I just want Google Maps to slide the location of the street labels so they always stay visible. Zooming into an area and having a street label simply vanish is an absurd behavior for software in the 21st century.
Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
81–90 of 121 posts
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#82What about actually improving directions, not sending us through barely usable roads in Mediterranean islands, if we can consider them roads at all. Or shortcuts that might be interesting in a computer game, how the RTS units select their path, but hardly so when driving through a medieval village, instead of the somehow longer circular road that everyone should use.
We have been in Italy in the mountains near Lake Garda, and the hosts where we were staying specifically instructed us not to use Google Maps as it will lead us to sketchy shortcuts which is barely managable to pass trough, while the "official" route to their village is paved, easy to follow, and thus, much faster to pass than Google's route.
I left on Google Maps out of curiosity and indeed, it started to show directions which lead to poor dirty roads where my car would barely fit trough.
One would think that Google has some data about much less cars passing through that road than the paved one and drive some conclusion out of it, as I hardly think anyone would use those roads apart from a few locals who are living there. Especially in an area which is filled with tourists.
Also, Google Maps also often suggests much less efficients routes in my local area where I definitely know that there's a route which not shorter, but still much faster.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google telephones most businesses in the world multiple times per year to confirm opening hours and ask what their hours will be at Christmas/other holidays. Let that sink in. They have an actual human put actual minutes into speaking with every single business in their database. Think how much that alone must cost. And they put all that money in simply so users can be a little more certain that the opening hours sho…
Most businesses in the world? I'd like some proof. Unless, of course, you and I have different ideas of what "the world" is
Snarky, but I expect that to be a kind-of circle with a small radius, around their offices and the favorite places their employees in SF visit.
Never heard of this happening, and not something I'd expect google to do. I'd expect them to send emails at most, with a link to some page that is broken for anyone not using Chrome, then no support available.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#84One of my biggest irks with Google Maps is how aggressively it shows pins for hotels, bars and restaurants, even on their search results map. Do users really feel the need for this constant in-your-face advertisement? But as I type this, I realized Google is primarily an ad business and whatever will drive that revenue will get pushed further. Oh well.
I'm pretty sure only the square pins are ads. So the deluge of hotel pins showing in the map near my house isn't even making them money, it's just an out of control algorithm or terrible product choice.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#85Apple Maps rendering surpassed Google a lil while ago. I still use Google for a variety of reasons but I do think Apple’s map design is superior.
Depends on what you're talking about. For aesthetics? No question Apple's superior. For navigation? A tossup in my experience? For discovery of places and reviews? Google's so far ahead it's not even close. Apple's interface with Google's database of places and reviews would be the holy grail.
Apple also has a bunch of small hiking and biking trails that Google doesn't. They must've bought some GPS data from Strava or something because you can't see them from space and there's no way they could have paid someone to map them that thoroughly.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most businesses in the world? I'd like some proof. Unless, of course, you and I have different ideas of what "the world" is
Snarky, but I expect that to be a kind-of circle with a small radius, around their offices and the favorite places their employees in SF visit. Never heard of this happening, and not something I'd expect google to do. I'd expect them to send emails at most, with a link to some page that is broken for anyone not using Chrome, then no support available.
Maybe my business is a corner case which avoids the automation - I am open usually 9-5ish, but can be open anytime if a customer rings the well and waits for someone to get out of bed.
Google has an actual human call every 2-3 months, who usually just asks the opening hours, confirms one other detail (usually the website) and then says goodbye.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#87Apple Maps rendering surpassed Google a lil while ago. I still use Google for a variety of reasons but I do think Apple’s map design is superior.
Depends on what you're talking about. For aesthetics? No question Apple's superior. For navigation? A tossup in my experience? For discovery of places and reviews? Google's so far ahead it's not even close. Apple's interface with Google's database of places and reviews would be the holy grail.
As the person you’re replying to is talking about design, I think they and you and me agree. Apple Maps looks nicer and “cleaner”. Also on iOS and macOS, the performance of Google Maps is so janky that for navigation Apple Maps is also superior.
For navigation, if you’re in a region where Apple has their “new maps” which have maximum speed, traffic lights, 3D buildings etc. then navigation is on par with Google with some nice extras thrown in because Apple owns the platform (like: navigation on the Lock Screen, custom notification styles etc.) Except bike navigation which Apple still does not offer in the bike capital of the world, The Netherlands.
As for location data…yeah Apple is indeed bad. Both in number of places it knows, in accuracy of their data like opening hours and especially in reviews which is regurgitated from terrible sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google telephones most businesses in the world multiple times per year to confirm opening hours and ask what their hours will be at Christmas/other holidays. Let that sink in. They have an actual human put actual minutes into speaking with every single business in their database. Think how much that alone must cost. And they put all that money in simply so users can be a little more certain that the opening hours sho…
> They have an actual human put actual minutes into speaking with every single business in their database. Think how much that alone must cost. They may have done this in years past. I have worked in fast food for the last decades and I get Google's calls. They are all automated and the robot on the other end never understands me because the hours of the places I manage aren't simple enough to explain to Google's AI.…
> Of course OSM can't be updated with up-to-the-minute opening hours at all.
What do you mean by this? The spec seems to allow it https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:opening_hours/specif...
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most businesses in the world? I'd like some proof. Unless, of course, you and I have different ideas of what "the world" is
Snarky, but I expect that to be a kind-of circle with a small radius, around their offices and the favorite places their employees in SF visit. Never heard of this happening, and not something I'd expect google to do. I'd expect them to send emails at most, with a link to some page that is broken for anyone not using Chrome, then no support available.
A local restaurant near me in Australia said they had a Google employee ring asking to confirm their opening times.
Re: Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style
#90> The new New York map above looks comically bad, almost like student-level work. I found the new NY map refreshing because of its higher contrast between the streets and city blocks. Feels like it's easier to get a handle on what's on the screen. Granted, whenever a product gives me the opportunity to opt for increased contrast, I usually go for it.
That's super interesting, because to me the new one literally looks like a captcha! It would be completely unusable with careful perusal, let alone glancing down while navigating. The words all have lines of nearly the exact same color overlayed so I can't read them without squinting and going letter by letter. I found out several years ago that I have some form of color blindness - amusingly enough during a design r…
when I hear "captcha" I think of mostly black text on white background. The text is made hard to read by distorting the font, and possibly drawing a line through it.
So I find your analogy of "literally looks like a captcha" to be confusing.