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Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

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201–210 of 232 posts

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#201
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> somebody with a tiny screen and a near-complete lack of technical ability The vast majority of users.

And that continuous pandering to them is what will bring the downfall of the information age. We are dumbing down our technology, where we should be forcing people to get smarter instead. But unfortunately, dumber is always easier to sell. I fear that, as the world depends more and more on technology (and people actually thinking straight), this feedback loop of progressing idiocy might one day undo us.

That does not make sense. Newspapers are a primitive medium, that does not offer a lot of customization, yet in many ways they are superior in content to news websites. In any case it does not really matter how "dumb" the presentation of content is, if the content itself isn't "dumb".

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked at OpenStreetMap? Is there anything in particular that it lacks compared to Mapbox?

Commercial backing. I know that sounds somewhat daft but I like been a paying customer as it means I can get some support plus the documentation for mapbox is lovely as well.

Do you realize that what Mapbox gives you is Openstreetmap data ?

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#203

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

Google Maps seems to think so.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#204
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. It doesn't matter how many smart engineers and ux designers can see the obvious, if one person from upper management can't :( (See also: G+ real names policy)

My guess is the original person leading the Google Maps project was very, very competent, and they either moved to another project or quit - and got replaced by someone really awful. I think it happened at some point pre-2013, because Maps was great until then, and has been in decline ever since.

Yeah, I experienced a similar timeline. That's when the Maps API stopped working for the Java app on my feature phone, roughly. Then the cascade or rot hit the PC / tablet experience, piece by piece, until it was just completely terrible. Which brings us to today. =)

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#205
post #69

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 whe…

Citymapper is excellent, especially their mobile app's get-me-home feature (ideal for instant bus combos after the tube's closed). However, it's not designed for the vaguer queries -- nearby cafes, haberdasheries, etc -- at which google maps used to excel.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#206

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.…

This is exactly why I started to use basic html version of Gmail on my desktop computer. It provides almost anything I need (well, that is to write emails and reply to them), it's fast and responsive (no, not that responsive, just that it actually responds to my mouse events ;).

From time to time when I need someting more than basic email stuff, I use the standard javascript interface...

Try it for yourself: http://mail.google.com?ui=html :)

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just gonna jump to your last thing. No, my complaint is not about drag to zoom. It's about double-click to zoom (the words I used, but I know sometimes things can be looked as maybe just an expression or sloppy language). Double-click. Literally. Click, click. Zoom. This no longer works correctly. Much of the time, instead of zooming, well... it does something else, I honestly can't remember what. Maybe opens a littl…

> No, my complaint is not about drag to zoom. It's about double-click to zoom (the words I used, but I know sometimes things can be looked as maybe just an expression or It was clear you were complaining about double-click to zoom, but it was far less clear what about double-click to zoom your complaint was about. I guessed you might have been complaining that double-click to zoom was the only method, as Maps used (I…

Yeah. I mean. Thank you for your reply and interest. Unusual at this thread depth... But what I'm saying, very simply, is that it used to do what I want. I used to double click, in my usual manner, nothing unusual, and Google Maps did what I wanted. It zoomed in. This now doesn't happen anymore, and it sucks, because I liked it. I hope that's super clear.

My behavior has remained exactly same, this behavior used to be linked to a positive outcome, and this behavior--unchanged--no longer can be reliably linked to a positive outcome.

In the context of this complaint, it simply does not matter if there's another way (which I do know about, by the way). That's mixing concerns. Right now, it's just purely about double click.

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#208
post #95

The old google maps allows you to paste KML file URL's into the search, now it doesn't work, you have to revert to the old version. ps. KML files were developed by Google for maps...

KML was created by Keyhole (the precursor to Google Earth)

And Keyhole was named after the original US spy satellites, the KH series†, dating from 1959. High-res imagery download was via parachute-net.

http://fly.historicwings.com/2013/02/kh-1-the-first-spy-sate...

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#209
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's the fact that my android phone notifies me about a new chat 5-10 minutes after I finished(!) the conversation on my desktop (gmail, webclient). It's really annoying. My phone beeps, I think: "Oh a new chat", look at the phone, "oh, it's just that thing from 10 minutes ago".

I get that the phone can't check for new messages all the time because battery and stuff but wouldn't it be possible to have timestamps for first/last message in a converstation or something so the phone could detect that if the conversation was going on for some time already on different device then it shouldn't notify about it? I mean it doesn't sound like rocket science, are there any deep architecture problems wi…

Yes, and it worked perfectly with Google Talk before the switch to google hangouts. And the battery was fine!

Re: Google Maps Has Forsaken Us

#210

I stopped reading when the screenshot showed AR (Arkansas) and he said it was Arizona (AZ). If you are that geographically challenged, even Google Maps can't save you. EDIT: I forgot that a sense of humor is not an option here. Geez.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609289
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