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Google Maps has become an eyesore

fastcompany.com

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Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#581

Post by wredue »

vehementi wrote: post #562
wredue wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, because I was wrong. Here’s the Nvidia privacy policy: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/about-nvidia/privacy-policy/ How I was wrong is was in the “valuable debugging information”. Because you can actually disable the sending of debug and crash statistics, but you cannot disable the collection of tracking everything you do except for password boxes! The original source on the telemetry was a print magazine, Canard…

Where do you opt out if you don't have GeForce experience at all?

I’ve just learned: you don’t. I thought this was limited to just GeForce experience, but it’s not.

You need to kill Nvidia telemetry services (one site has it listed as nmtvmon).

Another option would be to block traffic to Nvidia from leaving your network (pihole captures at least some Nvidia telemetry, not sure if it blocks all). I don’t have a list of urls or IPs to look out for.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#582

Post by branon »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #443
wredue wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GeForce experience tracks every single window you have open, sending the title and window information, along with every single spot that you click on your screen to Nvidia, tied to your now mandatory account. That was a couple years back. Who knows how much more invasive it’s gotten since. Oh. And this data is considered to be “valuable debugging information”, so is not prevented by opting out of analytics.

Good to know! Uninstalling when I get home. Windows has really become a big bag of certified malware and adware. I always feel a bit dirty when I play a game on my windows pc, and now I know why.

The irony here is that you will get NVIDIA (and AMD) drivers vendored through Windows Update automatically by default. These work fine for 3D acceleration, and don't install GFE or require an account.

You'll just be a few versions behind, not sure what their release cadence is for this. But as far as I know this is a net positive to the Windows PC user and potentially eliminates needing to deal with GFE/Adrenalin as long as you are satisfied with the builds Microsoft is shipping you.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#583

Post by Ajedi32 »

pydry wrote: post #559
Ajedi32 wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised it doesn't do opening hours, as that information is readily available in the OSM tags (though maybe a bit sparsely compared to Google Maps). As for the rest; yeah I'd love to see a serious effort to get an OMS-based map up to feature parity with Google Maps. Place photos, contacts integration, and the timeline would be big ones for me.

Is is possible but the data is more frequently populated and generally more reliable on google maps. Google has some sort of system that auto-calls shops, I think, and asks them to verify that their hours are correct. It's still pretty crap and I'm sure OSM could beat google maps at that game too but it doesn't seem to be a focus.

A lot of that information on Google Maps is, at least partially, crowd-sourced. OSM-based apps could do the same thing (indeed, it's already sort of possible by just editing OSM directly with a separate app), though they don't have nearly as many users as Google Maps does so it wouldn't be quite as effective.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#584

Post by aembleton »

verteu wrote: post #579
aembleton wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I update stuff in Google Maps? For OSM, its a case of opening Street Complete and tapping on things. To add new features I have to use SCEE, which is more nerdy mainly because it involves using FDroid to install it. But I've no idea how to add, say a park bench to Google Maps.

Just tried it now and I found the experience incredibly easy: On desktop, right click on the map and choose "Add a missing place." On mobile, long-press to drop a pin, then scroll down to "Add a missing place." Does OSM require installing a parallel app store to add a park bench? Sounds like a UX-killer :/

Just tried it on mobile and that is nice and easy, especially if you want to add a business. Not sure how you add a bench that way as I couldn't see the option, but I might be looking in the wrong place.

You're right though, installing another app store is a non starter.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#585

Post by avalys »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #540
Biganon wrote: post #494

> TOO MANY ADS CLUTTER THE MAP ...he complained, in an article on a website where 30% of vertical space is used by an autoplay video ad featuring an idiot asking me whether I'd eat "mustard Skittles". Ironic.

If you're not using an adblocker in this day and age in 2023, you're doing it wrong.

I prefer to just not visit websites that are full of obnoxious ads. I find it's a good screening technique for garbage content that isn't worth reading in the first place.

Unsurprisingly, there's a significant correlation between useless sensationalized clickbait articles and websites fully of intrusive trashy ads.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#586

Post by minsc_and_boo »

JSavageOne wrote: post #521

Criticize Google Maps all you want, but it is easily one of the most useful apps to me, especially as someone who's been been living nomadically the last 5 years. It's kind of scary how dependent I am on this app. Anytime I need to find a restaurant, dentist, electronics store, etc. - I'm looking first on Google Maps and my life is basically dictated by the results. I have lists like "Places to Work" which is a list…

Even the hotspots functionality is useful - if I'm in a new city, I can see the highlighted areas where the best restaurants and bars are.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#587

Post by mike_hock »

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…

A rotten spirit enshittens the smallest UI.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#588

Post by DropInIn »

nielsole wrote: post #266
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…

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…

Yea it's got some really odd behaviors that I can only attribute to Yelp style behavior from Google.

I was literally on the same block as a restaurant and it wouldn't show in maps at all, though the other 3 restaurants on the block were, and the only way to get it to show up was to Google it then click on the maps link. As soon as I took focus off the restaurant it disappeared again.

I can only presume it's because they hadn't paid Google or were being punished for some reason. It lead to me looking for more examples and found many places, including some major ones in the city I'm visiting, were excluded for no apparent reason, even ones with 4.9 ratings, and the only correlation between them was that they either were inherently more "indy" than the rest and thus likely to avoid engaging in certain aspects of Google or were close to a more powerful competitor.

This was particularly shocking when Wendy's wasn't being shown at a strip mall but the Burger King was....

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#589

Post by moomoo11 »

izacus wrote: post #577
moomoo11 wrote: post #3

Love 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.

Was there a need to make this comment thread iPhone ad? Is this some kind of submarine advertising thing?

What’s wrong with sharing my opinion when the subject is that google maps has become an eyesore (aka sucks visually)

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#590

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

bowsamic wrote: post #337
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:…

Even worse: here in Hamburg, a major German city with very high Google Maps usage, The S-Bahn line S1 is closed through the tunnel right in the centre of the city an entire month, and yet it has not been updated at all. Same thing occurred when the S1 from the airport to HBF was closed last month. These are very high capacity lines and it is tourist season. Anyone trying to use Google Maps is going to be very confuse…

You're expected to use the HVV-App.

https://www.hvv.de/en

Edditt: links to ios and android at the rigth bottom side of the screen (a.k.a scroll down)

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