301–310 of 705 posts
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It's even worse for us cyclists. Regularly tries to kill me in the routes it picks.
Try https://cycle.travel/ for cycle routes. I find it much better at finding quieter routes.
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? Goo…
I assume people on the Google Maps team use Google Maps in their daily lives. Do they not feel the UX friction from all the ad-centric design?
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Google Maps has its pitfalls, but it's by far the most up to date in the cities I've used it. OSM lacks a lot of details that completely change how you'd move from point A to point B (I was missing overpass bridges and crossable paths in residential neighboorhoods), and point to point navigation is also not great. Then it completely lacks all the more commercial features Google has built on top of Maps (store details…
For countryside locations and topographic, OTOH, Google Maps (and Apple Maps) is a joke compared to OSM, though, at least in Europe.
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? Goo…
Peole forget that millions of people submit data to Google Maps for free. I placed all the local postboxes on google maps, people sibmit information about their businesss, opening hours, etc. This is hugely valuable. Also google grew laxy. Not tskes them a year to add a royal mail postbox
This is hugely useful for navigation since it means these bottlenecks can be avoided, some thing which is not possible unless this data is available.
Trying out Organic Maps, I noticed two big things: 1. Man, this UI is so much faster than Google Maps. 2. Man, this has trouble finding addresses. Hopefully they improve with time. On my older laptop at home, Google Maps is horribly sluggish compared to just about any other map product.
If you are or someone else is interested one can:
- add addresses to OpenStreetMap if missing (highly welcome!)
- report search problems to https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues
- or even submit fixes if they want
- wait till someone else will do any of above (to be clear, that is also OK to do this - noone is obligated to volunteer for above)
- I guess you can also donate to Organic Maps and/or OpenStreetMap Foundation but impact will be less direct
I strongly recommend MAPS.ME as a great alternative to Google Maps. It comes with offline navigation and it's less cluttered than Gmaps. not sure if it's built around Gmaps API, I don't know much about that but it's nice to use. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapswithme...
Eyesore issues are an aside to the reckless behavior of GMaps' navigation. I don't want to always take a one lane back-country road to save maybe 5 minutes of my life - and if there's no suggested alternative route at the onset there's not really an easy way to compare the times between usual("fastest") and "safest" routes.
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I’d like to see a defence of the reason why it’s so often a bit of a job to be able to read the street name… on a map. If only for the laugh I would have.
The article complains about 'clutter' - but have you seen a traditional printed map like [1] ? Personally I find them beautiful, but it's a rather Jackson-Pollock-esque beauty. One of the changes brought about by the digital mapping revolution was to allow much less visually complex maps. [1] https://blog.az.co.uk/z-map-company-supplies-london-emergenc...
> Why won't you show me the street name? I've been running into this a lot lately. No matter how much I zoom -- no street name. This is Mapping 101.
>I've been running into this a lot lately. No matter how much I zoom -- no street name. This is Mapping 101.
Google Maps does this all over Belgium, showing hotels and restaurants and shops and never the street name. Very frustrating indeed.
I use OSM for street names, because it just works.