Stilly, yes, Thompson is a handy handle that keeps me reasonably private.
Nah, I'm not going to do all that, because it's not something that has to be food safe (except perhaps for any lost bats that might wander in to dangle from the lampshade); I'll just trail glue down the cracks, wipe it a bit then scatter goldy powder on it.
For the later turn of the conversation, I've never given a card to Google - why would I, I'm just using it for basic map information. When that "sign up" dialogue box comes up I press the Feck-Off button (it may be called something else or be a red blob); I do *sign in*, so I can use 3D etc, but that doesn't require a credit or debit card.
The only people I know who use a paid version (not dear, something like €200 a year, I think, and it's a professional tool so you could probably claim that off your tax) are bus drivers, truckers and delivery drivers, who use a version that warns them of the presence of low bridges. The bus driver who told me about this said it had saved him money because a lot of these are not well signposted. Before he'd signed up for it he once had to back a full-size coach slowly along for 3km (I think it was) along a narrow, twisty country road with one of these bridges, with a raging local car driver behind him.
There are other mapping apps; there are open-source ones like Brouter, which is useful for cycling because it'll map a quiet route away from cars; Apple Maps has a nice satellite and street view, though not as up-to-date as Google's - but I think maybe Google's is particularly regularly mapped in Ireland because their EU headquarters is here, so they might test out new methods.
I'm waiting for any of them to start using 360-degree cameras so it'd be possible to scoot around on video and see what's behind, to the side, etc. But maybe that's not technically possible or webbily feasible for a map app.