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Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

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Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#191

Post by TillE »

pjscott wrote: post #170
SeanDav wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or it could, I don't know, maybe search on closest matches to locations containing the words "Sambisa" and "forest" with priority to those areas containing the words in the correct order - like maybe "Sambisa Forest Reserve". Oooh maybe they can take out a patent on that idea first... (Sorry OP, not having a go at you - just getting incredibly frustrated with companies I used to love and respect - like Google and Ama…

That sounds way too obvious for them not to have tried on a large corpus of (search string, correct result) pairs. If it actually gave better results, do you really think they wouldn't do it? I understand wanting to vent about the magic not being magical enough, but just how stupid do you think they are?

Google has a bad habit of trying to be too clever. For a very long time, searching for "yore" (an English word) on the Google Play store only gave me results for "your", without even bothering to tell me what it was doing.

Google is very concerned about giving users what it thinks they want, rather then what they actually asked for. Sometimes that's great (I love basic stemming), sometimes it fills my results with irrelevant garbage.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#192

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

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.

" Older linux window managers"

You remember that horrible WM everybody seemed to be running 10-15 years ago, 'enlightenment'? Completely unusable but it looked cool with all the shapes and transparencies and etc.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#193

Post by aeturnum »

chapel wrote: post #98

This blog post is way off. The issue isn't that Google Maps couldn't find Sambisa Forest, it is that it has an issue with how it handles auto complete and pressing enter without selecting the choices it brings up. It quite frankly looks like a bug. You can see for yourself here: http://i.imgur.com/vX1xqp2.gif

I disagree that the blog post is way off and I think the issue is that google can't find Sambisa Forest (it can't - as your gif demonstrates). It can find, "Sambisa Forest Reserve," which is great, but not the point of the blog.

They are saying that google's ability to take natural language requests (sambisa forest, in-n-out east bay) and come up with an answer that corresponds what you searched for has seriously degraded. Personally, that is consistent with my experience.

What is causing the problem (bug, difference in focus, etc) is also worth discussing. Why does google have so much trouble finding answers to queries that seem straightforward? Why can it suggest "Sambisa Forest Reserve" (based on "sambisa forest") and then have no idea how to find "sambia forest?" The title might be a little grandiose, but I think it's a fair question.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#194

Post by davidw »

magicalist wrote: post #165
davidw wrote: post #86

Some 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.

Are you talking web or mobile? The web one found Eugene, OR just fine for me...

It finds it ok searching for it, but when you put it as a destination from San Francisco, in the little box, it chokes.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#195

Post by mempko »

nextstep wrote: post #150

I'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.

There has been free competition for ages. Google just has all the mind share.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#196

Post by chetanahuja »

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…

@Pacabel Absolutely true. The "design" folks are usually pressured to follow fashions. Current fashion in designs in the valley are unfortunately driven by people (ie "hipsters") with "minimal", "negative space", "beautiful" as their main values with usability, discoverability etc. being very low on the list of priorities.

Also, I can assert with some confidence, that the number of people choosing the Classic view (from the small question mark at the bottom), is being tracked as a metric of success or failure of the new UI high up on the chain of decision-making inside google.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#197

Post by mempko »

noir_lord wrote: post #59

I was trying to find out how much it costs to use Google Maps in a business product (SaaS) I literally could not find a price without the "give us your details and our sales team will be in touch" which to me translates as "We need to work out exactly where to stick the hose to suck out the money". Compare that with this https://www.mapbox.com/plans/ . I know who will be getting my money in the near future.

Also http://developer.here.com/web-experiences

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#198

Post by davidw »

User9821 wrote: post #172
davidw wrote: post #86

Some 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.

In mobile, putting 'Terrain' in the search bar gets me "no results for Terrain".

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#199

Post by felicopter »

blibble wrote: post #188
jameshart wrote: post #94

Something is, indeed, terribly terribly wrong in Google Maps algorithm land. For at least the last couple of weeks, Google Maps has been insisting that Basingstoke in England is called "Town Centre", and is one of the most important places in England. On a view of the entire country, it's displaying a label in the same font-size it uses for Southampton, Bristol and Liverpool marking Basingstoke as "Town Centre". Manc…

Basingstoke one of the most important places in England? pull the other one

He was referring to "Town Centre".

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#200

Post by dublinben »

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…

For the sake of completeness, here's the same location on OpenStreetMap. It's similar to Bing, if not even better.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=-39.277500%2C-71.9...

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