4 ms·

The new version doesn't show most of the street names. Not even the major roads. Screenshot: https://i.ibb.co/qszKNSm/google-maps-labels.png https://i.ibb.co/q

The new version doesn't show most of the street names. Not even the major roads. Screenshot: https://i.ibb.co/qszKNSm/google-maps-labels.png https://i.ibb.co/qszKNSm/google-maps-labels.png Example URL: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5041929,-0.111821,17.46z https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5041929,-0.111821,17.46z

kazinator 3y ago
I've noticed that. I zoom and zoom and zoom, yet the street name is not appearing! I guess there is no money in it? Can't Google just show a damned ad when the street is zoomed in far enough to have room for a video and the name?
- ryandrake 3y ago
  I worked at a mapping sw company (not Google Maps, but a 3p competitor) and the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. Every time there was a conflict between a street label and say a POI icon, they wanted the algorithm to choose the icon. The PM also favored POIs, especially if the icon was $ponsored and brought in revenue. All the map apps seem to be bad this way. Use Apple Maps and pick a spot with a lot of businesses like the Las Vegas strip. You’re not going to see too many street names winning the algorithmic decision of what to display.
  - pests 3y ago
    Maps has been pretty transparent over the years of transforming Maps into a destionation for Places, not just to browse, or look around, or sightsee. You open maps, find a Place, and go to it.
  - CogitoCogito 3y ago
    > I worked at a mapping sw company (not Google Maps, but a 3p competitor) and the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. Why the hell don’t they just expose an option “show as many street names as possible”?
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    > the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. This is the part where they should be reminded they're designing a product that should be useful, not a work of art. Label-less street names are fine on posters or those metal-engraving sheets you can hang in your living room and marvel at the grid structure. > The PM also favored POIs, especially if the icon was $ponsored and brought in revenue. Oh I see why the designers aren't reminded of the above.
  - lwkl 3y ago
    Funnily enough you inspired me to try Apple Maps and it did a better job. The last time I ran into this issue I didn‘t even think about Apple Maps since it’s much worse in the things I use Google Maps for in my location. But now I know where to look up street and river names.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
I assume the thinking is as follows: street names mattered on early paper maps, and printouts of online maps, because people would navigate through areas by comparing the street name on the map to the street signs around them. That generation is now aging. Whole new generations have been brought up who instead navigate by searching for a POI or address, and then simply following the line or the voice guidance that the map app creates to lead them to that destination. The latter users may not know or care about the names of all the streets along the way. Sure, some people want to look at a map with street names just to become familiar with the whole town. But those users are probably too few for a company focused on profit to care about, and such independent-minded users might be harder to monetize anyway.
- hardwaregeek 3y ago
  The problem with that reasoning is that GPS/compasses in phones are often wrong, so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north, so you need to turn left to start heading west on Broadway. This is especially true if you're in a dense area where GPS gets especially confused, or if you're trying to catch an Uber (since now there's two potentially faulty GPS's in play). I often have to zoom in obnoxiously far to read the damn street names. It's quite frustrating and could easily be solved with some sort of tap to display name feature.
  - rezonant 3y ago
    I don't particularly like the elision of street names myself, but is GPS on modern phones really often wrong? Perhaps it's more an issue in rural areas or super tightly packed areas like SF or New York? In LA, GPS is kind of crazily accurate, and other than routing choices that can seem strange, it seems to work perfectly. Compasses on phones are definitely a crapshoot though.
    - astrange 3y ago
      GPS has issues near skyscrapers ("urban canyons") because the signals reflect off buildings and don't arrive at the proper times. You can correct for this with multiple frequencies or if you have an accurate map of nearby building heights.
aragonite 3y ago
Also, it used to be that if you search "[street name] map" in Google Search a very helpful Google Maps image appears with the street nicely highlighted. At around the time of the Bard rollout they completely broke this functionality. Now it's returned only in a much inferior form not least because of the lack of street names. Some screenshots for comparison: https://imgur.com/a/K4oAbZs https://imgur.com/a/K4oAbZs
- iainmerrick 3y ago
  That doesn’t look so bad to me. The old one looks more precise but the new one is perhaps easier to take in at a glance. More street names would be good in both versions, but it doesn’t look like that has regressed, at least.
  - andromeduck 3y ago
    The new one hides that the street is one way.
- Lamad1234 3y ago
  [dead]
amf12 3y ago
If you zoom in, the map shows the street names. I suspect it's only a change in "what resolution should show which names".
- c0pium 3y ago
  That is decidedly not always true. It would be cool if there were some zoom level below which names were always displayed, but there isn’t. Especially in dense PoI places.
abdullahkhalids 3y ago
Sometimes you can see some street names, but not others. So you have to play this game of constantly zooming in and out in different locations to figure out the names of all the streets.
tdeck 3y ago
I came here to complain about the old version often not showing street names, forcing me to scroll a few miles down some streets to see the name. Amazing that they managed to make that worse.
lwkl 3y ago
Here‘s the same spot in Apple Maps: https://imgur.com/a/PBFIP1d https://imgur.com/a/PBFIP1d It seems to do a better job at always showing street names if you are zoomed in. I didn‘t even think about using Apple Maps when I ran into this issue but it seems to do a better job at this.

