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What Happened to Google Maps?

justinobeirne.com

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Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#61

Post by chris_wot »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #52
panic wrote: post #35

I'm confused by the replies saying that more dense labels would somehow harm usability for driving or navigation. When you're driving, you know where you're going, the map knows where you're going, and it's easy to see the route you need to take. When you're not on a route, denser labels help you to orient yourself with the map and to know when to zoom into a particular location. That said, I also think the focus on…

For driving Google Maps getting quite bad. See this screenshoot: http://imgur.com/uPO8QJh This kind of crowded display is fairly common now. I use Here Maps now which is much better + I like supporting a second option to avoid one service getting 2 monopolistic. My theory of why google maps is getting worse is there must be designers dedicated to this that need to constantly look for 'new' things to add even if its t…

There are also one too many buttons when you choose a route. If I want to drive, then I type in the address, select it, press a button to activate it, then press a similar button to start the route.

Why is that last button needed?

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#62

Post by chris_wot »

orillian wrote: post #12
elmerland wrote: post #8

I'm surprised the author didn't mention the main difference between paper maps and google maps. That is, google maps is interactive. With a paper map what you see is what you get. You had to cram as much information as it would allow. But this is not the case with google maps. You can zoom in, out, and anywhere in between. You can't compare the two based on the level of information displayed at one fixed zoom level b…

A funny thing about interactive maps while driving. If I'm on my phone and I bring up a road map of the area I'm traveling and I am constantly zooming in and panning the app so that I can see locations around me then the map has failed me. Landmarks are key to any map, but landmarks that fade in and out of focus are not all that useful. I used to be excited by the prospect of being able to bring up a map of my route…

From memory, Open Street Map has layers. I'd be interested in comparing OSM to Google Maps!

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#63

Post by stinos »

x0054 wrote: post #51

So I am not crazy after all! The other day I was driving in Palm Springs, and I was using Google Maps. I literally had to zoom in until the road I was on almost completely field the screen before it would show me the name of the road or the roads around it. They did something to their display algorithm where you now have to zoom almost entirely into an area to see anything about the area, very inconvenient.

So I am not crazy after all!

He, came here to post the same thing. Since the last 2 or 3 years I had the impression GM went worse (for what I do with it, not even mobile) after every update made to it, and sometimes also slower and more CPU hungry. To the point I stopped using it and went looking for alternatives.

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#64

Post by ekr »

I've only ever been using Google Maps for the sattelite imagery, street view, and routin. For those things, Google Maps is still great. OpenStreetMap is what I use for orienting, find cycling paths, trails etc.

So I'm not too bothered by this change. What I don't understand is why hasn't anybody taken the Google Maps routing and use it in OSM apps? Might not be legal, but similar non-commercial projects it should be fine.

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#65

Post by FatalLogic »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #41

I suspect that these changes are dues to the switch from bitmap tiles to vectors.

Do you mean they're focusing more effort on reducing the complexity of the maps, to save bandwidth, because vectors derive much larger bandwidth savings from reduced complexity than bitmaps would?

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#66

Post by ableal »

The "Google, where did I leave my keys?" joke is getting closer to feature status, and that's probably what's going on with Google Maps.

Anecdatum: last month I was driving out for a weekend in some rural bungalows a few miles outside a small city (Elvas, Portugal). The address was a bit vague, the place name too common, so much so that I had GPS coords stowed away in a message pic (don't ask ;-).

So, when I pop out Google Maps in the old faithful iPad2 (which happens to be the 3G version, and therefore GPS chipped, good for navigation), and zoom in the area ... amidst thin local roads and lots of blank space, there's the place name and the days we're staying there.

Turns out the Gmail app in that iPad was also used to send or review the emails with the reservations.

Even in my 'desktop' I've been noticing Google Maps marking out city places which seem small compared to other landmarks, but where I often go or mention in emails.

(Thanks, I do know where I left my keys today, I'm good.)

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#67

Post by Pyxl101 »

mbrock wrote: post #53
powera wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think they haven't?

Well, I assume Google has a big staff of skilled people working on GIS, but I'm curious to know what kind of input they get from people trained in the art of cartographical mapmaking... My hunch is that the tech industry is bad at taking advantage of this kind of traditional trade knowledge, and the essay in question here is an indicator. As for Amazon, the Kindle e-books very often have horrific typesetting that wou…

Does Amazon typeset the physical books they sell in their store? Should they be expected to typeset ebooks that they aren't involved in publishing?

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#69

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #41

I suspect that these changes are dues to the switch from bitmap tiles to vectors.

There might be something in that, yes. Obviously I don't know the details of Google's internal tech, but certainly that's true of the OSM equivalents: Mapnik (produces raster tiles) is much better at label placement than Mapbox GL (renders vector tiles).

Re: What Happened to Google Maps?

#70

Post by ehnto »

mbrock wrote: post #53
powera wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think they haven't?

Well, I assume Google has a big staff of skilled people working on GIS, but I'm curious to know what kind of input they get from people trained in the art of cartographical mapmaking... My hunch is that the tech industry is bad at taking advantage of this kind of traditional trade knowledge, and the essay in question here is an indicator. As for Amazon, the Kindle e-books very often have horrific typesetting that wou…

Something that has become interesting to me recently is the amount of knowledge about maratime weather and sailing that isn't readily accessible in a some kind of neat database, app or website. You actually have to talk to people and wander through museums to find out some of it.

It's an example of an industry and body of knowledge that still grows and is passed around outside of the internet.

Weather patterns for a particular area, places to anchor and dock, safe passages through reefs. You can't always google the answer and much of it is gleaned from other sailors who used experience and their tools to figure it out.

Having grown up pretty much constantly online, with the answer to any question I have being reasonably available with a quick search; that some common information about the world can still be discovered and shared is is really fascinating.

It sometimes feels like there isn't much outside of STEM fields left to explore.

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