Frankly, I would not even stop at Maps. Since a year or so Google makes so intensely use of all sort of metadata (my browsing interests in the future, the places if have visited, my contacts on G+) that the internet has become a small world for me. I find myself increasingly using duckduckgo just because of this. Heck, as I use the public DNS servers of google, even deleting Cookies or using browser porn mode doesn't…
Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
171–180 of 232 posts
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#172Some other things: * Start in San Francisco by typing San Francisco. It still manages to find that city. Do 'directions' and type in Eugene, OR, USA - my home town, which is a fairly straightforward drive north. It can't find it and gives you bad results. * THEY KILLED TERRAIN MODE! This was a super-useful feature that I still use on my computer, but can no longer access on my mobile devices.
Terrain mode is still there, you just have to type Terrain in the search bar, and it'll switch the view. Then X out of the search to return to the normal map view. Otherwise, if you click the input box, you should get a terrain button in one of the many expanding boxes.
I don't know who came up with the above concept for switching modes, but it's absolutely awful.
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like I said in an earlier comment, age has very little to do with this. "Hipsters" can pretty much be any age. It's more the "hipster" mindset and attitude that's the problem. This attitude involves fashion and trends trumping all other considerations. Maybe that's okay when it comes to something like clothing. It isn't acceptable, however, when it comes to tools that are supposed to be productive, including software…
In this case, I think that I would define "hipster" as "thinks they are the second coming of Steve Jobs." They're basically cargo culting, they saw Steve Jobs stir shit up, so they think that if they stir shit up as well, the world will hail them as geniuses and shower them with riches. The problem is that they give little thought to exactly what they are stirring up, or how they are doing it. Inevitably they just ma…
That and they're positively obsessed with JavaScript, Node.js, and a coding style that favors ample and unnecessary usage of anonymous JavaScript functions as nested parameters.
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chrome's UI is great because it recognizes that what is important in a browser UI is the content area, not the, well ... chrome. Sure it is, as long as you only want to look at one page above the fold. But sometimes I want to navigate between pages, and at that point I do want my bookmarks bar displayed. Sometimes I want to scroll a page, and at that point I do want scrollbars that work the way my system is setup ins…
> But sometimes I want to navigate between pages, and at that point I do want my bookmarks bar displayed. 'Always show bookmark bar' is the top item on my View menu. Is it there for you? > at that point I do want scrollbars that work the way my system is setup I can't comment on this I've not used a scroll bar since I got trackpad scrolling. Just compared Chrome with Safari and the scrollbars seem identical to me. >…
'Always show bookmark bar' is the top item on my View menu.
Sure, you can change the default easily enough. I'm just giving an example where I do find it useful to have more Chrome displayed at the expense of a small amount of content area.
I can't comment on this I've not used a scroll bar since I got trackpad scrolling.
I'm usually working on a desktop PC, so I don't have a trackpad. I use a mouse scroll wheel all the time, but for long documents that's tedious (as is using a trackpad) and with most mice it's a one-dimensional scroll anyway.
I'm not clear what your complaint is here. Dev tools is too crowded?
Yes, and many things in it are far too small for comfortable use. The developer tools in both Chrome and Firefox are riddled with basic usability and design blunders, such as using tiny fonts and icons; using a flat design that blurs everything together and often gives no clues to what interactions are available; offering many different sets of tabs, icons and other controls; numerous inconsistencies in presentation, not just in the different behaviours from tab to tab but even from one set of tabs or icons to another that is visible at the same time; and forever moving things around, particularly making unnecessary minor changes every few weeks.
I've nothing against providing for developers who are using smaller screens, but I have a powerful computer on a real desk with nice big screens to make me as productive as possible, and the idea that everything must be crammed in to maximise the content area at all costs just isn't helpful in that context. Rather like the perversion of the original "mobile first" design idea to become "over-simplified least common denominator behaviour is good enough", it's throwing the baby out with the bathwater and actually making the software worse for some users. Of course the developers of these browsers are perfectly entitled to do that, but it's equally fair to point out the problems they are creating.
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#175Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chrome's UI is great because it recognizes that what is important in a browser UI is the content area, not the, well ... chrome. Sure it is, as long as you only want to look at one page above the fold. But sometimes I want to navigate between pages, and at that point I do want my bookmarks bar displayed. Sometimes I want to scroll a page, and at that point I do want scrollbars that work the way my system is setup ins…
> But sometimes I want to navigate between pages, and at that point I do want my bookmarks bar displayed. Ctrl+Shift+B. > Sometimes I want to scroll a page, and at that point I do want scrollbars that work the way my system is setup instead of some almost invisible, almost unclickable little rectangle at the edge of the window. Seems to use normal system scrollbars for me on KDE. Windows looks custom, but only wrt te…
Ctrl+Shift+B.
Sure, or it's an option on the menu. I'm just trying to show that sometimes removing all possible chrome to maximise the content area isn't necessarily the most helpful thing to do.
Seems to use normal system scrollbars for me on KDE.
On Windows, they are just thin grey rectangles that don't even look like scrollbars (or anything else you might interact with) and don't even look the same between the main content window and supporting windows like the developer tools.
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#177Is 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.…
Just yesterday I realized that they removed the estimate of fuel costs. Why? That doesn't make sense, it's one of the things you expect to see when you search for directions. It's backwards, but they managed to "update" a product and render it less useful.
Aren't fuel costs local enough that trying to estimate it is futile anyway?
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#178I can't get street view to work at all with the new maps. I just get a black screen whenever it tries. Is that happening to anyone else? I'm on Firefox beta (30).
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#179I'm glad tha Apple maps is steadily improving. There needs to be competition so that free services will compete for users by improving the user experience. I think iOS 8 will include major updates to Apple maps that will integrate transit directions. Apple recently bought the mapping company Embark along with a few other transit-related acquisitions.
The problem is Apple Maps isn't usable outside an iOS device or a specific "Maps" app on Macs only. Share links open google maps, unless you have the above machines. This makes it less than useful for general use.
Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us
#180Earlier 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 went on about GNOME 3... oh wait, I was still with you..
I enjoy GNOME 3.
Have been using it for a long while now and really don't have any major complaints. Granted, I don't use many desktop programs (browsers, terminal, chat programs and nuvola player).