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Google Maps has become an eyesore

fastcompany.com

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Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#241

Post by astrange »

sonofhans wrote: post #5
not_your_vase wrote: post #2

Every time I use Google Maps, I feel so helpless, and frankly, stupid. On Desktop, I simply can't figure it out how to switch to A-B route mode, nor how to trigger street view. I literally just click randomly in a more and more frustrated way until suddenly the option appears. And on Android I just avoid the app. I hate that I couldn't turn off the automatic compass. Every time I finally manage to orient myself when…

Well, it’s not built for you. Cows may not like milking machines either, but the farmer doesn’t care. Google Maps exists to further Google’s surveillance platform and search monopoly. User preference is incidental. It’s just like Internet Explorer on Windows 20 years ago. Microsoft only needed to make a good product long enough to leverage it into their other monopoly products, then they no longer gave a shit. We can…

Google Maps exist(ed) to get the people who wrote Google Maps promoted. The other stuff doesn't really matter. Google is not well run enough to be able to care about those things!

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#242

Post by tacker2000 »

xcdzvyn wrote: post #9

It's inflammatory, but this website is worse. There's some video playing of a stranger eating mustard skittles taking up the bottom quarter of the screen.

Haha yea, i thought exactly the same thing! Business insider, fast company, wired, all in the same league…

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#243

Post by astrange »

ggm wrote: post #40

Some locals in Brisbane succeeded in getting a brief historical name for the central business district ("Frogs Hollow") boosted up as a locality name which shows up in several zoom levels. It's more prominent than the real name of the location (Gardens Point) sometimes. Nobody appears able to get this rescinded. Either its being contested, or the process boundaries on "this is graffiti") are limiting. I do quite a lo…

A funny thing about Google Maps in Brisbane is that the satellite/3D map was from 2010 last I looked, but the image copyrights all say 2023.

(But just checked again and they refreshed it finally.)

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#244

Post by jimmux »

TillE wrote: post #36
not_your_vase wrote: post #2

Every time I use Google Maps, I feel so helpless, and frankly, stupid. On Desktop, I simply can't figure it out how to switch to A-B route mode, nor how to trigger street view. I literally just click randomly in a more and more frustrated way until suddenly the option appears. And on Android I just avoid the app. I hate that I couldn't turn off the automatic compass. Every time I finally manage to orient myself when…

They did a major redesign of the interface maybe ~8 years ago, and ever since I don't know where anything is. Lately I'm particularly baffled by the bar at the top, which is a way to search without typing. I click "Transit" and I'm presented with a list filled mostly with bus stops, with no filters for rail etc. Great. Does it also switch me to the transit overlay, which might be helpful? No, of course not.

That was about the time they removed the scale, right?

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#245

Post by scrollaway »

iggldiggl wrote: post #231
muricula wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because on a map it's already implicit in where the pin actually is. You're staring at a pin in Westville Chelsea.

Problem is the same name is also used for lists of search results – having a neighbourhood name being displayed there can definitively be helpful to distinguish multiple branches of the same company, while also having a higher chance of being at least roughly recognisable to people as compared to specific street names (which is what Google currently displays for POI listings).

Yes exactly, if you want to, say, meet at a specific Marriott hotel and put it in directions, this helps disambiguate. Google Maps does a good job of it without, but will still show you completely different ones if you don’t have the unique-ish name.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#246

Post by KronisLV »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #196
bombolo wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can google maps monetize when openstreetmaps exists?

OSM can't show (and plan for) traffic, for one.

> OSM can't show (and plan for) traffic, for one.

Unfortunately there's nothing to aggregate current traffic information (traffic jams etc.) as far as I know.

The maps themselves support all sorts of routing options for walking/bikes/cars, at least: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Routing#End_users:_routi...

They also have a Wiki page on public transport: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_transport

Sadly, they don't even attempt to have public transport schedules on the main maps, whereas Google has even added inter-city buses in some places, as well as having an integration with Bolt or other platforms I think.

That, in addition to the lack of business information, business hours, reviews and so on makes OSM a bit inadequate in comparison, which is unfortunate. There have been other maps that build on top of OSM data (which is great), but they're still pretty small in comparison.

It would be interesting to see how OSM would fare if it actually tried to compete with Google: 1st party Android/iOS map with some open dataset for business information, integration with some review platform, aggregated public transport maps with an underlying open dataset and stuffing their pockets as much as possible with money from Bolt/Uber/whatever to ensure longevity of the platform, by adding helpful suggestions for trip routing, as well as aggregating traffic data.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#247

Post by astrange »

Roark66 wrote: post #64

>In the perennial battle between mapping services, there are two main competitors: Google Maps and Apple Maps. Seriously? What about Bing? What about the entire segment of the mapping app market for drivers like NaviExpert or Yanosik. Finally, what about OpenStreetMap?

Nobody uses Bing, which is just another combination of TomTom and OSM like old Apple Maps was.

(You can tell nobody used it because it was just as bad as old Apple Maps but nobody complained about it.)

Their only appeal is they sometimes license nicer satellite images than other people.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#248

Post by iggldiggl »

paganel wrote: post #229
tananaev wrote: post #22

Probably not a popular opinion here, but I like Google Maps. Sure there's some clutter, but it's pretty good at navigation, public transit and searching for places. I don't know any better alternative.

It has the most up to date business data for any map provider, and by far, their location/points of interest search is the best, also by far, they have the best satellite images available for "free" and their StreetView integrated map product is way, way ahead of the competition. Which means that, yes, GMaps is the best out there.

For those purposes yes, I can't disagree and use it myself. However often enough I actually want a map to simply orient myself or get a sense of the geography of a place, and for that purpose Google Maps is rather useless.

When you zoom out, everything is just green, no matter if it's actually a forest or not (okay, some areas with agricultural usage have been mapped, but it's far from comprehensive where I live), and when you zoom in everything is just a featureless grey-on-grey, with no way to distinguish between built-up areas and various kinds of open spaces, tree-covered or not. (Only "parks" still get shown in green – and somehow in France Google has decided to include large scale "natural parks" covering hundreds of square kilometres or more in that category, in which case once you zoom in everything in that area is shown on a green background, which is equally useless.)

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#249

Post by astrange »

Animats wrote: post #183

The example in the article shows the San Francisco Hilton, with a big ad. They're going out of business.[1] (Hilton Hotels hasn't been a real hotel company in years, anyway. It's just a franchise name now, like RCA.) [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/park-hotels-leaving-san-francis...

> It's just a franchise name now, like RCA.

If it has a points system and co-branded credit card it's real enough.

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