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Google Maps for iOS and Android Redesigned To Help You Plan Better Trips (inputmag.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the still-a-teen dept.
Google Maps has a new look on iOS and Android today to celebrate turning 15 on February 8. The app icon is all-new -- a less playful icon with a multi-colored location pin, set on a white background -- and many features that were previously hidden within the hamburger menu have moved into front-and-center tabs along the bottom. From a report: There are also several new features that integrate shopping, reservations, and Google Lens, and Google Translate. Google says the Maps app redesign makes it more useful -- to help people better plan their trips -- but as I was briefly walked through each of the new features, I couldn't shake the fact that the app is still doing too much. Instead of trimming the fat, Google is doubling down with more features. Maybe it's time Maps went on a diet. Google has always been stronger at rolling out useful features than making software good-looking. But too many features at the expense of functional design is a big loss for users who have no choice but to accept a poorer experience. I'm not saying the new Google Maps app is bad, I'm just saying it still feels bloated because Google has integrated so many of its other services into it and may never return back to a simple maps app. Simplicity is arguably better. Fun trivia: Google Maps wasn't supposed to be unveiled the day it did, and even then it was going to be in beta -- but a reader guessed the URL correctly and posted it on Slashdot.
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Google Maps for iOS and Android Redesigned To Help You Plan Better Trips More

Google Maps for iOS and Android Redesigned To Help You Plan Better Trips

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  • Does It (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sexconker ( 1179573 ) on Thursday February 06, 2020 @03:02PM (#59698958)

    Does it get rid of the "explore" bullshit (ads) and show me more of the map on screen?
    Or does everything I do still result in 60% of the screen real estate being used for shit that isn't the fucking map?

    • You seem to have issues with it that I never encountered. And I'm not even trying to be a smart ass for a change. Don't have a large phone either.

      • Then you're a simp.

        If you so much as touch the map (to pan or zoom or tap a business/location), you get a giant EXPLORE pane at the bottom of the screen that you have to swipe away, or a list of ads on the bottom. Or a list of different shit (more ads) on the left.

        Swipe it all away and you can have a map. Touch anything and it all comes back in your face.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          I have to agree with the GP. I know the pane you mean, but it very rarely pops up for me, and then only ever when first opening the app. My impression is that it usually contains landmarks, although I can't check because I can't get it to pop up.

          Are you on Android?

    • Does it get rid of the "explore" bullshit (ads) and show me more of the map on screen?

      I saw a screenshot of the app in a different article, and it looks like they doubled down on "not map".

    • You could always use maps.me instead. It even works offline for when you are out hiking or have bad service.

    • I use OsmAnd~ it lets me control what I see.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by spitzak ( 4019 )

        It would be nice if they fixed the problem where it never shows the street name no matter how far you zoom in!

      • All of the above, and add not putting a fat blue line over the top of the name of the street you're supposed to be going down. I still keep paper maps in the car because, unlike Google maps, you're not fighting the map every step of the way to get the info you want.

    • I’ll never know. That feature made Google Maps so unusable (specifically: When driving I had to swipe around that crap just to see a map - it made using maps dangerous) that I switched to Apple Maps as my default and haven’t looked back.

      Sounds like they doubled down on making maps not actually maps, so there’s no point in going back to Google Maps. (That and the whole Google pivacy issue)

  • Even More Fun Trivia: (Score:3)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Thursday February 06, 2020 @03:10PM (#59698980) Journal
    Back in 2005, Slashdot following was so big, posting such an URL in slashdot would create so many visits to that site, the servers might crash. It used to be called slashdot effect.

    Those were the days, kiddos, those were the days.

    • Pre-Social Media Slashdot was far more popular, but also most websites were so much more slower.
      Most Website were hosted on a single server probably one of the older boxes hanging around the office. Today most websites, are not even hosted at the companies but with some cloud service, setup to deal with massive amount of transactions.

      Also during that time, we were still on the .COM kick, while it Economy 2.0 failed, there was still a lot of buzz and optimism of a return.

      But we got old, decided to have fami

    • Back in 2005 most 'news' sites were still self hosted. On a single computer. Those were the days.

    • I doubt the "slashdot effect" was still a thing in 2005. Maybe for the very smallest servers.

      In the .com boom era, even large sites would be brought to their knees by the sudden influx of nerds.

  • Default units setting is automatic. This morning my gauge cluster didn't work nor my turn signals, must be on the same branch circuit) so I used maps as my speedometer and it was in kph. I guess Google detected that my car was built in Germany and switched over.

