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The New Google Maps

maps.google.com

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141–150 of 193 posts

Re: The New Google Maps

#141

Post by markbao »

marquis wrote: post #138
markbao wrote: post #136

I've always found Google Maps' listings a bit lacking. For something that is supposed to map the world, it still won't show me all the restaurants on a main avenue in NYC[0]. It still doesn't pinpoint the right locations for some places and for others it simply can't find them. I think we're still far from the future of a 'one true map' that has it all, unfortunately. I still don't trust Google Maps to return quality…

That should change, according to Zagat (owned by Google): http://blog.zagat.com/2013/05/zagat-helping-you-find-excepti...

Yes, I hope so, but I'm not hopeful, because Zagat isn't as good as Yelp.

The biggest thing that Apple Maps has over Google Maps is their partnership with Yelp. Yelp is arguably the best source of business information in cities where it's available. It's up-to-date address-wise, lists pretty much every restaurant and attraction, has hours for many of them, and even menus. Plus decent reviews, and lots of them. Google and Zagat can't come anywhere close.

Re: The New Google Maps

#142

Post by justincormack »

coverband wrote: post #100

Bing Maps are quite aware of the zip code change that happened to my neighborhood more than a year ago and can map my address quite well. Google Maps are still pointing to a location that does not exist in real world unfortunately. I'd have hoped that they fixed these things first.

Yeah sorry about that. All changes to maps have now been cancelled until zip code issues in the region of coverband have been resolved.

Re: The New Google Maps

#144

Post by 205guy »

croisillon wrote: post #110

Not sure if everybody sees the same example but the map I see with different ways by car and by train is cute but obviously very wrong. A railway is rarely straight and even less so in the middle of the Alps...

Yeah, I thought that was weird. I'd much prefer the transit being mapped out on it's actual path, with symbols for stops. In the video it does show a cool new feature where different transit options are compared in a timeline.

As an aside, the new look of the maps reminds me a lot of my beloved Michelin maps. Google used to have zero terrain on the regular map, only forest/park shading, but now they have a minimal amount, just like Michelin. It really does help me "read" the landscape. A lot of the colors also seem to be converging to Michelin standards.

Re: The New Google Maps

#145

Post by ihuman »

0x0 wrote: post #33
untog wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WebGL version of maps is not this new version- presumably it was the early work which led to it. So it's not surprising that they are phasing out the 'old' WebGL maps. They weren't that great, anyway.

I miss the nice 3d perspective building outlines :(

It looks like the new Google Maps has them

Re: The New Google Maps

#146

Post by coldtea »

kbenson wrote: post #127
bowmessage wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as someone who was also 13 around the time GMail was doing their invite thing, yes. I coveted that thing. I listened to TWiT with Leo Laporte and heard them talk and talk about it, and scoured web forums looking for one. It's not that weird really.

I think coldtea was implying that there's something else that 13 year old boys (assumption from GP name) generally want more than anything, and it's generally a bit more physical than Gmail invites.

Not to mention they don't listen to ..."TWiT with Leo Laporte "!

Re: The New Google Maps

#147

Post by malandrew »

munificent wrote: post #87
onemorepassword wrote: post #25

"Request an invite". Dear god, Google still thinking it's a cute little startup. It really is the Microsoft story all over again.

Would you want a billion new users all slamming your brand new codebase and infrastructure all at the exact same time? Sure Google can handle scale better than anyone, but a stampede is still a stampede. Soft launches are way safer and easier to manage.

And that's only half of it. Users that are likely to request an invite are more likely to be technically savvy and provide better feedback than "maps is b0rked. plz fix!!11". If you are going to have to deal with feedback, it's much better to not have to sift through low quality feedback during the early days of launching a new product.

Re: The New Google Maps

#148

Post by georgemcbay »

munificent wrote: post #87
onemorepassword wrote: post #25

"Request an invite". Dear god, Google still thinking it's a cute little startup. It really is the Microsoft story all over again.

Would you want a billion new users all slamming your brand new codebase and infrastructure all at the exact same time? Sure Google can handle scale better than anyone, but a stampede is still a stampede. Soft launches are way safer and easier to manage.

"Sure Google can handle scale better than anyone"

Spoken like someone who has never tried to buy tickets to Google IO!

But on a serious note, there are some products at Google that clearly scale well beyond what most other groups are capable of, but there are some products at Google that... don't.

Like any big company, things aren't completely uniform across the board.

Re: The New Google Maps

#150

Post by eridius »

snotrockets wrote: post #133
eridius wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about the OpenGL drivers. They were never intended to be exposed to untrusted code running on web pages, so they haven't really been hardened appropriately.

Only to untrusted binaries on your machine. Not caring about attacks from the local user is what got Microsoft tons of (justified) bad PR not ten years ago.

Once you're running an untrusted binary on your machine, the game's already over.
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