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Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

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Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#61

Post by asaikali »

With the old google maps I could count on the fact that I could hope on Google maps 60 seconds before I needed to head out find the directions I needed hit print and be on my way. Or I could have some one on the phone talking to me and saying something hey I am lost I am kinda in this area of town I could pump that into google maps and give walking directions or even driving directions realtime over the phone.

The new google maps is frustrating to use. All the ways that I used to use google maps for just don't seem to work with the new maps either because they removed the feature, or moved the UI elements in such a way that they don't exist on the same page any more or its just too slow on my very fast laptop and my very fast internet.

I really hope they fix it fast, I am loosing all hope that maps will ever be usable again.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#62

Post by surana90 »

gyardley wrote: post #53

The Google Maps product really is lacking outside of the United States. I was down in Chile's Lake District last week, and Google totally failed me, both in Pucón and Panguipulli. These are not particularly tiny towns - in fact, Pucón is a major tourist destination. But Google was completely lacking in street information for both places. I ended up having to use Bing. Google wasn't even second - both Nokia's HERE Map…

I so agree with you.I was in Puerto Natales, Chile and it completely failed me. Baffled.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#63

Post by masterleep »

joel_perl_prog wrote: post #33
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…

Yeah I hear ya. Whoever guided this Titanic into the iceberg...well he ain't no Steve Jobs. That's for sure. It's hard to overstate how just plain awful Google Maps is now. It's amazing, in a way. I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. Manifestly obviously just shit awful. To observe this one only needs a few seconds with Google Maps. A few minutes cemen…

Pegman sealed the deal.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#64

Post by surana90 »

Continuing the rant - I would speak for India, if you are going from Point A to Point B it shows you 4 ways to get there. You could filter it with options like - Buses, Trains or Least Transfer, Less walking etc. Now there are times when there are more then 10 buses running between these two points and with a frequency like of 20-30 mins.

So if you happen to use Google Maps then it would show you only 4 results even after you filter down to Buses. Why not show all the options Google? When you have it in your results, just show it.

Because I and lot of people that I know have been in this situation where we are waiting for the bus that google maps is showing and in the process missing out on the ones that are not shown.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#65

Post by 3327 »

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.…

I have a four letter word B I N G. Bing maps is surprisingly good and i switched after being fed up with the disaster UI. Pulling my hair out no more !

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#66

Post by lohankin »

There's a simple explanation for recent GUI disasters across google applications: Google+. They decided to make a Swiss Army Knife under the banner of Google+, and needed kind of "consistency" of style. Everything is consistency ugly now, and Google+ guy is gone. Situation may improve as they starts dismantling the monstrosity. With respect to search quality - they hired some AI astronauts, neural networks do wonders for them. The goal is to train their system to accommodate astronauts' brains. They say it openly.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#67

Post by leemcalilly »

Pacabel wrote: post #27
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.…

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 agree with your argument, but there's no need to go in with the "hipsters" or "looking trendy" thing. I immediately get turned off when someone uses "hipster" pejoratively. You might as well have just used "millenials" or "kids these day." It ruins a perfectly cogent argument.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#68

Post by judk »

Pacabel wrote: post #43
runn1ng wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)…

> somebody with a tiny screen and a near-complete lack of technical ability

The vast majority of users.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#69

Post by adwf »

Yossarian_Lives wrote: post #29

My pet peeve as a Londoner; the disappearance of the transit layer when searching for a place. If you've not searched for anything, New-oogle Maps will happily show you the card that lets you activate the transit layer and superimpose the spiderweb of tube lines on to the London map. However, the second a marker gets dropped, good luck seeing that layer ever again. I mean, even if you clickity clack through the direc…

Yeah, I have the exact same complaint. Took me 10 minutes to find out how to get the transit layer back. Then I found out it was practically unusable because as soon as you scroll across London, it disappears...

Have you tried using Citymapper? I've only used it a couple of times as I'm not a Londoner, but it's quite good (it knows to avoid the circle line!). Coincidentally, the first time was to get to #HNLondon where one of the Citymapper guys was giving a talk.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#70

Post by sanderjd »

Pacabel wrote: post #43
runn1ng wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)…

I have a large monitor, but I have no idea what you mean by "push a web browser hard". Chrome's UI is great because it recognizes that what is important in a browser UI is the content area, not the, well ... chrome. I have no concept of what you could possibly be doing with the menu so often that it bugs you.

A little more on topic: one person's "crappy hipster redesign" is another person's "wow this is so much better" and it's really difficult to guess ahead of time which will be the dominant reaction. Having said that, most of the frustrations about Maps here seem to be more on the implementation side than the design side.

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