    • Re:They redesigned it this morning (Score:5, Funny)

      by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Thursday February 06, 2020 @03:57PM (#59699168) Homepage
      So those luxury German cars are actually equipped with turn signals? Has anyone informed the drivers?
    • It's always been automatic by detected location, as far as I know. When in US or UK, you get miles, feet, mph; in Europe, you get km, m, km/h. Can't recall what it does in Canada, as it's been a few years since I drove there. Does your car have internal WiFi that might have misled it?

      • My car is from 1982 and the most sophisticated electronic system in the vehicle is automatic climate control. Even the automatic transmission doesn't have a computer, it doesn't need one since it has a non-lockup torque converter. (The engine is an IDI diesel with a Bosch MW mechanical injection pump.)

  • Google Maps wasn't supposed to be unveiled the day it did, and even then it was going to be in beta ...

    A Google app released in beta?

  • Double the tracking? (Score:3)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Thursday February 06, 2020 @03:24PM (#59699038)
    Google Maps on iOS? Holy shit! I can be tracked by both Google AND Apple at the same time? Who do I give money to in order to earn this wonder privilege?

  • Don't dumb it down! (Score:3, Funny)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Thursday February 06, 2020 @03:27PM (#59699046) Homepage
    Man, what a useless hipster reviewer. "Waah, there are too many options" seriously? In this age when companies regularly take things away when updating, we finally get more? And all he can think to do is complain because his two-volt brain can't process all the choices? REJECT

    • Removing options doesn't equate to dumb down.
      The Unix system approach was to have a bunch of simple commands which you tied together to do complex things.

      Every option is one more thing to chew up your phones battery, one area where a security flaw can get in, that one button that you never use which is now in your viewing range.

  • The current Google map is barely usable on iPhone SE - these "features" are obscuring most of the actual map. The only saving grace was that some of them were hidden behind a "burger" menu. Based on the screen shots looks like on a smaller device this new app will have no map view at all.

    Definitely not upgrading.

  • These changes appeared in my app on Android during the last few weeks. Initially I thought something was broken, I couldn't find the hamburger to choose one of my saved locations, eventually I noticed the new "Saved" icon along the bottom.

    Functionally I haven't noticed much difference.

  • Is it actually useful yet? (Score:3)

    by scdeimos ( 632778 ) on Thursday February 06, 2020 @04:53PM (#59699310)
    If I can't input the height, length and weight of my vehicle combo then it's no good to me. I don't need to be routed under a low bridge, or over a length- or weight-limited road.

  • If your trip involves visiting charging stations along the way, Google maps is functionally useless. https://abetterrouteplanner.co... [abetterrouteplanner.com] works well though.

  • *HAVE THEY ADDED THE @#%ING COMPASS BACK YET?*
    **HAVE THEY ADDED THE @#%ING COMPASS BACK YET?**
    ***HAVE THEY ADDED THE @#%ING COMPASS BACK YET?***
    _HAVE_THEY_ADDED_THE_GOD_DAMNED_@#%ING_COMPASS_BACK_YET_?

    LET THOSE OF US WITH MENTAL COMPASSES, SELF NAVIGATE FOR THE INITIAL 60 SECONS OUR IDIOT PHONE COMPASSES ARE OUT OF WACK!!!

    It's SO annoying to exit a shopping mall carpark or building and it's saying "turn left" but I don't trust your instinct phone, because you actually don't truly know which direction I'm he

  • Oh good! I couldn't wait to update and see how much sir they could manage to make Maps work.

    They did it! It's even slower then the absolute pig it was before. It takes 6 seconds to get past the splash screen, and another 3 to just display a starting map view while animated drawers jerk and stutter their sliding (more like slideshow) animations. Clicking between the three tab buttons on the bottom gives a second and half delay before the button press is acknowledged and the view switches. Dragging the map ar

  • I use Google Maps once a week. Then I have 3-5 addresses I need to visit, one after another.

    What I would like is to, as a minimum, make a list of those addresses ahead of time. When I'm done at address A I can easily access address B, without going through a note app and the copy/paste routine.

    What I would love is to make a list of those 3-5 addresses, and have maps figure out the traveling salesman problem showing me the quickest way to get my stuff done.

    I'll settle for just making a list in my

  • No way you can have a useful app with that much functionality. I mean you might as well try and make a single great app that lets you bank online, post on social media, do scholarly research and check your mail. Like anyone would ever use that rather than dedicated apps for everything.

  • I disagree that Google needs to limit the number of services offered via maps. If you want a clean dedicated direction app they own Waze.

    What Google is trying to do (and hopefully succeeding) is to make the equivalent of the web browser for geographicly organized information. The web is good for searching and organizing by discrete tags, concepts etc but not so good (qua web not just VM for map app) for searching and accessing spatially organized info. I'd love it if there was one place to go for all tha

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