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The New Google Maps

maps.google.com

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Re: The New Google Maps

#181

Post by snogglethorpe »

seszett wrote: post #117
Spearchucker wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In comparison to http://here.com Google Maps was stale.

For some reason, Kerguelen island and quite a few others in the Indian Ocean don't even exist on Nokia's maps.

Nokia's maps, judging from what here.com shows, seem to be essentially useless outside the U.S./Europe.

Japan/Korea/etc are essentially not covered at all ... they don't even seem to have any roads except for the most major highways—Tokyo on here.com literally has like five roads!—and what very little data they do have is often wrong.

Even Apple does vastly better... oO;

Re: The New Google Maps

#182

Post by snogglethorpe »

_lex wrote: post #49

This is a straight up attack on yelp, targeting local commerce. Their goal is that instead of searching yelp for massage therapy, you search google maps. That sort of query is extremely valuable (trust me - my company pays for it every day). It makes a lot of business sense - it's probably the most lucrative way to monetize maps, and get people to use google reviews more.

Seems like such a feature could help other sites (like yelp) too though: at least where I live, the "what stuff is at this location" feature of google maps shows not just Google reviews, but also has appropriate links into other review services (not yelp, as they don't seem to be a player here, but other very well-known restaurant/store review sites). This is very useful for the user, as there are often many more and better quality reviews on these popular sites.

Re: The New Google Maps

#183

Post by snogglethorpe »

jka wrote: post #156

It's personal bias from my previous experience in travel -- but it's very interesting to see the small (grayed out) 'flight' logo as one of the navigation options in the top-left.

They're hoping it proves more popular for long overseas trips than the previous "kayak" option...

Re: The New Google Maps

#184

Post by snogglethorpe »

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...

Hmm, the current google maps correctly shows rail trips on the map as following the actual rail line, so I'm guessing they'll get the new one doing that too by the time its really release... :]

Re: The New Google Maps

#186

Post by ancarda »

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.

I believe the "drip-feed" invite idea suffocated Google Wave. When it first came out I was begging my inbox & skype for invites. Once I finally got in it was ... a wasteland. I dished out invites like there was no tomorrow but in all honesty, if people could JUST sign up, I might have had someone to talk to.

Who knows, maybe it might still be running. I'm not sure if there were other factors but personally it never made sense to me.

I believe if Google really wanted to, they could go from 0 to 1 million users in minutes.

Re: The New Google Maps

#187

Post by Digit-Al »

Spearchucker wrote: post #58
devindotcom wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really think it was stale or stagnated exactly. You probably saw recently a few posts about how much work goes into them and why exactly they're better than Apple's or Microsoft's. It's very subtle and fundamental stuff. They didn't change much, it's true, but that's because the competition was so bad and they leapfrogged them by so much at the beginning. We'll see how the new look works in action - I can't s…

In comparison to http://here.com Google Maps was stale.

I tried the different views on this. Maps 3D appears to be identical to Satellite, and Terrain appears to be the same as the normal Map view.

Re: The New Google Maps

#188

Post by hnha »

epochwolf wrote: post #74
maeon3 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a flag where you can turn it on. In the flight simulator you can crash into buildings. Also, try the grand canyon with the monster milktruck, set aside 5 hours for this.

> In the flight simulator you can crash into buildings. Eh... not the best feature to be pointing out.

what do you mean? maeon3 was replying in the contact of clipping. buildings are where that problem arises it a flight simulator like this.

Re: The New Google Maps

#189

Post by damon_c »

ancarda wrote: post #186
munificent wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe the "drip-feed" invite idea suffocated Google Wave. When it first came out I was begging my inbox & skype for invites. Once I finally got in it was ... a wasteland. I dished out invites like there was no tomorrow but in all honesty, if people could JUST sign up, I might have had someone to talk to. Who knows, maybe it might still be running. I'm not sure if there were other factors but personally it never m…

Agreed on wave. We wanted to use it for projects but there was always the 10% of the team that didn't have access.

That seemed like the perfect way not to introduce a product oriented toward collaboration.

Re: The New Google Maps

#190

Post by hexasquid »

snogglethorpe wrote: post #181
seszett wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, Kerguelen island and quite a few others in the Indian Ocean don't even exist on Nokia's maps.

Nokia's maps, judging from what here.com shows, seem to be essentially useless outside the U.S./Europe. Japan/Korea/etc are essentially not covered at all ... they don't even seem to have any roads except for the most major highways—Tokyo on here.com literally has like five roads!—and what very little data they do have is often wrong. Even Apple does vastly better... oO;

There is something very strange about Japan maps. I couldn't get them to cache on Android, and Bing / Here maps wouldn't show them at all.
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