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Google Maps has become an eyesore

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Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#361

Post by jakear »

coldtea wrote: post #348
Knee_Pain wrote: post #328

The funniest thing to me is that Google Maps seems to be the "normal person" option and yet only OSM tells me where water fountains are. Millions of tourists worldwide use GMaps to navigate around in foreign places and yet they have no option to see where the closest place to refill their bottles is? Especially in the summer?

Probably because 99% of normal people "don't refill their water bottles" (and surely not off of water fountains), just buy bottled water and/or drink when they stop at cafes and restaurants? Not saying it's good. In fact, it's quite bad and harmful. But it just is.

Nah, it's just that 99% of people aren't so chronically online as to need a web service to find out how to freely drink water in a place with free water drinking infrastructure.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#362

Post by dizhn »

01acheru wrote: post #210
LimeLimestone wrote: post #193

Is it just me or have you guys also noticed that the routes suggested by Google Maps have gotten worse? It seems that it only takes into account current traffic jams and not the ones which will occur 30mins into the trip. For instance, there's this spot in my city where I know there is a traffic jam at around 3:20 PM every day. I usually set off from home around 2:50 PM, which means I'll hit that congested area by 3:…

I came here to look for someone talking about it and totally agree, Google Maps routes are getting really worse over time and now I switched to Apple Maps almost exclusively. I can understand the jam thing but the weird route thing is crazy, especially because that route often makes you spend more time not less. It prefers weird backroads with lots of turns instead of straight larger roads (and that's stupid) but a t…

I don't use maps much because it talks too much and unlike Yandex you have to both listen to it and look at it to make full use of it. It's zooming features are shit. It doesn't reroute automatically when it think you've already arrived etc etc.

But I do recall seeing some sort of green, fuel save mode which I assumed would prefer straights to hills etc.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#363

Post by tommit »

hgsgm wrote: post #356
fnordpiglet wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, because they tried to sell it to me when I was at a megacorp, they resell the real time location and local data correlated to user characteristics, as data service to large discrete customers. This includes constant real time information about where people are traveling to, businesses being frequented by demographics, with a sophisticated query interface for asking relatively complex questions of maps derived…

Anywhere you put your data can be read by the people that run the place, regardless of what other products they make.

It seems like the person you're responding to has a problem with them selling their data in real-time to 3rd parties, rather than just any Google employee knowing where they are heading.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#364

Post by hgsgm »

thinkingemote wrote: post #190
jahnu wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They have a blog post about it from way back. Essentially the map changes depending on context so you don't need to see store names if you are zooming down the freeway by the side of it, you might see road names if walking and navigating, but not if you have gps in a car, you might see more restaurants if you came to maps from a restaurant search context etc etc

Yes, Maps does it what it thinks the average mook wants, and refuses to do what the actual user wants.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#365

Post by agentgumshoe »

Ycdr4thfdd wrote: post #332
l33tman wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's weird, very often a venue on a street is simply not visible unless zoomed in TO THE MAX. And then it's not any weird obscure thing, it's a restaurant or coffeeshop that's been there for years.

What's even worse is that often I'll click "restaurants", zoom in all the way, and then click "Search this area", yet Google will still refuse to show some popular restaurant, even when there are no other restaurants displayed in the window. The only way to get those restaurants to show up is to search them by name. Not sure if they're intentionally penalizing certain restaurants, but it's pretty bad.

Guess those ones just aren't paying their google taxes...

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#366

Post by hgsgm »

WeylandYutani wrote: post #321
AlbertCory wrote: post #34

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…

It's funny Maps has become so crap that I paid 10 euro for OSM. But I think open street maps has a killer feature that Google doesn't have: the community.

It's not a killer feature if you only use it because Google got crappy.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#367

Post by seb1204 »

LimeLimestone wrote: post #193

Is it just me or have you guys also noticed that the routes suggested by Google Maps have gotten worse? It seems that it only takes into account current traffic jams and not the ones which will occur 30mins into the trip. For instance, there's this spot in my city where I know there is a traffic jam at around 3:20 PM every day. I usually set off from home around 2:50 PM, which means I'll hit that congested area by 3:…

Time to start rating zero stars.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#368

Post by hgsgm »

baz00 wrote: post #260
LimeLimestone wrote: post #193

Is it just me or have you guys also noticed that the routes suggested by Google Maps have gotten worse? It seems that it only takes into account current traffic jams and not the ones which will occur 30mins into the trip. For instance, there's this spot in my city where I know there is a traffic jam at around 3:20 PM every day. I usually set off from home around 2:50 PM, which means I'll hit that congested area by 3:…

It's even worse for us cyclists. Regularly tries to kill me in the routes it picks.

That's your neighbors trying to kill you.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#369

Post by macintux »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #289
ohgodplsno wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends. Basically, the API is free if all you do is display a map, keep the Google branding at the bottom, and add a few of those pins. Make one of those pins move because it's actually a car, and suddenly your cheeks are getting clapped with 6+-figure bills.

I wrote a system that incorporates Google Maps. It’s an open-source system that is used worldwide, by a few thousand loosely-organized nonprofits. When Google Maps suddenly required associated credit cards, it caused a great deal of trouble. It still causes problems. That’s because most of these entities are not 501(c)(3) orgs, with bank accounts and debit/credit cards. In fact, the organization enforces deliberate p…

> Someone needs to add their personal card to the Google Maps API. Since the maintenance people are constantly rotating, this is an issue.

I’d be terrified of a situation like AWS, where suddenly my card is charged thousands of dollars for some unexpected situation.

And, unlike AWS, I wouldn’t expect to be able to reach someone at Google to cancel the charge.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#370

Post by fastest963 »

devnullbrain wrote: post #293
LimeLimestone wrote: post #193

Is it just me or have you guys also noticed that the routes suggested by Google Maps have gotten worse? It seems that it only takes into account current traffic jams and not the ones which will occur 30mins into the trip. For instance, there's this spot in my city where I know there is a traffic jam at around 3:20 PM every day. I usually set off from home around 2:50 PM, which means I'll hit that congested area by 3:…

In the app, you also can't adjust your departure time to see if there's a better time to leave. You have to use the web UI which doesn't have a way to share this information (beyond a starting point and finishing point) with the app.

They added this feature to the mobile app years ago. https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/01/22/google-maps-lets-yo...
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