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> location and language are... the most annoying part This is a constant frustration - I fight with this feature every time I search for info about some place

> location and language are... the most annoying part This is a constant frustration - I fight with this feature every time I search for info about some place I'm not, for instance to plan travel. Searching with a country/state/zip alongside the query helps, but it's a kludge that's much worse than actual location-specificity, especially if one is going to an ambiguous place like Portland or Washington. I'd very much prefer it if Google offered the same sort of mechanics as weather sites: defaulting to my location, then offering a little box saying "search as if I'm located in:". Instead, the only option is "use precise location", which is no more helpful than basing location on my IP and history. In this sense, it's the same standard-uses-only paternalism that plagues Android. Maps on desktop has a great feature of "leave at" or "arrive by", which was removed from mobile in favor of a 'helpful' integration that can notify you about when to leave. It's terrible for anyone who wants to check a route for odd travel hours, or even do something as simple as decide when to set an alarm based on likely morning traffic. And so, of course, people have been requesting the more flexible option for years while consistently being told that the existing version is "more helpful". Increasingly, this stuff doesn't just bother me on a privacy or information-neutrality level. It's actively damaging, to the point where DuckDuckGo is actually more usable for certain types of search.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> It's terrible for anyone who wants to check a route for odd travel hours, or even do something as simple as decide when to set an alarm based on likely morning traffic. Yup. It's a great example of what I complain about when I say that software is being dumbed down and loses its usefulness. As another recent thread[0] pointed out, the handling of street labels is ridiculously broken. It makes Google Maps useless as a map - i.e. as a tool I could use to look around the place and find my bearings, or plan a route in advance, or scout the traffic across many roads without putting in a destination. I too am bothered by this more than by privacy issues, to be honest. The latter are maybe more important, but the former are causing me frustration daily. - [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18358902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18358902
klodolph 8y ago
> Maps on desktop has a great feature of "leave at" or "arrive by", which was removed from mobile in favor of a 'helpful' integration that can notify you about when to leave. I use this feature all the time and it's still there on the mobile versions, as far as I know. Ask for directions to a place, you'll see a list of routes, above the routes is a dark blue bar saying "depart at HH:MM". Touch that and it will let you select departure time, arrival time, or the last train. Maybe this feature has moved around but it’s definitely there on mobile. If you touch an individual route it will take you to a different screen which doesn’t have this button, so go back to the list of routes and it will be there.
- Bartweiss 8y ago
  I believe the feature may only be missing on Android? At least, that's where I found the forum discussions with Google support stating it had been removed. At any rate, I just tried to enter a destination from the main screen, hit directions, and provide a source. I also tried hitting 'Go' and then entering the destination, and tried each with "my location" and a specific address. In every case, I get several routes. The shortest is already highlighted, they all list times if I leave now, and there's a top bar asking if I want to drive, walk, etc. Touching 'back' returns me to the destination, with no departure source, so there's no list of routes which doesn't have one preselected. From there, all I can do is pick a route and start, which begins navigation. None of available menus before or after starting let me set a "depart at" time. If you're willing, could you tell me where our flows differed? I'm always curious about this sort of fragmentation, or if this is available I'd love to know where. (Poking around, I did just discover "remember monthly driving stats", which is new since I last opened that menu and on by default. So thank you for letting me turn that off - and another way in which I'm irritated by Maps.)

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> It's terrible for anyone who wants to check a route for odd travel hours, or even do something as simple as decide when to set an alarm based on likely morning traffic. Yup. It's a great example of what I complain about when I say that software is being dumbed down and loses its usefulness. As another recent thread[0] pointed out, the handling of street labels is ridiculously broken. It makes Google Maps useless as a map - i.e. as a tool I could use to look around the place and find my bearings, or plan a route in advance, or scout the traffic across many roads without putting in a destination. I too am bothered by this more than by privacy issues, to be honest. The latter are maybe more important, but the former are causing me frustration daily. - [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18358902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18358902

klodolph 8y ago

> Maps on desktop has a great feature of "leave at" or "arrive by", which was removed from mobile in favor of a 'helpful' integration that can notify you about when to leave. I use this feature all the time and it's still there on the mobile versions, as far as I know. Ask for directions to a place, you'll see a list of routes, above the routes is a dark blue bar saying "depart at HH:MM". Touch that and it will let you select departure time, arrival time, or the last train. Maybe this feature has moved around but it’s definitely there on mobile. If you touch an individual route it will take you to a different screen which doesn’t have this button, so go back to the list of routes and it will be there.

Bartweiss 8y ago
I believe the feature may only be missing on Android? At least, that's where I found the forum discussions with Google support stating it had been removed. At any rate, I just tried to enter a destination from the main screen, hit directions, and provide a source. I also tried hitting 'Go' and then entering the destination, and tried each with "my location" and a specific address. In every case, I get several routes. The shortest is already highlighted, they all list times if I leave now, and there's a top bar asking if I want to drive, walk, etc. Touching 'back' returns me to the destination, with no departure source, so there's no list of routes which doesn't have one preselected. From there, all I can do is pick a route and start, which begins navigation. None of available menus before or after starting let me set a "depart at" time. If you're willing, could you tell me where our flows differed? I'm always curious about this sort of fragmentation, or if this is available I'd love to know where. (Poking around, I did just discover "remember monthly driving stats", which is new since I last opened that menu and on by default. So thank you for letting me turn that off - and another way in which I'm irritated by Maps.)