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These redesigns always scare me because the come with a loss of functionality I distinctly remember when Google Maps underwent Material Redesign. I traveled a
by cptskippy 9y ago
These redesigns always scare me because the come with a loss of functionality
I distinctly remember when Google Maps underwent Material Redesign. I traveled around Scotland for over a week pre materialization and Google Maps was a fantastic tool for navigation. Post materialization I went on a trip to Ireland and it was a train wreck.
The scale was gone so your navigator was unable to give you helpful instructions like "the next turn is in 300 yards". Eventually they added it back, first only when zooming and later with an option to make it persist always.
The old Google Maps had inertial compensation so if you lost a GPS lock briefly it would continue to update your travel along a route using your last recorded speed. This was useful when driving in the mountains or city. Now if you momentarily lose your GPS lock it just freezes your position on the route until it reacquires a lock. It's incredibly frustrating because there's no indicator so you have no idea when glancing at the screen driving down the street. I can't tell you how many turns I've missed because of this.
The old Google Maps had some rejection logic so if you were following a route and GPS reported your position radically different from the last update it would be ignored. Now if you're driving through areas with sketchy GPS you jump around and Maps is constantly calculating a new route.
They removed elevation data which complicates trip planning. It's not so much a problem with driving, though it can be. For hiking though it's a pain because you can't see how difficult the terrain is going to be.
- mustacheemperor 9y agoI definitely can second the feeling that Google Maps has gotten "dumber" over time. My city has a major highway that runs over municipal streets and Maps always thinks I've somehow warped from the highway to the street when I drive over it, recalculating and telling me to take a left from the freeway. I'm going 60 and have been on the interstate for the last 20 minutes, how could I suddenly be on the a surface street? I don't understand how I should be comfortable with Google collecting vast amounts of data about my travel habits if it can't even make the experience marginally better with them. And the Maps webapp still doesn't have a compass. The most popular online map in 2018 can't show you magnetic north, which I guess is because you can't rotate the map at all. That feature was cut in some distant redesign.[0] [0]http://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=31194&p=199273 http://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=31194&p=199273
- pc2g4d 9y agoHas anyone else noticed that Google Maps no longer says street names? It used to say "Turn left on Drury Lane". Now it says "Turn left in 1000 feet", and I have no idea if I'm turning onto the correct road or not. On Android, anyway.
- SenHeng 9y agoProbably more useful. Not many people can remember street names, especially for places not frequently visited. Also, Japan doesn't even have street names so we've always had 'turn left in xxx metres' since ever.
- greenknight 9y agoStill works for me? At least in Australia on Android.
- flukus 9y agoIt's frustrating when using it as a map these day, you have to zoom right in for the street names to be visible, even highways a lot of the time. By the time I zoom in to see a street and zoom back out I've lost context of where I'm looking. Open street map is a bit better in this regard.
- londons_explore 9y agoThat's cos your cell provider is poor. The street names are "pronounced" by a Google server. If the phone can't download the audio within a few hundred milliseconds, it falls back to a prerecorded audio clip made locally on the phone. Get a better cell provider, and you'll get back to full functionality.