There are alternatives for mapping apps, but no competitors for street view and discovering local photos (if you need a map/streetview for NY or SF it doesn’t matter what you use). True, even photos has become “spammy” in contested areas. But is indispensable if you want to discover local areas in regions like Turkmenistan for example
Google Maps has become an eyesore
61–70 of 705 posts
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#62Probably not a popular opinion here, but I like Google Maps. Sure there's some clutter, but it's pretty good at navigation, public transit and searching for places. I don't know any better alternative.
The Transit app was infinitely better for public transit last time I used it. This was before the pandemic for me though.
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#63It's inflammatory, but this website is worse. There's some video playing of a stranger eating mustard skittles taking up the bottom quarter of the screen.
Somehow AdGuard on mobile didn’t filter this horrible shit for me
Bromite didn't get it either. I think its a 1st party autoplay video?
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#64>In the perennial battle between mapping services, there are two main competitors: Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Seriously? What about Bing? What about the entire segment of the mapping app market for drivers like NaviExpert or Yanosik. Finally, what about OpenStreetMap?
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#65I recently was browsing a university neighborhood on Google Maps, and a large condo building had a pin in it... for a bed bug extermination service.
I don't know whether the business owner lived there, or an opportunistic business unrelated to the location was just using it to advertise in college (i.e., bed bug) neighborhood, or it was sabotage by someone who wanted to depress market value of the building, or something else.
Also regarding possibly rigging Google Maps for marketing... I've also seen a real small business's listing on Google Maps be edited to say that they'd gone out of business. I told them, by walking into their store that was still in-business, and they definitely hadn't done that edit themselves. They were in a niche serving students, and the timing was just as the new students arrived, so I'd guess this edit resulted in some other business locking in some customers who found a business and won't look for a new one for the next few years.
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#66Is this inevitable, though? How many PMs and directors and ambitious engineers does Google Maps hire? If a company puts someone in a role, that person will do everything to make something happen, right? As for Google Maps, that means more and more features will show up on the maps.
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are two web versions of Google Maps. There's the horrible one that you can reach from the search results page if you made a specifically commercial-local request, like [1]. There is the same thing on proper Google Maps[2]. 1: https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:9&tbm=lcl&... 2: https://www.google.com/maps/search/lunch+downtown+berkeley/@...
Every time I encounter the first version I'm dumbfounded that it still exists. Its nerfed features make for such a frustrating user experience. I can't think of a reason for it to exist as its own thing. I'd love to know the rationale.
I believe the reason is it loads faster.
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are two web versions of Google Maps. There's the horrible one that you can reach from the search results page if you made a specifically commercial-local request, like [1]. There is the same thing on proper Google Maps[2]. 1: https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:9&tbm=lcl&... 2: https://www.google.com/maps/search/lunch+downtown+berkeley/@...
Every time I encounter the first version I'm dumbfounded that it still exists. Its nerfed features make for such a frustrating user experience. I can't think of a reason for it to exist as its own thing. I'd love to know the rationale.
As so oftrn it's legal. For snti-competition reasons Google is not allowed to hotline Google Maps as first result on the search page.
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#69Love Apple Maps. It has progressively gotten so much better and awesome. I don’t think I ever use my iPhone and get frustrated. Leaving android in 2015 was the best decision I made.
Apple Maps has a good UI and bad data. Their problem is the same problem people face when anyone tries to unseat an incumbent platform: they don't have the audience, so people don't contribute to their knowledge base. Apple Maps shows an Indian restaurant in my neighborhood as open on Saturdays, but they haven't been open on Saturdays in years. They didn't even update their hours on their own website, but the hours a…
I just compared for my town. Popular cafe on Google maps has 844 reviews, 0 on Apple Maps. Another cafe, 202 reviews on Google, 1 on Apple Maps plus Apple hasn't updated the name. Also I quite like seeing the review text on Google, gives you a sense of what people like about a place and whether the review is genuine or just a grump. Apple seems to only show quite a simplified rating, although I've not used it enough to determine if there's more info in there.
Apple is probably better in the US where it has had a lot more use. It's pretty poor here for the main thing I use it for - finding businesses.
Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore
#70I really want to know why Google maps is slow on a $3500 laptop with a huge Nvidia card.
Its probably using the IGP for the browser, unless you run an external monitor.
You can check with the Nvidia activity monitor.
Maps is mostly going to be CPU bound though.