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This particular color change is not very popular inside Google during its dogfooding and received lots of feedback, but yet the product team decided to push thi

This particular color change is not very popular inside Google during its dogfooding and received lots of feedback, but yet the product team decided to push this. I don't know what happened in the team internally, but it looks like now those product people care less and less about internal feedback from arguably most enthusiastic users.

spankalee 3y ago
That sounds like most internal feedback since Google+
harryVic 3y ago
It's completely wild to me that the maps org has more than 10,000 people.
- michaelt 3y ago
  If they were just developing software that would be way too many, sure. But if you count streetview car drivers trying to drive every street in the entire world every few years, people manually moderating crowdsourced contributions, people updating the map for all new construction worldwide, people working to maintain business listings for every business with a physical location (including those without much web presence), people dealing with adversaries who want to list their fake '24 hour emergency locksmith' all over every city, people parsing train and bus timetables in every city worldwide no matter how awful their websites are, an advertising sales team specifically targeting smaller businesses who are interested in local advertising...
- jillesvangurp 3y ago
  Nokia Maps (I used to work there) when they acquired Navteq back in 2006 or so was something like 7000 people or so, most of them in Navteq. Navteq had employees and people in most countries in the world to be able to gather mapping data and work with local authorities. It's now called Here and they still have 9000 employees or so (in 2019 according to wikipedia). That's after years of decline and layoffs. The Navteq acquisition is what prompted Google to create their own maps. They were licensing Teleatlas (now Tom Tom) and Navteq maps before that. Apple made the same move a few years later. I think Steve Jobs was still around. I bet Apple has a few thousand people working on this topic as well. That's just what it takes to build and maintain a world map and assorted geospatial technologies, datasets, etc.
DanAtC 3y ago
PMs need their promos
spaceman_2020 3y ago
I personally really hate the water and street colors. Awful stuff.
- Xenoamorphous 3y ago
  I love the new water colour. It reminds me of my holidays in the Mediterranean; Mallorca, Sardinia… In the end it’s so subjective that not everyone will be happy.
mike_d 3y ago
> but it looks like now those product people care less and less about internal feedback from arguably most enthusiastic users Enthusiastic users aren't the people you should design for - instead target changes that have the greatest positive impact for the most users. There could have been a compelling reason like color requirements for accessibility or how they display on low end screens for NBU that negates a bunch of memegen posts about how pretty it looks.
- stickfigure 3y ago
  ...or it could just be hot garbage. The new colors don't have enough contrast, especially at night. I notice that maps.bing.com doesn't have the same problem. I guess it's time to test drive it for a couple weeks.
- bryanrasmussen 3y ago
  >There could have been a compelling reason like color requirements for accessibility that seems especially unlikely. the problem is inability to differentiate between things, most accessibility issues in maps are inability to differentiate. Changes that make it harder to differentiate will not improve accessibility.
- chii 3y ago
  > Enthusiastic users aren't the people you should design for They are the people you design for at the beginning to get traction, and once you got the mainstream on board because of their evangelicalism, you switch targets. Aka, the enthusiastic people get used first and then dumped.
jwestbury 3y ago
My pet theory: They pushed it because it more closely resembles Apple Maps. When I opened Google Maps earlier this week, I genuinely thought I'd opened the wrong map app.
- andromeduck 3y ago
  And you did.
retrocryptid 3y ago
I think they want to push users away so they have an excuse to EoL Maps.
hbossy 3y ago
All design people live in Macbooks and iPhones, so every UI not following current Apple theme feels off to them.
- realusername 3y ago
  I've also seen this trend, and if you hate Apple style UI (like I do) this trend is infuriating
- another2another 3y ago
  Really? Google created their own design language and guidelines: https://design.google/ https://design.google/ so it can't be all Apple's fault.
  - hbossy 3y ago
    It's not Apple's fault, it's the desingers who use apple products. Look at youtube account linked to that page and tell me how many Windows computers can you see there: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ21zHI2TNh9clapWNyWUCyiu1oVD-9ri https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ21zHI2TNh9clapWNyWU...

spankalee 3y ago

That sounds like most internal feedback since Google+

harryVic 3y ago

It's completely wild to me that the maps org has more than 10,000 people.

michaelt 3y ago
If they were just developing software that would be way too many, sure. But if you count streetview car drivers trying to drive every street in the entire world every few years, people manually moderating crowdsourced contributions, people updating the map for all new construction worldwide, people working to maintain business listings for every business with a physical location (including those without much web presence), people dealing with adversaries who want to list their fake '24 hour emergency locksmith' all over every city, people parsing train and bus timetables in every city worldwide no matter how awful their websites are, an advertising sales team specifically targeting smaller businesses who are interested in local advertising...
jillesvangurp 3y ago
Nokia Maps (I used to work there) when they acquired Navteq back in 2006 or so was something like 7000 people or so, most of them in Navteq. Navteq had employees and people in most countries in the world to be able to gather mapping data and work with local authorities. It's now called Here and they still have 9000 employees or so (in 2019 according to wikipedia). That's after years of decline and layoffs. The Navteq acquisition is what prompted Google to create their own maps. They were licensing Teleatlas (now Tom Tom) and Navteq maps before that. Apple made the same move a few years later. I think Steve Jobs was still around. I bet Apple has a few thousand people working on this topic as well. That's just what it takes to build and maintain a world map and assorted geospatial technologies, datasets, etc.

DanAtC 3y ago

PMs need their promos

spaceman_2020 3y ago

I personally really hate the water and street colors. Awful stuff.

Xenoamorphous 3y ago
I love the new water colour. It reminds me of my holidays in the Mediterranean; Mallorca, Sardinia… In the end it’s so subjective that not everyone will be happy.

mike_d 3y ago

> but it looks like now those product people care less and less about internal feedback from arguably most enthusiastic users Enthusiastic users aren't the people you should design for - instead target changes that have the greatest positive impact for the most users. There could have been a compelling reason like color requirements for accessibility or how they display on low end screens for NBU that negates a bunch of memegen posts about how pretty it looks.

stickfigure 3y ago
...or it could just be hot garbage. The new colors don't have enough contrast, especially at night. I notice that maps.bing.com doesn't have the same problem. I guess it's time to test drive it for a couple weeks.
bryanrasmussen 3y ago
>There could have been a compelling reason like color requirements for accessibility that seems especially unlikely. the problem is inability to differentiate between things, most accessibility issues in maps are inability to differentiate. Changes that make it harder to differentiate will not improve accessibility.
chii 3y ago
> Enthusiastic users aren't the people you should design for They are the people you design for at the beginning to get traction, and once you got the mainstream on board because of their evangelicalism, you switch targets. Aka, the enthusiastic people get used first and then dumped.

jwestbury 3y ago

My pet theory: They pushed it because it more closely resembles Apple Maps. When I opened Google Maps earlier this week, I genuinely thought I'd opened the wrong map app.

andromeduck 3y ago
And you did.

retrocryptid 3y ago

I think they want to push users away so they have an excuse to EoL Maps.

hbossy 3y ago

All design people live in Macbooks and iPhones, so every UI not following current Apple theme feels off to them.

realusername 3y ago
I've also seen this trend, and if you hate Apple style UI (like I do) this trend is infuriating
another2another 3y ago
Really? Google created their own design language and guidelines: https://design.google/ https://design.google/ so it can't be all Apple's fault.
- hbossy 3y ago
  It's not Apple's fault, it's the desingers who use apple products. Look at youtube account linked to that page and tell me how many Windows computers can you see there: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ21zHI2TNh9clapWNyWUCyiu1oVD-9ri https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ21zHI2TNh9clapWNyWU...