kazinator 3y ago

I've noticed that. I zoom and zoom and zoom, yet the street name is not appearing! I guess there is no money in it? Can't Google just show a damned ad when the street is zoomed in far enough to have room for a video and the name?

ryandrake 3y ago
I worked at a mapping sw company (not Google Maps, but a 3p competitor) and the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. Every time there was a conflict between a street label and say a POI icon, they wanted the algorithm to choose the icon. The PM also favored POIs, especially if the icon was $ponsored and brought in revenue. All the map apps seem to be bad this way. Use Apple Maps and pick a spot with a lot of businesses like the Las Vegas strip. You’re not going to see too many street names winning the algorithmic decision of what to display.
- pests 3y ago
  Maps has been pretty transparent over the years of transforming Maps into a destionation for Places, not just to browse, or look around, or sightsee. You open maps, find a Place, and go to it.
- CogitoCogito 3y ago
  > I worked at a mapping sw company (not Google Maps, but a 3p competitor) and the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. Why the hell don’t they just expose an option “show as many street names as possible”?
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. This is the part where they should be reminded they're designing a product that should be useful, not a work of art. Label-less street names are fine on posters or those metal-engraving sheets you can hang in your living room and marvel at the grid structure. > The PM also favored POIs, especially if the icon was $ponsored and brought in revenue. Oh I see why the designers aren't reminded of the above.
- lwkl 3y ago
  Funnily enough you inspired me to try Apple Maps and it did a better job. The last time I ran into this issue I didn‘t even think about Apple Maps since it’s much worse in the things I use Google Maps for in my location. But now I know where to look up street and river names.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

I assume the thinking is as follows: street names mattered on early paper maps, and printouts of online maps, because people would navigate through areas by comparing the street name on the map to the street signs around them. That generation is now aging. Whole new generations have been brought up who instead navigate by searching for a POI or address, and then simply following the line or the voice guidance that the map app creates to lead them to that destination. The latter users may not know or care about the names of all the streets along the way. Sure, some people want to look at a map with street names just to become familiar with the whole town. But those users are probably too few for a company focused on profit to care about, and such independent-minded users might be harder to monetize anyway.

hardwaregeek 3y ago
The problem with that reasoning is that GPS/compasses in phones are often wrong, so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north, so you need to turn left to start heading west on Broadway. This is especially true if you're in a dense area where GPS gets especially confused, or if you're trying to catch an Uber (since now there's two potentially faulty GPS's in play). I often have to zoom in obnoxiously far to read the damn street names. It's quite frustrating and could easily be solved with some sort of tap to display name feature.
- rezonant 3y ago
  I don't particularly like the elision of street names myself, but is GPS on modern phones really often wrong? Perhaps it's more an issue in rural areas or super tightly packed areas like SF or New York? In LA, GPS is kind of crazily accurate, and other than routing choices that can seem strange, it seems to work perfectly. Compasses on phones are definitely a crapshoot though.
  - astrange 3y ago
    GPS has issues near skyscrapers ("urban canyons") because the signals reflect off buildings and don't arrive at the proper times. You can correct for this with multiple frequencies or if you have an accurate map of nearby building heights.

aragonite 3y ago

Also, it used to be that if you search "[street name] map" in Google Search a very helpful Google Maps image appears with the street nicely highlighted. At around the time of the Bard rollout they completely broke this functionality. Now it's returned only in a much inferior form not least because of the lack of street names. Some screenshots for comparison: https://imgur.com/a/K4oAbZs https://imgur.com/a/K4oAbZs

iainmerrick 3y ago
That doesn’t look so bad to me. The old one looks more precise but the new one is perhaps easier to take in at a glance. More street names would be good in both versions, but it doesn’t look like that has regressed, at least.
- andromeduck 3y ago
  The new one hides that the street is one way.
Lamad1234 3y ago
[dead]

amf12 3y ago

If you zoom in, the map shows the street names. I suspect it's only a change in "what resolution should show which names".

c0pium 3y ago
That is decidedly not always true. It would be cool if there were some zoom level below which names were always displayed, but there isn’t. Especially in dense PoI places.

abdullahkhalids 3y ago

Sometimes you can see some street names, but not others. So you have to play this game of constantly zooming in and out in different locations to figure out the names of all the streets.

tdeck 3y ago

I came here to complain about the old version often not showing street names, forcing me to scroll a few miles down some streets to see the name. Amazing that they managed to make that worse.

lwkl 3y ago

Here‘s the same spot in Apple Maps: https://imgur.com/a/PBFIP1d https://imgur.com/a/PBFIP1d It seems to do a better job at always showing street names if you are zoomed in. I didn‘t even think about using Apple Maps when I ran into this issue but it seems to do a better job at this.