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Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

plus.google.com

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Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#61

Post by brudgers »

chc wrote: post #33
cryptoz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the iPhone not open Google Plus posts in the Google Plus app? Or do you not have it installed? The reason your experience is awful is because Google doesn't care to make the G+ mobile web experience perfect since their app is the way to go. On Android, when I click one of these links it opens the app and the reading experience is very pleasant. Maybe I've just been spoiled, but I find the experience to be pretty…

Let me get this straight: You think it's more reasonable for Apple to have to build in special support so requests for webpages on plus.google.com go to the G+ app instead of Safari than for Google to just make their site work on mobile platforms like everybody else on the planet? You are, as the kids say, straight trippin'.

Reasonable or not, that is the expectation Apple has encouraged iPhone users to hold - every website should have its own app in a way reminiscent of AOL keywords.

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#62

Post by count »

mikecx wrote: post #30

Another option, though still expensive, is to use the Google Earth Enterprise tools. They basically let you build your own private Google Maps though this too runs into some problems. 1.) Imagery, 2.) Cost for GEE ($10k I think), and the cost of maintaining your own servers to host it on. I think it's still cheaper than going over the 20,000 free, but not optimal either.

My understanding is that GEE still requires the Google Earth plugin, and will not do a 'google maps' style interface?

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#63

Post by ubercore »

untog wrote: post #51
ubercore wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to sound like a downer, because I really appreciate open source mapping, but that's the part where I think the costs, long term, will swing back. Google maps is deceptively simple, in that the javascript library and tiling is a relatively solved problem. Google has the best datasets, and the best large-data know-how in the business, so outsourcing things like an up-to-date transit location and route database is b…

What if you want to offer transit directions from your location to a rental? Actually, Google doesn't let you do that either. They have separate licensing agreements with every transit authority, so there is no API access. You're right on the geocoder, though. The closest I ever found was Yahoo's, but they're still not up to much.

Huh. Didn't realize that. Thanks for pointing it out!

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#64

Post by nextparadigms »

Xuzz wrote: post #23
cryptoz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the iPhone not open Google Plus posts in the Google Plus app? Or do you not have it installed? The reason your experience is awful is because Google doesn't care to make the G+ mobile web experience perfect since their app is the way to go. On Android, when I click one of these links it opens the app and the reading experience is very pleasant. Maybe I've just been spoiled, but I find the experience to be pretty…

Should you need a third party app installed for a good reading experience? I don't use Google+ and don't want the app on iOS, even if it was launched when I click a Google+ link (which, fwiw, you are correct: it currently does not). (On the other hand, Tumblr looks great on mobile, and it doesn't need an app. Facebook, too, is at least readable on their mobile site.)

Can you imagine using Facebook without an app now?

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#65

Post by Jeng »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #3

Charging is good since it keeps the product around, but Google's prices seem ramp up suddenly from free to way too high suddenly. First Appspot and now this, looks like their pricing is too out of line for small to medium companies. They need a flatter pricing curve.

Perhaps it is Googles way of not becoming a monopoly in a market segment?

By charging high prices for their solutions they end up fostering mom and pop solutions which would otherwise not have a chance.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#66

Post by forgotusername »

meepmorp wrote: post #34
forgotusername wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protip: hovering over the link will display the full URL in the status bar. You should really spend more than a few milliseconds before deciding to get excited about something. The Public Suffix List (publicsuffix.org) might be useful for this, although I doubt plus.google.com is listed in there (no same-origin security considerations). It's still the only systematic approach I know of that even remotely addresses th…

> Protip: hovering over the link will display the full URL in the status bar. You should really spend more than a few milliseconds before deciding to get excited about something. You're assuming he's using a device with a mouse. And why not add a simple feature that makes usability better on all platforms? Special case google plus here, just because this is such a common complaint. I've wanted it for a while, too.

You can also trigger the status bar prompt via the tab key, link search, and probably assistive technologies have their own approach.

I'm amazed that offering up a potential general solution that already exists, or suggesting someone measures their response before jumping at headlines, would result in downvotes here.

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#67

Post by eridius »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #25
eridius wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the problem lies much more with you and your phone than it does with Google Plus as a writing platform. The problem definitely lies with Google Plus as a web app. Whatever they're doing, it's just not a very good experience on a mobile device. Maybe on Android they redirect Google+ pages to their native app, but they don't even offer a way to do that for other platforms even if you have the native app insta…

I don't think a conspiracy is obvious at all. I think this is just a common Google problem; when you hire A+ level talent they don't want to spend their time adjusting css for every platform. That's not an interesting problem to them; self-driving cars is interesting. This is why I think every company should hire B and even a few C+ level talent. Someone has to do the boring details.

It's not a simple matter of CSS. I have no idea how, but Google+ on MobileSafari periodically dumps the entire tile cache and forces it to re-render (which is why the text goes all blurry). I've never seen that on any other website, ever.

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#68

Post by iamandrus »

nextparadigms wrote: post #64
Xuzz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should you need a third party app installed for a good reading experience? I don't use Google+ and don't want the app on iOS, even if it was launched when I click a Google+ link (which, fwiw, you are correct: it currently does not). (On the other hand, Tumblr looks great on mobile, and it doesn't need an app. Facebook, too, is at least readable on their mobile site.)

Can you imagine using Facebook without an app now?

I don't even have it installed on my iPhone. I use the mobile site.

Re: Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

#70

Post by nopal »

dpcan wrote: post #10
kooshball wrote: post #7

I really wish there is a way to show more than just the domain name next to the title. >Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish (google.com) is simply misleading.

Also not on the topic of the article, but... I wish people would stop blogging on Google plus. Period. It's the worst reading experience ever on the iPhone - nearly impossible as the text blurs, and you have to drag the article around to see it all and then wait for the blur to go away.

I used Safari's Reader functionality.

Reader parsed it fine and displayed it beautifully.

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