What Happened to Google Maps?
justinobeirne.com
What Happened to Google Maps?
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Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#2[deleted]
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#3The new maps look clearer and less cluttered and more useful to me. I would guess that the maps were simply designed to follow their primary utility function which is navigation.
Old style printed maps had cities on them, because the map didn't know where you were going! You had to find your city or your location on the map. Now the map knows where you're going, so it can show that place extra-clearly while hiding a lot of detail that's not relevant. Roads are relatively more relevant than cities, since you travel along them to get from one place to another: displaying a road shows the user that they have a primary thoroughfare between locations. You might not care about the name of a city if you're just passing through; and the city that is your destination will be specifically shown.
My guess is that they display only as many cities as needed to help people orient themselves while looking at the map, to understand what they're seeing. More than that is irrelevant to the primary use-case of navigation.
> Google Maps of 2016 has a surplus of roads — but not enough cities. It's also out of balance. So what is the ideal? Balance.
The ideal is utility, and the key use-case for Google Maps at that zoom level is driving navigation. The user's going to input their own destination into maps anyway, most of the time, and they'll expect it to appear, so it's no surprise when it does.
Google would have data on this: how many users use Google Maps while driving regularly, multiple times on a trip (at that zoom level), while not having a destination entered (and with no destination, obviously no turn-by-turn directions)? Probably not many. Now imagine overlaying your route with current position and destination on the maps - it's going to be easier to scan the new ones. Edit: Navigation is the primary use-case for a map, and I'd guess usage motivated by that purpose dwarfs the rest by an order of magnitude, and so it's a good default.
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#4The new maps look clearer and less cluttered and more useful to me. I would guess that the maps were simply designed to follow their primary utility function which is navigation. Old style printed maps had cities on them, because the map didn't know where you were going! You had to find your city or your location on the map. Now the map knows where you're going, so it can show that place extra-clearly while hiding a…
What you write is true for navigating when driving a car. For those who try to use Google Maps for other purposes, the changes are somewhat less useful.
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#5The new maps look clearer and less cluttered and more useful to me. I would guess that the maps were simply designed to follow their primary utility function which is navigation. Old style printed maps had cities on them, because the map didn't know where you were going! You had to find your city or your location on the map. Now the map knows where you're going, so it can show that place extra-clearly while hiding a…
Agree. I have no doubt the decision was based on lots of data and that Google got it right. And for my part I agree. I would imagine 95% of the people zoomed in around NYC are looking specifically for NYC. Having other, smaller cities labeled on the map only makes it more confusing.
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#6The new maps look clearer and less cluttered and more useful to me. I would guess that the maps were simply designed to follow their primary utility function which is navigation. Old style printed maps had cities on them, because the map didn't know where you were going! You had to find your city or your location on the map. Now the map knows where you're going, so it can show that place extra-clearly while hiding a…
What you write is true for navigating when driving a car . For those who try to use Google Maps for other purposes, the changes are somewhat less useful.
For what purposes is it less useful? If you aren't driving a car, you're unlikely to be traveling between cities.
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#7The new maps look clearer and less cluttered and more useful to me. I would guess that the maps were simply designed to follow their primary utility function which is navigation. Old style printed maps had cities on them, because the map didn't know where you were going! You had to find your city or your location on the map. Now the map knows where you're going, so it can show that place extra-clearly while hiding a…
What you write is true for navigating when driving a car . For those who try to use Google Maps for other purposes, the changes are somewhat less useful.
I'd actually argue the contrary - viewing the map in transit is for the most part useless (not to mention dangerous if you're also the driver), and I'd assume most people rely on the audio cues rather than actually using the map. I would also guess that users would perhaps only look at it either prior to departure to get a general idea of what their route is like or when they're very close to their destination to look for something like parking or other landmarks to help navigate once near the location. (e.g., trying to navigate a new city and dealing with one-way streets)
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#8I'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 because google maps is 3D whereas traditional paper maps are 2D.
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you write is true for navigating when driving a car . For those who try to use Google Maps for other purposes, the changes are somewhat less useful.
For what purposes is it less useful? If you aren't driving a car, you're unlikely to be traveling between cities.
There are other uses of maps than simply traveling. It can also teach you the relative locations of things.
Re: What Happened to Google Maps?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you write is true for navigating when driving a car . For those who try to use Google Maps for other purposes, the changes are somewhat less useful.
For what purposes is it less useful? If you aren't driving a car, you're unlikely to be traveling between cities.
You could be planning a trip - deciding where to stay for example.
I personally have found the new google maps very frustrating and slow - I'm constantly zooming in and out. This article finally made me realize what I'm missing, and why I'm having so much trouble with it.