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Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

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Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#41

Post by graeme »

thotpoizn wrote: post #8
zatkin wrote: post #4

I am grateful that we are able to revert back to the old Google Maps for now. I hope that they keep this regression available to their users for a while.

I am a little annoyed that I have to keep going through clickrobatics every time I change back to old Google Maps, and explain why each time. I've already explained a dozen times, quit pestering me. Also, get off my damned lawn.

You can get around this by bookmarking a location. I bookmarked my address in the old maps, and use that as my entry point to google maps. It doesn't ask me to switch to new.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#42

Post by infinotize »

I will go against the grain a little and say I don't mind the new Google Maps, and it's getting better to the point where I might even say I like it more than the old Maps. They have been steadily improving it - initially the street view UI was terrible, and there wasn't even a distance scale. I think we've gotten to the point where releasing such poor stuff and calling it beta doesn't fly anymore when you consider how many people will be using it.

I've gotten used to putting in unnecessarily verbose context in searches, and I assume that's why I don't have search issues in sending me to other irrelevant parts of the world.

I guess there is a lot to complain about. But for me it's still the best map, and pretty usable.

The Google approach of changing things on you - too bad! - is obnoxious. Pushing out Chrome notifications in OS, enabling them by default, and having to find blog posts on how to disable because it's not in settings or documentation, this kinda stuff is just getting old.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#43

Post by Pacabel »

runn1ng wrote: post #34
Pacabel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is absolutely correct. I actually had to use Bing Maps today to look up some directions because the new version of Google Maps was pretty much unusable. As for why UX disasters like this can happen, I think it generally comes down to one thing these days: "hipsters". Those of us who've been in industry for a long time have no doubt seen this happen before. A relatively well-established product has…

I was with you until you started to hate on Chrome GUI. In my opinion, Chrome's GUI is the best thing that could happen to browsers.

It depends on who you are, and how you use the browser. Maybe the Chrome UI is good for somebody with a tiny screen and a near-complete lack of technical ability.

But for people with large monitors and the need to push a web browser hard, they've merely managed to strip out or hide a lot of very useful functionality, with essentially no benefit. What's left over is non-standard and awkward to use (like Chrome's menu).

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#44

Post by mtarnovan »

buro9 wrote: post #15

In the example given it's the word "forest" that is the problem. "Sambisa" would have found it. "Sambisa Reserve" would have found it. "Sambisa Forest Reserve" would have found it. But my guess is that something attempts to understand keywords and context and when you end with "forest" it looks within the set of forests that are called Sambisa, and actually there isn't a forest called Sambisa, there's a nature reserv…

"Sambisa Forest" works just fine for me... http://imgur.com/MQF5s8D

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#45

Post by mtarnovan »

cocoflunchy wrote: post #16

The worst about that Sambisa Forest thing is that the autocompletion finds it ( http://imgur.com/kWgcByo ) and then when you press enter, you get a not found error ( http://imgur.com/GyhVSaO ) !

For me both autocomplete and selecting it from the autocomplete find works perfectly.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#46

Post by swatkat »

The new maps.google.com is completely broken for me. Page doesn't load properly most of the time. First thing I do is to revert to classic maps. Maps app on my Android phone works fine though.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#47

Post by cliveowen »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #17

The author is complaining about product development siloing at Google. I know, because I consulted there, that they are working on better cross business integration for internal systems (this is a goal of all large organizations). That said, don't you want some degree of siloing between products? Certainly share infrastructure, share some data as appropriate, but it just seems to me that by having smaller independent…

Id' really like to have some opinions about Google Now that everyone seems to find awesome. Let's start with the fact that if I want to set a reminder and I don't have an internet connection I can't. Since when having an internet connection is a prerequisite for even basic tasks? Secondly, of all the suggestions it gave me over the months based on my search history none has been helpful. None. If you search for the same things everyday you'll not get related suggestions, but as soon as you search something like the name of that actor that now eludes you, you'll get 2-3 tabs with the latest news on that actor, even though there's no value in it: you already found what you searched for and it was a one time thing. It keeps telling me the time to work even though by now it should've known when it is appropriate to do so. I mean, it's 4 pm, I didn't move from home, do you really think I'm gonna be 7 hours late to work and it's now a good time to remind me?

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#48

Post by DanBC »

platz wrote: post #40
Pacabel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is absolutely correct. I actually had to use Bing Maps today to look up some directions because the new version of Google Maps was pretty much unusable. As for why UX disasters like this can happen, I think it generally comes down to one thing these days: "hipsters". Those of us who've been in industry for a long time have no doubt seen this happen before. A relatively well-established product has…

Can't help but think is is an engineers mindset here (remember forms UIs with 50 gray buttons?). UIs were usable but not appealing. Older linux window managers. Designers making things look appealing brings computing to more people (not just pros) than otherwise.

Appealing is good. Usable is more important. Appealing and usable is great. Appealing but baffling and broken is stupid.

Most people do not want nor need fancy weird functionality.

They just want the maps, or maybe the directions.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#49

Post by pgrote »

solutionyogi wrote: post #22
joel_perl_prog wrote: post #6

Is this where we get to complain about how horrible Google Maps suddenly is? Because wow. I can speak about this. It's terrible. First and foremost, and they have their "reasons" of course, but my Samsung Rant (yeah just a feature phone) always had great maps. Just a simple Java app, built on the maps API. Well that doesn't work anymore. Like, nothing. Google basically says "Get an Android phone, sucker." F U Google.…

Completely agree. On my workstation (6 cores + 32 GB RAM), Google Maps is unbearably slow using the Chrome browser. I can not even imagine the performance on an average computer. My second biggest pet peeve: In old Maps, clicking on the marker will bring out a popup providing you various choices ( http://imgur.com/qeLhJSd ). In new Maps, clicking on the marker centers it on the screen. What the F? What's the value ad…

Here is the thing ... the clicking on a point on the math and getting info was a great feature.

I loved it.

I am also sure that there is no way Google simply removed it. But they did.

The closest I can find is RIGHT CLICK/WHAT'S HERE.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#50

Post by mgkimsal »

platz wrote: post #40
Pacabel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying is absolutely correct. I actually had to use Bing Maps today to look up some directions because the new version of Google Maps was pretty much unusable. As for why UX disasters like this can happen, I think it generally comes down to one thing these days: "hipsters". Those of us who've been in industry for a long time have no doubt seen this happen before. A relatively well-established product has…

Can't help but think is is an engineers mindset here (remember forms UIs with 50 gray buttons?). UIs were usable but not appealing. Older linux window managers. Designers making things look appealing brings computing to more people (not just pros) than otherwise.

Except... what they had was appealing enough to people to use. It's unappealing enough now that people don't want to use it (even jumping to bing). Many people will continue to use it because of system defaults and such, but many will look for more usable alternatives.

Usability is 'appealing' just as much as visual button styling, maybe moreso.

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