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Google Maps has become an eyesore

fastcompany.com

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Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#461

Post by cvoss »

diegoveralli wrote: post #449

> Finally, Google Maps seems more intent today on showing bars, restaurants, ads, and work-from-home businesses than useful map-related features. Sometimes it doesn’t even show the most basic information anymore, including street names. I suspect they arrived at this through a series of A-B tests, since the more useful navigational information they display, the easier it is for the user to "learn" a city, and be able…

As a rule, when in my home city, I always study the route to a new place before navigating, try to get back home without the GPS (which is usually pretty easy, actually), and, on my second visit, challenge myself to get there without the GPS. After enough of this, I have a strong enough map of the city in my own head that I can plan my own routes, get unlost, and make decisions about alternate routes. I often find that there are easier routes than the one proposed by Google Maps. ("No, I'm not going to try to turn left onto a six-lane divided highway without a light at this hour")

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#462

Post by bitterblotter »

diegoveralli wrote: post #449

> Finally, Google Maps seems more intent today on showing bars, restaurants, ads, and work-from-home businesses than useful map-related features. Sometimes it doesn’t even show the most basic information anymore, including street names. I suspect they arrived at this through a series of A-B tests, since the more useful navigational information they display, the easier it is for the user to "learn" a city, and be able…

This doesn't apply for me personally, and I think also for most people using public transport. The lack of effort needed for effective transport makes me more likely to use it again, because I don't need to think about uncertainties like delays, roadblocks and timing. I actually end up using Maps for routes I've taken many times before, because of this.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#463

Post by jhbadger »

erremerre wrote: post #428
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?

I don't care where are water fountains, but what bus/train/metro can I take to go to another place, where is the bus stop. At what time does arrive, and which bus stop do I need to get down. I can do that only on google maps. Open Street Map does not provide that info. Now I am sure there are some local app I can use for each individual city that works fine. But with google maps I only need to have one app. As user,…

It's annoying, but if you are serious about taking public transit, you really do need to use the apps for whatever city you are in to get accurate information in my experience. Yes, Google Maps will tell you when a bus or metro is coming, but they often get it wrong, claiming that buses that run only on weekdays run on Saturday and so on.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#464

Post by titzer »

runeks wrote: post #304
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Agreed. And not just that, but also the fact that people use Google Maps for car navigation means Google can derive the location of traffic jams by comparing current speed with the speed limit. 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.

Google maps doesn't do this, it's done by lower levels of software, specifically Google Location Service which is built into Google Play Services. You can tinker with maps settings all you want, but the data is coming from the rootkit they bundle on nearly all devices. Many android apps use GLS APIs and won't work without it.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#466

Post by rchaud »

phiresky wrote: post #313
nielsole wrote: post #266

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…

> They search for a place or POIs and then use navigation.

In big cities, there is construction happening everywhere, POIs have closed down or changed location after the pandemic.

Street names are the only thing that stays the same.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#468

Post by mcpackieh »

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?

Google Maps often misses paths in parks that OSM has. I don't mean obscure trails deep in national forests, I mean paved paths in city parks. Google maps seems optimized for directing people to businesses that might advertise with Google, anything else languishes.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#469

Post by datavirtue »

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?

Google maps is the poster child of missing common-sense features. Monopolies make bad products. Stop wondering.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#470

Post by alistairSH »

phiresky wrote: post #313
nielsole wrote: post #266

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…

Perhaps not a large use case, but I use street names regularly when discussing bicycle routes. "How to get from Town A to Town B by bicycle" often relies on street names - take Rt 123 for 2 miles, turn left on Fancy Farm Lane, etc. The route-finding often keeps you on Rt 123 for the whole route, but it's a busy dual carriageway and really not suitable for bikes.
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