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Google Maps has become an eyesore

fastcompany.com

611–620 of 705 posts

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#611
post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Mobile doesn't have ad blocking, at least on iOS. Which is why I pay for Youtube premium.

AdGuard works in iOS Safari for free. (The Mac version is also good.)

(Although you should continue to pay for YouTube Premium. I do, it's well worth it.)

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#612
post #107

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.

> 2. Man, this has trouble finding addresses. 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 ca…

For sure. I've added hundreds of addresses myself. But still there's work to do.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#613
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My personal hot take on this is that this is emblematic of present day design strategy: first, abdicate responsibility for meaningful customizability (meaningful = anything but maybe aesthetic theming). “UI is hard.” Once you’ve accepted that it would be impossible to create settings that would be useful and worthwhile, then you just make a bunch of static choices based on what you think the average dummy would want, or write an algorithm to decide it all non-deterministically, which gives a small chance that it will occasionally meet needs more complex than the most basic use case.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

surely google employees can't look up peoples locations..

Surely they can. Who would be locking them out? Another google employee. So the useful questions are which google employees can look up people's locations, and through what process?

I can't speak for now, but you have to apply for access. For PII it goes to a VP.

De-anonymizing a Gaia ID is about as secure as it gets.

Disclosure: this is 6 year old info. YMMV.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#615
The thing that annoys me most is people listing their run-from-home business on the map.

This is explicitly against Google's TOS but they don't stop people putting them on.

You can flag them, and Google do remove them. Scan your neighborhood, click any business which is clearly actually a house, click Suggest an Edit > Close or Remove > Not open to the public.

I've had a lot of success removing a whole ton of spammy junk from the map this way.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't read 1984, this is really confusing, but a "memory hole" is a hole into which you place something you don't want to have any memory of, destroying it forever. The ironic name is an example of "doublethink."

I believe you mean "Doublespeak" rather than "Doublethink".

No, “doublethink” is the term introduced in Orwell’s 1984.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#617
post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The extremely detailed mapping of drinking water on OSM that the OP alludes to, is more helpful than you assume. If you are cycling or hiking in baking-hot Southern Europe, or wandering through some picturesque villages, there are often springs hidden just off the trail that most people would never spot, if the map didn’t alert people to their presence. Also, with OSM one doesn’t need to be “chronically online” and use a “web service”, because various apps allow using OSM fully offline.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#618

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,…

The Transportr app[0], which is Free Software and even on F-Droid, shows public transit directions for a number of cities around the world. There is now a standardized format for transit routing and timetables, and transit authorities freely share it, so for those cities Google has no especial monopoly in that regard.

[0] https://transportr.app/

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

surely google employees can't look up peoples locations..

Surely they can. Who would be locking them out? Another google employee. So the useful questions are which google employees can look up people's locations, and through what process?

that's completely different. Can an accountant or marketing person look up a persons location vs can any developer vs can any map developer vs specific people with proper access controls

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#620
post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Without a trace of irony: thank you for explaining to me why I fucking hate Google Maps. Don't change the context and try to outsmart me without giving me any indication of doing so. Don't attempt to outsmart me without giving any recourse if I don't like it. It only ever leads to information I want to see being hidden. You, Google Maps, do not know what I want better than I fucking well do.

Exactly. Like for example if I'm the passenger and I do want to see the store names along the intended route, and even the ratings and reviews, while the driver is zooming down the freeway to make a decision about where to eat, without taking it off navigation mode.

Oh and not to mention that it sometimes tries to translate street names to my phone's language setting. Leave street names in their original language so I can match it up to the physical signs, goddamnit.

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