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maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

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Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#341

Post by blowski »

philsnow wrote: post #313
nolok wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes perfect sense product wise, if I'm searching "bakery" on my mobile phone I probably want the ones around me and not the generic location-agnostic google search of it, just like I would if I was searching on map. Matter of fact, this is actually something I do a couple times a month, search then clic the maps tab to see localized results then from them click the website result to find their webpage. As a te…

> if I'm searching "bakery" on my mobile phone I probably want the ones around me And yet for me, even in google maps on my iphone, when I search for bakery, the first one is almost always one that's ~40 miles away, and the closest one is almost always the second in the list. The rest of the list is definitely not sorted descending by distance. If I've searched for a _particular_ ABC bakery, I get other bakeries comm…

I live in the UK. I recently searched for “pizza” and the top result was in Thailand.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#342

Post by Swenrekcah »

reuben364 wrote: post #327
unethical_ban wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rumor/theory I have heard about Netflix is that increasing discoverability too much would allow people to see two negative traits of Netflix: How often things come and go from the platform (which other apps like Criterion Collection embrace), and just how limited their library actually is at a given time. Scroll through recommendations. It looks like they have hundreds of great movies for you to watch! And yes, t…

I wonder if AppleTV's atrocious single-line onscreen keyboard fits into this picture of making things less discoverable, or if it's just an extreme of form over function.

Whatever the reason (and I can think of many) it just shows how Apple is past the point of caring for their users.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#343

Post by Swenrekcah »

s3p wrote: post #337
reuben364 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if AppleTV's atrocious single-line onscreen keyboard fits into this picture of making things less discoverable, or if it's just an extreme of form over function.

Definitely not, because Apple gives users the ability to type search in on an iPhone or iPad instead of using the apple TV remote. They also let you do voice-to-text, which is nice.

It is entirely possible to both provide a useable onscreen interface and the iPhone connection option.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#344

Post by brazed_blotch »

hbn wrote: post #217
gatefun wrote: post #61

As others have noticed, this is not a new move. For the past several years I've been accessing Google Maps simply by typing in maps.google.com and it has always redirected me to google.com/maps.

Even more confusing and a regular cause of annoyance for me that's been ongoing for a while now is there's like a knockoff version of Google Maps built into Google search that it'll kick you into if you click a map from search results. e.g. you type "gyms near me" and it shows you a map in the search results, and you click it to expand. It's still at the google.com/search domain and while you can zoom and pan around,…

Funny, for me it’s the opposite. I always try to use the web view, and there’s an annoying pop up that redirects me to download Google maps. When I switch back into the web browser to go back to the web view, it auto redirects me to the app download again. Super annoying.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#345

Post by luckylion »

theptip wrote: post #308
dclowd9901 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn’t collected/shared inherently the same thing here?

No, what they are talking about is all Google properties (eg Google search) now being able to collect your location every time you use them, if you granted permission for maps to get your location. So it’s now not possible to block location for search, and grant it to maps (at least using the standard browser domain permissions model). https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/114662?hl=en&co=GEN...

But they could've been doing that all along because they control both sites, they would've just needed to use an iFrame. What changed beyond "it's a little easier now"?

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#346

Post by thanhhaimai »

The5thElephant wrote: post #310
dpryden wrote: post #195

I recall from my time in Google Geo years ago that the idea of integrating Search and Maps was a big part of the "New Maps" release that happened around 2014. The rumor I heard was that someone (possibly even Larry himself) wanted to be able to have interactive maps directly on the search results page, so that the navigation from a search query to a map wouldn't involve even a page reload. So the big Maps frontend re…

It is absolutely bizarre to me how half-assed Google is with integrating its products. I have a week of events coming up in Google Calendar each with a different event location. Why can't I see a map of all those event locations alongside the calendar with all the same event details listed? Why can't I associate a Google Calendar event with a specific album or set of photos in Google Photos and see those in the map a…

> It is absolutely bizarre to me how half-assed Google is with integrating its products

The answer can be summed up in one word: "privacy".

