5 ms·

I must disagree with you on maps. Google maps is a fantastic geographic aware search. It is a horrific map. On any given screen there is an 80% chance that the

I must disagree with you on maps. Google maps is a fantastic geographic aware search. It is a horrific map. On any given screen there is an 80% chance that the major road I'm interested in is not labeled. Finding the name of a relevant cross street is a nightmare. I feel like it used to be better. Way better. I think the map aspect has been dropped entirely as a real feature now that they supply directions (search) primarily instead.

djmips 5y ago
I agree with this 100%. And there needs to be something in the design to allow you to zoom the text size. It's comical to witness myself trying to read too small text and reflexively zooming only to have the same sized font.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  I didn’t know how badly I would like to see this until now. I love static-ness in UIs.
- wanderingstan 5y ago
  Agreed. As my eyesight has gotten worse, I rely more and more on being able to do a quick pinch-to-zoom to read small type. Ironically, this pushes me away from native apps and onto the mobile browser!
- clusterfish 5y ago
  Honorary mention to altitude level labels in terrain mode. They're like one millimeter tall on mobile, and not much better on desktop.
- johnwalkr 5y ago
  Even worse, it seems almost random which zoom levels have text. Often, especially for train line and station names, zooming in makes the text disappear!
  - sam_lowry_ 5y ago
    Use OsmAnd~ for lots of options and Guru maps for easy handling. Both based on OSM, of course.
briga 5y ago
Have you tried the alternatives?
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  If the alternatives include "Google Maps from about 6 years ago", then yes, yes I have. I don't really fault Google that much for their design decisions here, as Maps have really morphed into "Local Search", which makes sense for most use cases, but I agree with the GP, if you are just, for example, wanting to look at a map of a new area (i.e. not where you live), I think Maps is worse than it was some years ago.
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raffraffraff 5y ago
I have OSM and Google maps installed. If I'm trying to navigate to a specific town or street, I'll use OSM because it's "just a map" that isn't trying to sell me shit. But if I'm looking for a business (restaurant, shop etc) I'll always use Google Maps because they're trying to sell me shit, and because OSM is absolutely pitiful in this regard. I have tried to help out here by adding business in my area but the process of slow. Not sure who is in charge of approvals. Google, on the other hand, almost defaults businesses to being on the map even when they don't want to be. (My wife ruins a small business that doesn't have a bricks and mortar store - it's just online. Since it's registered to our home address, she absolutely didn't want it in Google Maps, but it took a good bit of clicking to get it off the map. Hence, they're reliable A.F. for finding businesses, even if they don't want to be found
- mormegil 5y ago
  > I have tried to help out here by adding business in my area but the process of slow. Not sure who is in charge of approvals. There are no approvals at all. After you submit your changeset, it's in the primary public database. Some relatively short time after that, the affected tiles are rerendered and the change is visible on the main map layer (Mapnik) on openstreetmap.org. But if you use an application (e.g. OsmAnd) or some third-party map rendering (e.g. by Mapbox), the changes might take quite some time to get there.
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djmips 5y ago

I agree with this 100%. And there needs to be something in the design to allow you to zoom the text size. It's comical to witness myself trying to read too small text and reflexively zooming only to have the same sized font.

systemvoltage 5y ago
I didn’t know how badly I would like to see this until now. I love static-ness in UIs.
wanderingstan 5y ago
Agreed. As my eyesight has gotten worse, I rely more and more on being able to do a quick pinch-to-zoom to read small type. Ironically, this pushes me away from native apps and onto the mobile browser!
clusterfish 5y ago
Honorary mention to altitude level labels in terrain mode. They're like one millimeter tall on mobile, and not much better on desktop.
johnwalkr 5y ago
Even worse, it seems almost random which zoom levels have text. Often, especially for train line and station names, zooming in makes the text disappear!
- sam_lowry_ 5y ago
  Use OsmAnd~ for lots of options and Guru maps for easy handling. Both based on OSM, of course.

briga 5y ago

Have you tried the alternatives?

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
If the alternatives include "Google Maps from about 6 years ago", then yes, yes I have. I don't really fault Google that much for their design decisions here, as Maps have really morphed into "Local Search", which makes sense for most use cases, but I agree with the GP, if you are just, for example, wanting to look at a map of a new area (i.e. not where you live), I think Maps is worse than it was some years ago.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

raffraffraff 5y ago

I have OSM and Google maps installed. If I'm trying to navigate to a specific town or street, I'll use OSM because it's "just a map" that isn't trying to sell me shit. But if I'm looking for a business (restaurant, shop etc) I'll always use Google Maps because they're trying to sell me shit, and because OSM is absolutely pitiful in this regard. I have tried to help out here by adding business in my area but the process of slow. Not sure who is in charge of approvals. Google, on the other hand, almost defaults businesses to being on the map even when they don't want to be. (My wife ruins a small business that doesn't have a bricks and mortar store - it's just online. Since it's registered to our home address, she absolutely didn't want it in Google Maps, but it took a good bit of clicking to get it off the map. Hence, they're reliable A.F. for finding businesses, even if they don't want to be found

mormegil 5y ago
> I have tried to help out here by adding business in my area but the process of slow. Not sure who is in charge of approvals. There are no approvals at all. After you submit your changeset, it's in the primary public database. Some relatively short time after that, the affected tiles are rerendered and the change is visible on the main map layer (Mapnik) on openstreetmap.org. But if you use an application (e.g. OsmAnd) or some third-party map rendering (e.g. by Mapbox), the changes might take quite some time to get there.

deleted 5y ago

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