Google Maps has become an eyesore • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#441

Post by Rovanion » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:14 PM UTC

stiray wrote: post #373

runeks wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. And not just that, but also the fact that people use Google Maps for car navigation means Google can derive the location of traffic jams by comparing current speed with the speed limit. This is hugely useful for navigation since it means these bottlenecks can be avoided, some thing which is not possible unless this data is available.

If I present you the other side of the coin - we are a small country, where we cant keep up with number of cars of tourists traveling to the next country over summer. Since the Google Maps is here, not only we have a completely congested highways but also all other roads that were free of tourists before are now blocked. Tourists that are traveling to the next country while their number has doubled as they dont stand…

The solution is simple although cumbersome, disallow cars though The village.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#442

Post by Symbiote » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:16 PM UTC

iamacyborg wrote: post #338

Knee_Pain wrote: post #328

The funniest thing to me is that Google Maps seems to be the "normal person" option and yet only OSM tells me where water fountains are. Millions of tourists worldwide use GMaps to navigate around in foreign places and yet they have no option to see where the closest place to refill their bottles is? Especially in the summer?

> Millions of tourists worldwide use GMaps to navigate around in foreign places and yet they have no option to see where the closest place to refill their bottles is? Especially in the summer? It’s almost like this isn’t a thing folks are actually looking for.

I thought to try searching "public toilet" in Copenhagen, which I'm sure is something tourists search for.

It does show a few of them, but it also shows an apartment complex miscategorized as one, and misses several within the city centre. They are shown with various names ("Toilet", "Public toilet", "Public toilet for men", "Public restroom") so I think this is crowdsourced, rather than anything Google has made an effort to map.

Although the interface of https://www.openstreetmap.org/ doesn't have a way to highlight them, other interfaces (phone apps etc) can, and OSM has much better coverage.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#443

Post by fnordpiglet » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:17 PM UTC

wredue wrote: post #429

yankput wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not directly related but last time I was this creeped out is when a antivirus company wanted to sell us crazy amount of data on our customers. Apparently AV companies lose money on the customer endpoint protection (it’s basically for free!) but make it up on selling users data. Also on the business licenses though

GeForce experience tracks every single window you have open, sending the title and window information, along with every single spot that you click on your screen to Nvidia, tied to your now mandatory account. That was a couple years back. Who knows how much more invasive it’s gotten since. Oh. And this data is considered to be “valuable debugging information”, so is not prevented by opting out of analytics.

Good to know! Uninstalling when I get home. Windows has really become a big bag of certified malware and adware. I always feel a bit dirty when I play a game on my windows pc, and now I know why.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#444

Post by fullstop » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:22 PM UTC

cyberax wrote: post #17

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…

> nor how to trigger street view You need to drag the "man" icon and drop it on the map. I had to google that.

If you're by area 51 the "man" is a little UFO when you drag it. There's a few of these Easter eggs.

Buckingham Palace used to have a little Queen, but that is no longer the case.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#445

Post by markus_zhang » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:23 PM UTC

h1fra wrote: post #264

I understand the ads and everything else, I don't not enjoy it but I understand. What I really don't get is the product is hiding a lot of stuff for no reason. Whenever I zoom in my neighbourhood: it doesn't display all the streets, some shops are missing even at maximum zoom, search is removing some results that should match my query, etc... I have slowly lost trust in the products (except for navigation), it's stil…

Me exactly. I don't know why they diaplay road names just sparsely. Sometimes I had to scroll far to get the road name.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#446

Post by pdimitar » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:23 PM UTC

wredue wrote: post #429

yankput wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not directly related but last time I was this creeped out is when a antivirus company wanted to sell us crazy amount of data on our customers. Apparently AV companies lose money on the customer endpoint protection (it’s basically for free!) but make it up on selling users data. Also on the business licenses though

GeForce experience tracks every single window you have open, sending the title and window information, along with every single spot that you click on your screen to Nvidia, tied to your now mandatory account. That was a couple years back. Who knows how much more invasive it’s gotten since. Oh. And this data is considered to be “valuable debugging information”, so is not prevented by opting out of analytics.

