Google Maps has become an eyesore

I would add to this article that a major issue with Google Maps has been businesses trying to SEO-pad their business names on Google Maps, to the detriment of readability.

This is also against their TOS – the "business name" form is supposed to be their legally registered business name, the one that they probably have signage for. Moderators simply don't enforce this, and with Map Maker basically gone, the community of moderators is somewhat of a cloak and dagger group now.

I have tried to clean some of these up via submissions, because in spite of agreeing with the points of the article and using mostly Apple Maps for navigation, Google Maps still is better in terms of having a lot of community sourced data and overall place discoverability (along with Yelp, which Apple Maps seems to no longer source data from).

Examples of these business names:

- {name} - {city name} Axe Throwing

- {name} License Agency - (Vehicle/Vessel not drivers license)

- {name} - Lunch Buffet (Friday-Sunday) - {cuisine} Restaurant - {city name}

And many now have:

- {name of a local chain} - {neighborhood or city name}

Some of this is a UX problem or perhaps data architecture problem – in the case of local chains, I imagine many are dealing with people calling in orders and showing up at the wrong place to pick up their order. Google Maps could do a better job showing the neighborhood/locality/"local name" of the area in the search results.

Others are just a lack of consistent moderation.

I worked on Google Maps monetization, and then on Maps itself.

Monetization was a dismal failure. I don't know how well they're doing now, but Maps was a gigantic money-loser, forever. I'd be a little surprised if it didn't still lose money, but maybe less. I don't what those "pin ads" cost, but I'd bet it's way less than a search ad.

If you don't believe that, that's fine. "What about indirect revenue?" you ask? Google consciously does not want to estimate that, because such a document could be discovered in patent litigation. As it is, there are tons of patent lawsuits about Maps, and the damage claims always tried to get at Ads revenue, because Maps revenue was nil.

Caveat: I could be way out of date here. I've been retired a while now.

As for the UX: "enshittification" and big-company bureaucracy describe it pretty well.

They did a major redesign of the interface maybe ~8 years ago, and ever since I don't know where anything is.

Lately I'm particularly baffled by the bar at the top, which is a way to search without typing. I click "Transit" and I'm presented with a list filled mostly with bus stops, with no filters for rail etc. Great. Does it also switch me to the transit overlay, which might be helpful? No, of course not.

I find Apple Maps incredibly frustrating. The endless zooming-in and out when approaching turns. I want a consistent layout and structure when I glance down at a map. Not some gee-whiz-shiny display that only works well if you have been watching the entire animation.

It also seems to be deliberately obtuse when you want to zoom around the map. Like, how dare you not fully trust its routing.

Some locals in Brisbane succeeded in getting a brief historical name for the central business district ("Frogs Hollow") boosted up as a locality name which shows up in several zoom levels. It's more prominent than the real name of the location (Gardens Point) sometimes.

Nobody appears able to get this rescinded. Either its being contested, or the process boundaries on "this is graffiti") are limiting. I do quite a lot of maps related input, I don't claim to be high status but I am sure I would have multi year searchable "is a bona fide person" status.

Sure, I get it: it's funny. Once. It's really annoying explaining to visitors that its not actually a common name, not used, won't work with Uber or any other mechanistic "where is..." approach with real people.