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Google Maps has become an eyesore

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Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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People reading in good faith understand what 99% means (it, as well as 95% etc., are commonly used that way, to mean "overwhelming majority"). Besides, if I wanted to write the actual number, which I happen to know, I'd have written 92,768%.

In any case, you don't have to justify the rudeness, a simple "sorry" would have sufficed.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#392

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 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…

But the Internet told me Google doesn't sell data, they're stalwart stewards who merely review it when making ad decisions??

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#393

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:…

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Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps design is becoming less detailed over the years. It's really apparent when compared to OSM. It is necessary to search for a lot of things in Google maps as they are otherwise not visible. You can't really navigate off Google maps without turn-by-turn navigation. I wonder whether this is a strategic drive from Google to make maps more like search to enable advertising or whether they truly think this is th…

There was some articles on here about how maps have been changing over the years (also other map apps). The gist is that why would you need to show street names anymore? On printed maps that's the only thing you have, but that's not how most people navigate anymore. They search for a place or POIs and then use navigation. So the things most people care about have changed, streets are less important now and things lik…

I think you mean this blog? https://www.justinobeirne.com/ , it's been shared a number of times https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=justinobeirne.com here with this one being the most popular https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15965653 , though that's six years old. Still well worth reading

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#395

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.

FWIW Apple does the same thing to me in my neighborhood. I live in Brooklyn where there are restaurants on every block but it'll zoom out and show ~15 restaurants scattered over a mile with half in Manhattan. Pretty unusable.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#396

> 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.

Not furnishing your users with knowledge that could reduce their reliance on your service is Marketing 101.

Google maps does not want help people gain awareness of their surroundings or improve their navigation skills. It wants users to depend on Google maps.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#397

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 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…

> they resell the real time location and local data correlated to user characteristics, as data service to large discrete customers.

I do not understand what resell means here. Who is google selling to first?

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#398

I've fully bought into Apple ecosystem but I refuse to use Apple Maps. Not sure how good they are in US but in Europe they are dismal. When they announced the release re-designed maps in Netherlands I gave them a shot but it honestly wasn't a big improvement. I took a screen of my area in Google Maps and the same screen using Apple Maps and the side-by-side difference was shocking. Google maps had orders of magnitude…

Once I was directed my Google Maps in Germany leading to a closed entrance of a highway. I passed that entrance and Google rerouted me, after driving for some time apparently I went through a big loop and go back to the same entrance. Then I drove off to the other direction, somehow I went back to the same entrance again, passing through a certain road that we already remembered from the last loop in the opposite direction.

We wasted what feels like an hour, but probably around half? And then we changed to Apple Maps which has the data on the closure and we can get on the right road on the first try.

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