Well, PiHole stops one particular endpoint for sure. And it's called several thousands times during a 3-hour gaming session. Pretty creepy indeed.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#447

Post by stiray » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:26 PM UTC

aikinai wrote: post #432

stiray wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I present you the other side of the coin - we are a small country, where we cant keep up with number of cars of tourists traveling to the next country over summer. Since the Google Maps is here, not only we have a completely congested highways but also all other roads that were free of tourists before are now blocked. Tourists that are traveling to the next country while their number has doubled as they dont stand…

This is a real issue, but it has nothing to do with Google specifically. You’re basically saying that information on road networks should be obscured or restricted so governments can indirectly control the flow of traffic. Japan actually has some soft regulations in this space about routing and road visibility (e.g. residential roads are hidden when you’re on thoroughfares). But they’re just suggestions so only domes…

No, I am saying that by diverting drivers to regional roads without taking into account local population, this is directly Google fault. Why? Before Google started messing with information about congestion, there was no issue. Regional roads swallowed without any problem those few adventurous tourists that decided to use them. Now you find an average Joe everywhere.

Wanna se another interesting example (use google translate), here are statistics of our volunteer based and taxes paid (for everyone in need, even tourists, including helicopter transport) mountain rescue service: https://www.grzs.si/resevanje/statistika-nesrec/

Check number of accidents since 2006 (google maps came out 2005) and constant rise to 2023 (more than twice the number of interventions). Freaking maps are showing the steepest mountain roads (Alps are not a joke), to parts without phone signal. Google gets you just far enough to get you into troubles, potentially fatal troubles.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#448

Post by gruez » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:26 PM UTC

devnullbrain wrote: post #290

jalk wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can click the search icon while in navigation mode, to search along the route. It doesn’t work that great as you have to zoom to an aprox area and it seems somewhat arbitrary what comes up. It will show you how many minutes of detour a location would add, which is quite nice when choosing among a bunch

The search-along-route is more of a 'search-around-my-current position'. If you e.g. need fuel, it lists options for busy towns in the wrong direction rather than the easiest path along your current route. If you need a given RON or niche fuel, you just have to memorise which suppliers sell it & hope that it shows up in the list. The utopian vision that it could figure out the range of the car it's connected to and u…

>The worst part is that the Apple & Google duopoly in maps supported by Android Auto and Apple Carplay means there's no way for a superior alternative to succeed in the market.

What does Android Auto and Apple Carplay have to do with it? Aren't both of them available for third party apps to use?

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#449

Post by diegoveralli » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:27 PM UTC

> Finally, Google Maps seems more intent today on showing bars, restaurants, ads, and work-from-home businesses than useful map-related features. Sometimes it doesn’t even show the most basic information anymore, including street names.

I suspect they arrived at this through a series of A-B tests, since the more useful navigational information they display, the easier it is for the user to "learn" a city, and be able to navigate by themselves. So hiding information that allows the user to learn the map layout probably increases usage metrics.

A couple of years ago I noticed I missed precisely that: "learning" the layout of a city when I travel. So I started using Organic Maps, which always shows street names and other useful information to assist me in my navigation, instead of guiding me turn by turn.

Search results are a lot worse than Google Maps, and the routes it picks are also often worse, and it's missing traffic information. But when I'm travelling I'm usually on foot, and I'm there to get lost and discover the place, so it's OK if my route is not as efficient as it could be.

Re: Google Maps has become an eyesore

#450

Post by aikinai » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 1:28 PM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #334

devnullbrain wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A population of 9 million but big tech's allergy to scaling customer support means they don't pay a local person to adjust things for local expectations. But why would they? We have to use it anyway.

They have a large office in London, so their own staff put up with it. I once met a Googler who had previously worked on maps. I made a few grumbles (railway lines at the time were almost invisible, but very useful for orienting yourself when you exit a station, gardens were grey yet parks were green, "Transit" only shows the London Underground so it misses most of the local rail travel routes in South London, etc).…

Actually the teams that would implement those fixes are not really in California (rather Seattle, Sydney, Tokyo, among others), but the problem is more the diffusion of responsibility and lack of ownership. Teams all have different metrics they're trying to drive or features they're focused on, but no one is responsible for the overall quality and user experience of "Google Maps" as a whole.

All of the things you mentioned have internal bugs, pitch decks, or maybe even patches pushed by individuals or whole teams. Likely even directors or VPs agree. But the organizational friction is massive and it's very hard to ship anything unless it's crystal clear that it is going to directly move a metric that is a focus for this year. And even then, if launching this feature touches multiple divisions, it still might not happen just because of the massive coordination effort.

That said, the green coloring was probably fixed in 2020. Transit has had a lot of work in the past five years, so maybe a chance London overground rail is fixed? The transit line rendering is still terrible, so you should probably use Apple Maps for that—theirs is beautiful.