There are two forces at play here. One side wants privacy. When they give data to Google Calendar, they don't want Google Maps or Ads know about it. The other side (your opinion above) wants more integration between services.

In this political climate, the privacy side has an edge. This means if Google Photos want to access data on Google Calendar to provide the integration you asked above, they will have to jump through multiple quarters of privacy reviews, with a very high odd of being shutdown.

> All these big tech companies seem to just give up on any kind of significant innovation as soon as they reach a certain level of monopoly on their market

After I see how the sausages are made, I think claims like these are naive. It's worth learning more about the factors at play before criticizing something. More often than not, the agents are acting pretty rationally based on the situation.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#347

Post by theptip »

luckylion wrote: post #345
theptip wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, what they are talking about is all Google properties (eg Google search) now being able to collect your location every time you use them, if you granted permission for maps to get your location. So it’s now not possible to block location for search, and grant it to maps (at least using the standard browser domain permissions model). https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/114662?hl=en&co=GEN...

But they could've been doing that all along because they control both sites, they would've just needed to use an iFrame. What changed beyond "it's a little easier now"?

Is that how browser permissions work? Naively I’d assume the browser grants only search.google.com permissions on that url, even if maps.google.com is opened as an iframe.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#348

Post by fnordpiglet »

justusthane wrote: post #142
fnordpiglet wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. I’m sure being a beyondcorp company they can’t figure out how to add dns entries. Those google guys really should learn more about the internet and it’s technologies. I don’t buy the simplicity argument for a second. The infrastructure exists, has existed for many years, and is not particularly exotic in the world. The only thing that matters to a surveillance and advertising company is surveillance and adverti…

That’s a rather simplistic take; a company that makes money by surveilling you as you use their products also must care about the quality of their products. If their products suck, fewer people will use them = fewer people to surveil = less money! So not all changes are necessarily directly in the service of surveillance. Also, I don’t think your reply to the above comment was entirely fair; they didn’t say anything…

All changes are in the service of surveillance. If making the honey pot sweeter works then they’ll do it. If making it more pervasive and intrusive while not offending anyone away they will do it. They will do nothing that hurts the mission to mine and sell advertisements, and all actions will lead to that.

I know you mentioned other things but they’re all sort of in the same bucket of “not that hard once done” and “google can surely do that without blinking an eye”. I would posit the move away from a subdomain to a root domain is hard and complex and benefits end users not one bit. Perhaps the end state is easier on the margins, but again, I doubt given it’s been that way for so long it’s effectively any easier for engineers or operators at google in any way what so ever.

Well, other than those responsible for surveilling all the things.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#349

Post by Traubenfuchs »

The5thElephant wrote: post #310
dpryden wrote: post #195

I recall from my time in Google Geo years ago that the idea of integrating Search and Maps was a big part of the "New Maps" release that happened around 2014. The rumor I heard was that someone (possibly even Larry himself) wanted to be able to have interactive maps directly on the search results page, so that the navigation from a search query to a map wouldn't involve even a page reload. So the big Maps frontend re…

It is absolutely bizarre to me how half-assed Google is with integrating its products. I have a week of events coming up in Google Calendar each with a different event location. Why can't I see a map of all those event locations alongside the calendar with all the same event details listed? Why can't I associate a Google Calendar event with a specific album or set of photos in Google Photos and see those in the map a…

No post body was provided.

Re: maps.google.com now redirects to google.com/maps

#350

Post by luckylion »

theptip wrote: post #347
luckylion wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they could've been doing that all along because they control both sites, they would've just needed to use an iFrame. What changed beyond "it's a little easier now"?

Is that how browser permissions work? Naively I’d assume the browser grants only search.google.com permissions on that url, even if maps.google.com is opened as an iframe.

It's been ages since I've played with iframes, but I'm pretty sure it does (or at least did?). You might have to specify an allow policy [0] but that's no problem if you control both sides. Since iframes are secure, data wouldn't leak unless the iframe explicitly posts it.

I don't know if you can request permissions from the iframe (might confuse people), but if you already have them, it ought to be fine.

[0] https://github.com/w3c/webappsec-permissions-policy/blob/mai...

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