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Software sucks

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Re: Software sucks

#31

Post by surfmike »

HyperTalk2 wrote: post #15

I feel that the worst new "feature" in Google Maps is when you're on your way to your destination and it suddenly suggests you might first want to go to a random place you've never heard of before. You then have 3 seconds to tap "No" before it silently adds the destination (and 15-30 minutes of extra driving) to your route. I have found no way to disable this feature. I'm worried that there could be people who were i…

I've seen it reroute me to save time (based on live traffic) but never seen this behavior. Perhaps in your case it's this feature behaving poorly, or some other bug.

Re: Software sucks

#32

Post by ubercore »

HyperTalk2 wrote: post #15

I feel that the worst new "feature" in Google Maps is when you're on your way to your destination and it suddenly suggests you might first want to go to a random place you've never heard of before. You then have 3 seconds to tap "No" before it silently adds the destination (and 15-30 minutes of extra driving) to your route. I have found no way to disable this feature. I'm worried that there could be people who were i…

I feel like there has to be more to this, I've never seen that happen and I use google maps for driving very regularly (almost every day)

Re: Software sucks

#33

Post by vturner »

HyperTalk2 wrote: post #15

I feel that the worst new "feature" in Google Maps is when you're on your way to your destination and it suddenly suggests you might first want to go to a random place you've never heard of before. You then have 3 seconds to tap "No" before it silently adds the destination (and 15-30 minutes of extra driving) to your route. I have found no way to disable this feature. I'm worried that there could be people who were i…

I've experienced similar behavior. For awhile it seemed it would find a "new route" and give me x seconds to say no or else it would default to the new route. It seems the behavior switched to the default being no to the new route...

I wish there was as good as maps paid alternative. I'd gladly pay for something other than the ever slower with each update Google maps.

Re: Software sucks

#34

Post by _tulpa »

jonknee wrote: post #14
jonas21 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're talking about the mobile app, you can swipe down on the list to see more of the map. In many cases, I think defaulting to the list makes sense because of the extra data it has. For example, I'd rather go to a restaurant that has a 5-star rating and is open now as opposed to one that is rated 2 stars and is closed, even if the 2-star restaurant is easier to get to.

Yes, and the list is sorted with the closest / most recent hits on top. It's way better than just seeing a bunch of pins on a map.

Pretty sure it's sorted by average rating first.

The place literally across the road from me is a screen down the list (on mobile) because it's got lower reviews (by about one star or so) than the place 7km away which is at the top of the list.

Re: Software sucks

#35

Post by vturner »

jonknee wrote: post #30
danShumway wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's way better than just seeing a bunch of pins on a map. Is it? Showing the pins on the map seems like it would show you roughly the same distances but with the added information of direction and area. At worst you might eyeball the distance wrong, but does it matter if something is 3.5 miles away or 3.6 miles away? Most of the time I search something in Google maps I want to see the relative area so I can make a…

Yes, because the list shows you stuff like the name of the place, its address, ratings, hours and all sorts of other stuff. Plus the full screen map view is a short swipe away.

That bugs me the swipe though...sometimes it will show part of the map and I tap the map expecting to see it full screen. No, it just erases, goes to a blank search.

Re: Software sucks

#36

Post by gervase »

danShumway wrote: post #23
jonknee wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and the list is sorted with the closest / most recent hits on top. It's way better than just seeing a bunch of pins on a map.

> It's way better than just seeing a bunch of pins on a map. Is it? Showing the pins on the map seems like it would show you roughly the same distances but with the added information of direction and area. At worst you might eyeball the distance wrong, but does it matter if something is 3.5 miles away or 3.6 miles away? Most of the time I search something in Google maps I want to see the relative area so I can make a…

Often, I will search for a string such as "Cost"; I'll probably be referring to Costco, but in the map, it will also show me results for Cost Plus World Market, for example. If I'm only looking at pins, I can't see the names without clicking on each pin, which isn't really feasible in the middle of driving. However, in the list, it's easy to differentiate between the two, in addition to by distance (since that's the information the list shows).

Conversely, if I'm on the way somewhere, and I want to add a stop using the "add stop" feature, such as a gas station, then it sorts by the amount of extra time it will add for each stop, as well as showing the pins on the map. Since I don't really care where I go, as long as I get gas, this seems like a reasonable compromise. (It also puts the gas prices on the map, which is nice.)

However, perhaps I am a happy-path user, or have been trained over time to use the application as the developers intended. Regardless, the current behavior works well for me.

Re: Software sucks

#37

Post by danShumway »

RussianCow wrote: post #29
omalleyt wrote: post #25

It's showing him Wawas he's been to before. That's what the clocks mean. For the search "wawa" it doesn't make a lot of sense to prioritize history over distance, because Wawas are nearly identical. But for "farmer's markets" this would probably be a useful feature. Figuring out how to differentiate between those two examples algorithmically is super non-trivial though

This is incorrect: the clocks mean he has selected those search results before, not that he has physically been there. Source: Just tested this in-app.

Oof, that's really bad if that's the case; it means that a mis-click can poison your search results and make them less useful.

I get that Google's all about saving clicks now, but I've noticed between maps and other apps (Google Music comes to mind) the extra inference sometimes just makes me scared to click on things.

Can you at least long press or something to remove a location from your history?

Re: Software sucks

#38

Post by SwellJoe »

passivepinetree wrote: post #10

The HN hug of death strikes again. Cached version from Google: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:E3wiNT...

It's a static site (built with Bloxsom, as far as I recall). I can't imagine HN could hug it to death and it's working fine for me right now. I'd want to blame something else for being unable to reach it.

Re: Software sucks

#39

Post by cjhanks »

bpicolo wrote: post #8
cjhanks wrote: post #2

Usually happens due to very high uncertainty in localization estimates.

By adding a distance measurement they've solidified a best-guess, though.

Yeah, often the guess you have is something you have no confidence in.

Also, I am just speculating as someone who has had similar problems... I did not contribute to this app.

Another common case is the history of your behavior is fully remote and your instantaneous connectivity is out-of-sync. So the map falls back to this kind of primitive state more similar to TomTom rather than being intuitive and catered.

Re: Software sucks

#40

Post by choward »

lallysingh wrote: post #26
ramenmeal wrote: post #5

Unrelated but similar and I feel like venting... On Google Maps you'll search for something, and the results are shown as a list that almost covers the entire map. It's Google MAPS and it hides the map for so many things. I'd rather go to a place that's 3 miles straight down a free way than 2 miles of stop lights, but I don't know that if the map is covered!

Or why's it so hard to get it to show a street name? It will show some, and it won't show others. If the one you want is in the latter category you've got a lot of zooming before you see it. Ugh.

That and for some reason the scale only shows up while your zooming and for a couple seconds after. I want to see it all the time, damn it!
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