The Greatest App of All Time Day 29: Google Maps vs. YouTube

March 30, 2024

4 min read

Welcome back to Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time! Yesterday’s contest ended in a stunning upset with Google Earth being eliminated by the ferocious Calculator app. We’ve now entered the Final Four and the remaining matchups bring some tough decisions. Today’s face-off is a family affair with two Alphabet-owned giants entering the ring, only one will walk away.

If you’re just tuning in, you can read all about our selection criteria for this historic contest right here. Check out the full bracket of contestants embedded below. And as always, if you think we missed your personal favorite app of all time, yell at us in the comments. Now, let’s get into today’s challengers.

Do Not Steal Our Robot Dog!

Here’s what we had to say about YouTube in the first round:

With 2.5 billion monthly active users and a lot of goodwill, YouTube is likely one of the most formidable nominees in our bracket. In 2005, the company arguably invented online video as we know it. The first video that was uploaded to the platform, Me at the Zoo, depicted YouTube’s co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of some elephants while making some basic comments about elephants for 19 seconds. It signaled a new world in which people could broadcast even the most banal clips to billions of people.

And to this day, there is no shortage of useless, unnotable footage to be found on YouTube. But with its revenue share program, YouTube practically defined what it means to be an online influencer and users like Mr. Beast create videos that cost millions of dollars. People use YouTube as their only music streamer (and the platform probably gets away with more piracy than any other). It’s also become a paid broadcast television platform and a babysitter for millions of kids with an iPad. And for better or worse, it has become a place where many people get the majority of their news, resulting in the unfortunate spread of misinformation time and time again.

Most of the criticisms of YouTube’s existence could be said of other social platforms, but few of them feel as essential to the infrastructure of the internet. It is simply the video platform. If you’re watching an embedded video, it is probably hosted on YouTube. TikTok is making a lot of progress, but if you want to quickly lookup a new movie trailer, YouTube is the place to be.

And here’s what we wrote about Google Maps last time:

Launched in 2005, Google Maps is one of the oldest candidates in the competition but has shown no signs of slowing down in its advanced age. If there is a mobile app that can be said to have made the world a better place, it’s hard to argue with this one. The days of printing out MapQuest directions officially ended when this bad boy hit the scene. And even Apple hasn’t been able to catch up.

So, reader, what’ll it be? Should YouTube advance to the final round or is Google Maps on track to take the crown?