google favoring its own properties: that is challenging, because they all do it. Apple Maps is arguably more favored by Apple than Google Maps is by Google, and in markets like the US, there are more iPhone users than Android users, so Google is arguably at a disadvantage. I think for that, a good starting place would be regulation to control that. For example, both Google and Apple should be prohibited from using APIs in their constituent properties that aren’t available to third party competitors.