4 ms·

The worst thing with google maps the last years is that you can't see many venues until you zoom in to the absolute max zoom-in, even if there is PLENTY of room

The worst thing with google maps the last years is that you can't see many venues until you zoom in to the absolute max zoom-in, even if there is PLENTY of room to show it at a lesser zoom-level without cluttering up the view. Sometimes it's even inconsequent, like you see something, zoom in to look at the streets, zoom out, it's gone... then you can't see it again until you zoom max..

arlcode 3y ago
Well you see SOME venues reliably, in particular those that chose to get (aka pay for) a logo etc. Maybe I'm just being cynical but my pet conspiracy is that in order to make the map space marketable it needs to get worse first so companies are "encouraged" to pay for the privilege. It would fit in with Googles business model.
- water-your-self 3y ago
  This is frankly obvious, ever since google maps spoken directions began mentioning chain stores by name. "Turn left at the [national fast food chain] is too obvious.
  - arlcode 3y ago
    Ah that didn't yet arrive in Germany I think
- linker3000 3y ago
  It's the 'Supermarket bacon' method of enshittification. The normal product heads towards lower quality until the vendor can then sell one that's closer to the original, but call it a premium item, and charge more for it.
  - rwmj 3y ago
    The difference is that you are the supermarket's customer. For Maps the customer isn't you.
pixelesque 3y ago
It's difficult enough to see street names sometimes: you often have to zoom all the way in, which is very frustrating when you want to quickly work out what street you're on...
- morkalork 3y ago
  I can't believe this is still a problem. How hard is it to write the code for "the label for a street in the viewing frame should be located within the viewing frame"? Why am zooming in and out, and moving the window around to get a street name to appear when there's clearly room for it. It's a map app!
  - morganf 3y ago
    What makes you think this is a problem in Google's eyes? If you can't reasonably see the street names then you are much more likely to use Google Directions, which is the precise behavior they want to encourage in this case. From your and my eyes and all users this is a real frustration and a detail all of us hate; and clearly Google could fix it easily if they wanted to. But knowing how they benefit from making the street names hard to find - for the reason in my first sentence - why would they fix it?
    - morkalork 3y ago
      Does the directions feature make them money? Or is it just some kpi being tracked?
      - kyboren 3y ago
        Google's business model is basically a fully-automated digital pimp: Step 1: Surveil the ever-loving shit out of everyone and everything you can Step 2: Pimp out (via RTB) anyone wandering by to advertisers who want to take a crack at them Step 3: Profit This plays into Step 1. If someone even thinks about going somewhere, Google insists on knowing where. Bitch better have my money!
      - 3y ago
mojuba 3y ago
I have a hypothesis that Google prioritizes businesses that are tied to Google somewhere somehow, for example their web site uses Google Analytics, or pays for ads, etc. This way, by promoting google-tied businesses they may (marginally) improve profits. A little dirty trick that makes sense for Google so much that I'd be very surprized if it's not true. Can't verify it though, hope someone can?
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  "Can't verify it though, hope someone can?" If someone could, that would be very troubling for google.
  - mojuba 3y ago
    Why would it be though? Are they promising businesses to represent them in a fair manner on the Maps, or in Search for that matter?
    - hutzlibu 3y ago
      It all became quite muddy, but I am sure they did at some point. Clearly mark sponsored content, that can be highlighted (also on the map) - but otherwise the algorithm for the search needs to be neutral, that was the basic claim of google (and demand of regulators) in all monopol abuse related legal battles. So if they favor their best paying clients in a non transparent way and this is verified, then I believe this would be very expensive for google, possibly the end of them - as then every small and middle company can sue them for compensation.
    - PeterisP 3y ago
      Anti-trust laws generally make it illegal to leverage a dominant position in one market (which google has in search) to favor your business in another market.
- wslh 3y ago
  I so think this and could correlate with the search engine. It seems the vision of organizing the world data was misdirected to another side. Google is forgetting many sites and its search is subpar and doesn't target obvious SEO Spam endeavors. Finally, don't forget how they increase the number of ads in the search results at the top, you need to really think where the real results start. Business wise speaking, it seems that Google is aware that the clock is ticking for several of their offerings. This is even beyond the antitrust case. Microsoft Bing finds stuff that Google doesn't. Something impossible to think a few years ago.
Xerox9213 3y ago
My least favorite thing about Google Maps is when they don’t display the street names in a place that makes sense. Sometimes I just want to look at the route and then drive there without instructions, but have to scroll halfway across the city just to see the name of the street I turn on.
- canada_dry 3y ago
  Garmin GPS maps in cars have this bloody aggravating issue too.
jillesvangurp 3y ago
For a company that is about search, they are really screwing up their search metrics with Google Maps lately. Two common metrics are precision and recall. Precision in the context of maps would be that everything you see is highly relevant. It's not. Random selection of crap I don't care about would be the friendliest thing to say about it. Recall would be that if it is there, you should be able to find it by zooming in. It fails hard with that too. Google maps is neither very precise or very good at recalling things. It used to be better at this. Not showing the street names is a problem. Filtering out business I know exist and that I know they have is a problem. Bakeries, bars, coffee places, etc. They have them all. But not on the map. And it's not like there is a lot of other content competing for attention when fully zoomed in. I live in the middle of Berlin, not in a freaking desert. Only when I search for them do they show up. Showing me nothing where I know they have stuff is a choice. A bad one. It's all form over function lately at Google. Lipstick on a pig. And it doesn't even look that good. Hating the bright greens particularly. Fugly as hell. But Apple does it so it must be good. I guess imitation is a form of flattery. