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'Google Maps Has Become an Eyesore' (fastcompany.com) 170

Posted by BeauHD from the lost-its-way dept.
After growing "increasingly frustrated" with the Google Maps experience, Fast Company's Michael Grothaus has highlighted five main reasons the app has "become a cluttered, frustrating mess" -- and why he finds himself turning to Apple Maps more often. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares an excerpt from the report: ENOUGH WITH THE HOTEL AND BAR PINS: Whenever I'm in a major metropolitan area, Google Maps seems to have an obsession with displaying as many hotels, bars, and clubs on the map as it can. This happens even when I haven't searched for a single hotel or bar. And it happens not only when I'm on vacation in a new city, but when I'm in my home city. Google knows my home address. So, why on Earth does it default to showing me as many hotels as possible in the city where I live? The same is true of clubs and bars. I see pins for more dance clubs and bars in one small area shown on my smartphone's display than I've ever actually been to in my life. Google knows I'm middle-aged and get up early to work. When I'm just browsing the map, can it really think I might care about the nearest club where patrons normally don't leave until well past midnight? By displaying all these irrelevant hotels and bars, Google makes it much harder to browse and navigate the map, since frequently the pins' labels overlap or obscure more important elements, such as the shape and layout of streets.

TOO MANY ADS CLUTTER THE MAP: The square pins you see in Google Maps are ad pins. They represent a place of business (a hotel, spa, etc.) that is paying Google to make sure it's displayed on the map, despite the business's irrelevance to me. Again, ad pins for hotels dominate, but right behind them are ad pins for restaurants with small text underneath them imploring me to "Order Delivery with Uber Eats," which just further clutters the map. Google is, of course, first and foremost an advertising company. Data compiled by Oberlo showed that 78.2% of its Q1 2023 total revenue of $69.8 billion came from ads. But its enthusiasm for placing ads in every corner of Google Maps just makes it all the more cluttered and increasingly hard to read. And that's before we even get to

PHOTO PINS SIGNIFY WHAT, EXACTLY?: Google Maps identifies points of interest primarily by pin color and glyph: Hotels are represented by a pink pin with an image of a person sleeping in a bed, restaurants get an orange pin with a fork and knife, and so forth. Regular pins, denoting businesses or other points of interest, are reverse teardrop-shaped, while ad pins are square-shaped. But, since last year, there is also now a third form: the photo pin. As best as I can tell, a photo pin is a pin for a business, but instead of a typical category glyph, it shows a large photo ostensibly related to the establishment. These pins don't appear to signify that the business is notable in any way. (I mean, I'm sure I've seen photo pins for muffler repair shops -- not exactly a tourist attraction.) The photo pin might be the ultimate map monopolizer. It's bigger, and the photo, seemingly pulled from a business's Google Maps listing, doesn't always even represent the business well. One photo pin I came across, oddly, seemed to show a photo of the dumpsters behind a restaurant. This just adds to user confusion and more clutter. It isn't helping the business, either.

I HAVE NO INTEREST IN SOMEONE'S WORK-FROM-HOME BUSINESS: Another major contributor to Google Maps being an eyesore these days is a holdover from the pandemic when so many people were stuck working from home -- or decided to begin offering their services from home. It is not uncommon to be browsing a residential area on Google Maps and be faced with a sea of work-from-home business pins. The number of "consultant" businesses I've seen in residential areas on Google Maps has been shocking. The same goes for web designers, app programmers, and handymen -- all of whom operate out of their residential homes. These may all be legitimate businesses run by self-employed people, but why on earth does Google Maps surface their listings on maps if they never have a single client enter their doors and, more important, if I've not searched for a provider of any of these services? Clutter, clutter, clutter.

WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: 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. Many times I just want to see the name of the street I'm standing on. So, I open Google Maps and zoom in on my current location. Yet no matter how far in I zoom in, Google Maps doesn't always apply a label to the street I'm standing on. It just remains blank. Of course, business pins I have no interest in are still prominently displayed. A workaround I've stumbled upon whenever this happens is to select a business pin on the next street over. When Google Maps centers on that, it for some reason will label the street I'm standing on. Among all the gripes on this list, I think this one is my biggest. If my ad-hoc workaround doesn't work, I often have to open Apple Maps just to look up the name of the street I'm on.
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'Google Maps Has Become an Eyesore' More

'Google Maps Has Become an Eyesore'

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  • The 'big lie' of targeted advertising (Score:5, Insightful)

    by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:07PM (#63748792)

    "We'll show stuff that's relevant to you."

    Now I don't like advertising, full stop. Nor do I want companies data-mining to try to cater to what they think I want. But the actual execution of 'targeted ads' mostly shows me shit. And that's why I run ad blockers.

    • Re:The 'big lie' of targeted advertising (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jhecht ( 143058 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:10PM (#63748804)
      The problem looks more like too much advertising, too little information users need, like street names.

      • Re:The 'big lie' of targeted advertising (Score:4, Insightful)

        by infosinger ( 769408 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @08:31PM (#63749040)

        Agreed. Lack of street names alone has caused me to move more to Apple maps. And, try to get the exit numbers on the interstates.

    • Re:The 'big lie' of targeted advertising (Score:4, Informative)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:24PM (#63748852) Journal
      It’s no lie. But targeted advertising isn’t targeting you, it’s targeting your demographic. And it’s doing so more accurately and finely-grained than ever before. That might not make much of a difference in how you perceive the ads thrown at you. But the company who paid to make you watch that ad, might have paid for 100,000 impressions or more in the past to reach you, whereas today they pay for 10.000 or even a lot less.
      • Good for them, of course they don't actually reach him for 10.000 either, because the OP blocks ads, like me, and most people I know.

        Arguably, for a number of people, it's worse if an ad slips through the net, as it instantly marks the company as evil/time wasting/should never get business in future.

      • I am glad that the advertising algorithms work for someone. Only twice in my entire life have I ever clicked on an ad to find out more. I distinctly recall both of those times because it felt nauseating to me to click on them.

        Every other time I have tried to research something, I have to analyze hundreds of advertisements and discard them as just noise. Their needs mean my needs never get fulfilled. Do not be surprised at my supreme hostility to ads.

        The reason why ads are so terrible is that they are all li

    • Yeap. All the AI in the world yet they can't find a way to show me an advert for something; anything I care about - ever*.

      (*) Not true, I've seen two ads online since '96 for things I care about.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ET3D ( 1169851 )

      The question is, is it really targeted advertising? I'm asking because I assume that many Slashdot readers would turn that off anyway, and I don't know if Michael Grothaus has that on.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I'm in Europe and I don't see many ads on Google Maps. In fact I don't recall seeing any.

      I use uBlock and various others on desktop, and DNS66 on Android, but I'd be surprised if the latter kept the ads out of the Google Maps app.

      I'm wondering if there are other differences in the US. The author complains about not seeing street names, but one of the frequent criticisms of the Google Maps app that I see is that the display is too cluttered because every street has its name shown on it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alumoi ( 1321661 )

        You may be commiting the ultimate sin, aka not being logged into your google account. Or you're rejecting all the cookies.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I'm definitely logged in to the app. I probably did reject non-essential cookies, but that shouldn't mean fewer ads on the map display, just fewer "relevant" ones.

          I know that Google does target me with ads. I bought a pillow recently and it started recommending pillow reviews in Google Now. Fortunately they have added an option to tell it that you already bought one and it seems to prevent further time-wasting.

    • It's multilevel. Google Maps providing a map has never been the main point of that. The fact it can barely do transit and driving directions is a miracle, and it's obvious they don't care the walking and cycling directions are dangerously wrong.

      Because it's the yellow pages. It only needs to be about as much map as the map in the green pages of the local printed phone book. If you're looking for a map or navigation, use something that uses OpenStreetMap. Osmand and Magic Earth are solid choices.

    • "Targeted advertising", hahaha! I make one google search and suddenly the algorithm thinks I'm a home builder or mechanic.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by marcle ( 1575627 )

      The targeting isn't supposed to benefit you, or cater to your interests. It's supposed to show you something a person like you might buy, based on your profile. If you buy lots of skiing gear, you might get a car ad for a model that their surveys show that lots of skiers like.

  • Google Knows We Know They're Douches By Now (Score:5, Insightful)

    by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:10PM (#63748802) Journal

    So they no longer care. And they can use their monopoly to prevent any competition... so there we have it.
    In short, the summary is spot on. If the article is more of the same, then so is it. Google Maps is a huge steaming pile of shit, and we have no decent alternative.

    • Re:Google Knows We Know They're Douches By Now (Score:4, Informative)

      by Octorian ( 14086 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @10:24PM (#63749216) Homepage

      This happens with everything Google does. When they come out with a new product, they have enough of a technical advantage that they're far superior than any competition can ever hope to be. This is such a lead, that the competition doesn't even try unless they serve some niche market.

      Then, years later, Google loses interest in that product and it starts to go stale. But its still good enough that the competition never really takes off.

      Then it finally goes poof, and everyone is scrambling to find an alternative, but nobody is actually prepared to take over.

    • The best thing about Google Maps is that it's much easier to fold up than those old paper maps when you're done. Other than that...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It can't be a steaming pile of shit if there is nothing better. By definition that makes it the pinnacle of mapping applications.

      I've tried Bing Maps, it lacked detailed information and the routing was poor. I tried Here a few years ago and it was rather basic. I tried OpenStreetMap via OSMdroid and it's okay, but also lacks the detail that makes Google Maps routing so good.

      I used to use Waze but there were a lot of ads and it didn't really offer better routing most of the time.

      By the way, how is Google pre

      • That's the wacky thing about gmaps. They do a great job of routing, but these days a bad job of drawing maps. They are doing the same thing to maps they are doing to YouTube, trying their best to squeeze the last nickels out of it. In the process they make it worse, and then more people use alternatives.

        I went so far as to buy Garmin Viago, which worked for like one hot second and then they abandoned it. This proves both that people will pay for alternatives, and sadly, that there are no credible ones.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I find the Google Maps display to be one of the better ones. I'd make it perhaps not show the name of every road while navigating, just the ones I'm on or which connect to the road I'm on would be fine. It could do with more detail in the 3D view too.

          I think a lot of apps get the colours and weights wrong. Too much emphasis on some things, and not enough on others.

          You can't disable rotation either. I very often rotate the map when trying to zoom, and it's really annoying. I see that beta versions of OSMand

    • So they no longer care. And they can use their monopoly to prevent any competition... so there we have it. In short, the summary is spot on. If the article is more of the same, then so is it. Google Maps is a huge steaming pile of shit, and we have no decent alternative.

      Well, if you can afford to build a decent alternative, and not fund it with ads, go ahead.

      Because it's so easy to do that ... right?

  • Ask for your money back! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:11PM (#63748808) Homepage
    Oh, wait...
    • That'll be $600 for a google-branded smartphone, with expectations of fitness for a particular purpose. Now will you be paying cash or check?
      • Shouldn't you be asking Google? Classic example of today's entitlement asking some random kook on the internet to reimburse you for your bad choices. Maybe ask the government instead, everybody else does.

  • WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:5, Informative)

    by jalvarez13 ( 1321457 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:14PM (#63748816)

    This, + 1 billion

    I could come up with reasons for showing the other things in the list (although I agree with the OP), but I can not fathom any circumstance in which the street name WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW is not important when you open a map app.

    • Re:WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:51PM (#63748956)

      It's so frustrating when every street name is visible except the one you care about, and you adjust the zoom and rotate but it still doesn't appear. Urgh.

      • Re:WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kmoser ( 1469707 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @10:18PM (#63749210)
        Yep. If you're lucky you can scroll the map along the street until you *finally* find the name. But good luck scrolling back to where you were a minute ago.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by mpercy ( 1085347 )

          In some metro areas, that street may change names 3 times while you're scrolling to get a name to attach. One street I used to drive had 3 different names within the span of just over a mile, due to different realignments. 20 years ago, you had stop signs and turns along the route. Now it's a straight-line shot, but different segments have the old names. Good luck with that.

      • It's uncanny how Google Maps seems to KNOW which street you desperately want to know the name of... then goes out of its way to hide it from you.

        It's like the worthless map in my car's Android based infotainment system. It prominently shows you the name of the road you're ON, but doesn't show you the name of the road you're APPROACHING until you're 50 feet PAST it, and it's too late to ACT UPON that information.

        I swear Google must have hired the same person who designed FDOT's electronic freeway sign system

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Alumoi ( 1321661 )

          Lol, you're using TomTom, right?
          The fcking thing is showing me the name of the street I'm on but if I try and search for an address on the same street it can't find it, EXCEPT if I try and find a business place. Then, surprise!, it finds the freaking street.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by mpercy ( 1085347 )

          "until you're literally 50 feet PAST the point where your COULD and WOULD have existed, had your seen it in time."

          That's largely been my experience with Waze. I still use waze, but I've been disappointed by the late notice far more often than I've been saved by a timely notice.

          Waze also seems to have no idea how to estimate time-of-arrival for long trips. I drive a 950 route a couple times per year. Waze regularly tells me I'll arrive in 6 hours. Yep, hitting the road a 06:00, 950 miles to drive, Waze says

      • In what situation does this come up? I couldn't replicate it. Open maps and zoom to the appropriate level and my street name is there along with every other street name for a similar size road. If I'm in an alleyway I need to zoom in a bit.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by piojo ( 995934 )

          In my testing on a major street, it looks like this happens when a business has paid to be highlighted, and some possible paying business name could intersect with the street name. In this case the street name is always hidden. It seems like the street name is never shown too close to a business name. I don't know why zooming in often doesn't solve the problem, since in theory there are no businesses if you zoom into a street far enough.

    • Re:WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sphealey ( 2855 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:59PM (#63748974)

      For those of us with, ahem, mature eyesight it is even worse: you can vaguely see the street name, but when you zoom in Google Maps makes the font smaller so that the street name remains impossible to read even if you zoom in to the 3nm scale. Apple Maps does the same thing. Can't wait until the designers of these systems hit 50-something... ok, I'll be dead by then, but it will be satisfying to hear them complaining from down in Hades.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by ve3oat ( 884827 )
      To Heck with Google Maps! Why not just walk to the nearest street corner and see what the street sign says? That is what they are for. (And no ads, either.)

    • Re:WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ThumpBzztZoom ( 6976422 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @09:53PM (#63749164)

      It's simple, Google does not want you to know where you are. The less you know where you are, the more you have to rely on Google Maps. Multiple studies have shown that the more you rely on turn by turn navigation, the worse your sense of direction gets. They know this, keeping you from knowing where you are causes more reliance on Maps which results more ad revenue and analytics data for them.

      It's fairly obvious they do this, why do you think you can't zoom out on the map during navigation and keep your location centered? It's not like keeping your location centered is more difficult to do when zoomed out, there really is no other explanation why they would limit the zoom other than they want to keep you lost and reliant on their app.

      • Re:WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Octorian ( 14086 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @10:31PM (#63749234) Homepage

        It's simple, Google does not want you to know where you are. The less you know where you are, the more you have to rely on Google Maps. Multiple studies have shown that the more you rely on turn by turn navigation, the worse your sense of direction gets.

        I blame this entirely on the design philosophy of many turn-by-turn navigation systems. That is to keep you as ignorant of your surroundings as technically possible, until 5 seconds before you need to make the next turn... If you're lucky. That's why I can't stand many such systems.

        But its also why I really like the system Tesla puts in their cars. In addition to the usual turn-by-turn stuff, they also show you two things everyone else tries really hate to hide: A list of your next navigation steps, and a big top-down map showing your route. It actually gives you some situational awareness.

        (* Yes, I know there are people who will complain about the actual directions. There are people that will complain about any implementation of that if its not perfect for their specific area in comparison to some other implementation they like better. But it works fine for me, and that big map means that its useful even if its not giving me turn-by-turn instructions.)

        • I blame this entirely on the design philosophy of many turn-by-turn navigation systems. That is to keep you as ignorant of your surroundings as technically possible, until 5 seconds before you need to make the next turn... If you're lucky.

          I don't know what nav system you used before but my Garmin and my car's nav system show me what the next required turn will be, whether it's the next intersection or the freeway exit 100 miles down the road.

          Both systems show which lane I should be in at an intersection so if I need to go straight through the intersection I don't end up in a right or left turn only lane. If a freeway exit has multiple lanes and I need to be in a specific one, it shows me which lane I need to stay in. It also shows me the e

        • Tesla has huge screenspace and can afford to show stuff that is not currently relevant like the next 10 turns or an overview of the route that is useful for route planning - which should not happen while I'm driving.(*)

          I'd rather focus on my current surrounding with the next turn direction and a map where I can see if that "in 500 feet turn right) is the 2nd or 4th right that I have to take.

          (*) unless something changes the planned rout automatically during driving. Like re-routing around a traffic jam 30min

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Google Maps behaves differently for me. When navigating it zooms out automatically to show the next turn well in advance of having to make it. It zooms out when travelling on long stretches of road as well.

          Maybe it's different in the US or something, but I always assumed it did that to give you as much time to prepare for the turn as possible, and to give you detail of the surrounding area so you could gain important context.

          It is annoying that you can't ask it to zoom out even more, but Google Maps is rath

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          It's simple, Google does not want you to know where you are. The less you know where you are, the more you have to rely on Google Maps. Multiple studies have shown that the more you rely on turn by turn navigation, the worse your sense of direction gets.

          I blame this entirely on the design philosophy of many turn-by-turn navigation systems. That is to keep you as ignorant of your surroundings as technically possible, until 5 seconds before you need to make the next turn... If you're lucky. That's why I can't stand many such systems.

          The thing is, I find that Google Maps is the best for this kind of thing, it tells me in advance when I need to turn, I.E. "In one and a half miles, take junction J4 onto the M25 Northbound and keep right at the fork" and again when I'm close to the junction. It's good to give a warning 1-2 miles out so you know to get into the correct lane (as queues can often form on British motorways). Few things are worse than that wanker who's blocking lane 2 because he didn't get into the correct lane early enough.

    • Re:WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME?: (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Octorian ( 14086 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @10:27PM (#63749220) Homepage

      Combined with "WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME ALL THE STORES IN THE SHOPPING CENTER I'M FOCUSED ON?!?!?".

      I know designers love to reduce information density to make things look cleaner, but sometimes it can have a massive negative impact on the actual utility of the product.

    • So frustrating. And it isn't about the street you might be on. It is ANY street name. And it is not just the "app", open Firefox, go to maps, look at an area. There are roads with no names. Even major roads. I have to zoom in over and over and over until SOMETIMES I can get the name. And other times I have to freaking "follow" the road for several screens until I finally get the name of the road. And then I am lost because I have to go back to where I was.

      Oh, sometimes it will give some State road n

  • NO STREET NAME (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:23PM (#63748846) Homepage Journal

    This. I came here for this. Drives me bonkers!!!!

    When a product no longer does the very most basic things its supposed to do, it has lost its way.

    • If you zoom out enough the label will be there a mile away.

      Just put a string on your phone and follow the route!

      To boot, if the label text is too small to read you can zoom in and it'll automatically rescale to the same tiny text size that you can't read.

      OSM's CSS is better.

  • horribly unintuitive (Score:3, Informative)

    by n0w0rries ( 832057 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:26PM (#63748860)

    After not driving for a few years, I started using Google Maps and it sucks! That whole picture in picture thing is useless, and just frustrates me when I'm trying to make it full screen. The street name issue. The "hey you can save 2 minutes if you take $50 worth of toll roads" reminders are frustrating.

    Waze is a way better app, which is owned by google. I hope they don't f it up.

    • That does sound frustrating but all of those are settings you can disable. You can tell it to not recommend toll roads or ferries. And you can disable PIP (not that you should care because you shouldn't be messing with the phone while driving).

      Waze is a better app though.

      I'm curious about the streetname issue though. One thing I don't need when driving is a street name. I need directions "turn left in 50m", I don't need to go reading my phone screen, that's just a distraction.

      Lack of easy to read street nam

  • Think of the business model (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:39PM (#63748918)

    They're not giving you a free map system, you're giving them free traffic information and your eyeballs for ads.

    I'd love a simple button on the screen that would bring up a whole screen of buttons to toggle items on and off. Is it nice to see the nearest coffee shop or gas station? Sure. But maybe I'm heading to a specific place and I know I won't be stopping enroute unless something goes wrong - this is the majority of my travel, actually.

    Save the ads for the search phase, don't clutter my map.

  • Stage 2 Enshittification. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zuriel ( 1760072 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @07:40PM (#63748922)

    Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. [pluralistic.net]

    Each of those businesses is receiving regular emails from Google about how many people have seen them on Google Maps, and how they can get even more impressions by buying Google advertising. When you're using Google Maps, to Google your attention is a product to be sold to as many businesses as possible. Helping you find the thing you're actually looking for comes second.

    Your experience is being made worse in order to appeal to business customers. Google Maps getting worse isn't an accident, they know what they're doing. It'll be made bad enough to get maximum value out of you, but not so bad that you actually leave.

    • When you're using Google Maps, to Google your attention is a product to be sold to as many businesses as possible. Helping you find the thing you're actually looking for comes second.

      If I am looking for something and my attention is redirected by your ad, I hate you with the intensity of a billion suns. Even if you offer something I directly need and is a good value, I will avoid you because I remember your unasked for interruption in my life.

      I may even feel so strongly about the situation that I will recommend that others avoid that place as well.

      Do y'all remember The Yellow Pages? That was a beautiful place for people to advertise. I want a plumber, I go looking in the Yellow Pages fo

  • Take a look at Tools for Google Maps (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stevenm86 ( 780116 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @08:02PM (#63748976)
    Someone built a live map scraper (?) called Tools for Gogole Maps. Its main claim to fame is drawing polygons and exporting maps, but it will also let you browse the map and toggle layers. It seems to be tile-based, not SVG-based, but it works well enough. It can make the map blissfully barren. Not sure if the app itself has ads; I block in-app ads on my phone in other ways.

  • Google has no interest in showing (Score:3)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @08:08PM (#63748984)
    you what you want. They can not monetize that.
    Google and the rest of the search engines as a whole are in trouble. Even their normal technical searches(which should be more precise and easier) show many redundant sites, all with the same cookie cutter irrelevant, outdated or wrong information for the query. It is becoming more useless by the day. The amount of useless junk on the internet is burying the big search engines. For technical information there was a time when Google would almost always nail it in the top 2 or 3 general urls on page 1. Now your very lucky if the info your looking for is on the first or second page.
    Burned under their own version of a mountain of info rot, burying their mountain of info rot.

    • Actually they do have interest in what you want. Just not everything you want. If they don't give you what you want then you abandon the product, and THAT they can't monetize.

      This isn't an either or equation.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vbdasc ( 146051 )

      You've seen nothing yet. Wait until AIs start creating most content on the Web, plagiarizing one another, the same AIs that will also be used to search all that pile of dung for the hapless user.

  • Try using google maps GO, it's less garbage

  • Couldn't agree more with or or all of them, especially not showing street names.

    I mean, WTF, this IS a "map", right? If it it's a map then where are the goddamn street names?

  • Everybody should use (and contribute to) OSM (Score:5, Insightful)

    by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @08:33PM (#63749042)

    For years, OpenStreetMaps has had a very, very and readable layout, way superior to google maps at least. Mappy, which predates Google Maps by two decades, is also a nice layout and has clever street naming algorithm. The problem is always the same, most people will just use the default so google does not have to be good at anything anymore now that they have a very large market share.

    • I'd like to use OpenStreetMaps, but unfortunately the accuracy is only about like MapQuest years ago. For all its flaws, Google Maps is very, very accurate at pinpointing the precise location of a house, or a business, or whatever it is you're looking for. I used to be frustrated finding a business in a large shopping center, because maps could only get me to the marker on the street where that address was located. Now, Google Maps takes you through the parking lot to the exact point. OSM doesn't have that

  • I would say the name of the song but it would be too easy...

    But on a more serious note, maybe it's dependent upon the location but when I was in Taiwan, it works just fine. You think street names are bad, try reading the English version of these names, lol! Luckily they do show both.

  • Use Openstreetmap (Score:4, Informative)

    by jpkunst ( 612360 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @10:08PM (#63749192)
    See subject.

    • Use https://streetmap.co.uk/ [streetmap.co.uk] It does as it says, shows maps. There are ads but they are discrete and, to me, acceptable.

    • Re:Use Openstreetmap (Score:5, Informative)

      by caseih ( 160668 ) on Monday August 07, 2023 @11:32PM (#63749320)

      I've been using OSMAnd off and on for years. I paid for it on Google Play but I notice it's on F-Droid now for free. I like that I can download offline maps for large areas and not have to waste data when I'm traveling, although that's not really an issue these days.

      • Been using it for years as well, especially for bicycle navigation. Its routing is still crap.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I tried out OSMAnd extensively this year. And Organic Maps, which also uses OSM data. They are okay but lacking in some areas.

        For basic browsing of maps, the display isn't as good as Google Maps. In OSMand it only has large/small label options and it's often impossible to get the right level of labelling. The map display is cluttered. Organic Maps is a little better, but nowhere near as good as Google Maps.

        Routing is the main issue though. In OSMand public transport is a beta feature and is very slow. The r

  • So it's not just me... (Score:3)

    by Travelsonic ( 870859 ) on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:14AM (#63749352) Journal

    WHY WON'T YOU SHOW ME THE STREET NAME

    So it's NOT just me? Holy crap Google, how do you fuck something up like showing something basic like STREET NAMES?!?!?!

  • street names (Score:3)

    by Luke has no name ( 1423139 ) <(moc.erifxofrebyc) (ta) (xof)> on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:25AM (#63749360)

    It's crazy how difficult it is to get maps to show the street name sometimes! Glad it isn't just me.

  • I can heartily recommend OSMAnd as an alternative to Google/Apple maps.

    It is primarily an offline maps and turn-by-turn navigation tool based on data from Open Street Maps and, because it's offline, there's no ads or data syphoning.

    I've been using it for years in order to avoid hefty charges for roaming data when travelling abroad.

  • or Jack in the Box, or 7-11 or ...

    How about forcing Google and all the other spyware-posing-as-apps to at least admit who is paying them to shove ads in front of my eyeballs. I don't think that would cause any meaningful change, but it would at least offer a glimpse into who is really pulling the strings.

  • Google maps is better in Europe, but Apple maps is best. For cycling there is the Footpath app - works great in Europe.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Askmum ( 1038780 )
      For routing I'm sure Openstreetmap (which is where Footpath gets its data) is better everywhere. Only thing missing is current traffic density. Google is pretty good in that.

  • Google has gamified entering information (Score:3)

    by ruddk ( 5153113 ) on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @04:38AM (#63749720)

    So Google has gamified entering information, posting pictures, correcting stuff. You can earn badges for achieving certain things.
    I believe the reason we see so many irrelevant business and locations are also because the only way you can earn certain badges, is if you have entered a new location into google maps, so naturally peoples irrelevant home business and other such things, are the easiest way to check that task that (among others) are required to get that badge.

    If is of course clever of Google to do this because in this way they get people to work for them for free. They can get "followers", be a "local guide expert" and other useless stuff.

  • We've had peak Google.

  • You must be using some different form of "Google Maps". (Or live in some city much more devoted to advertising.)

    Just not seeing it. I occasionally try other navigation apps, but none is as good as GM.

    It's my old (but still update-able) Garmin device that occasionally has the insane clusters of paid ad pins, not GM.

  • Google does it with everything. They create a service that achieves some level of success and then monetizes it to the point where it no longer serves its original purpose.

  • US user here who uses Google maps frequently. I have no idea what this guy is talking about. While there are a few more things on Google Maps these days, my experience with it is nothing at all like what he describes.

  • My beef is: If I take photos of anything *in my home or yard*, Google Maps often pops up a prompt suggesting "Would you like to share your photos of your visit to ?"

    No, Google, I've never visited that business and my pictures have nothing to do with that business. They were taken inside my own home!

  • They get their data from TomTom.
    So often when on vacation, my iphone is telling me i'm in the ocean when i am on a sidewalk.
    Vacation planning, Google always finds my hotel, restaurant, whatever - but iMaps only rarely.
    OSM is worse:
    - they want me to contribute, but then want to charge me for maps (osmAnd)
    - white streets on a grey background, wtf?

  • This is my biggest gripe. I can deal with the garbage pins but the lack of street names pisses me off. Sometimes they will pop up as I change zoom levels but I can't get them back. "There it is! No wait, lost it...zoom out...nope...there...nope..."

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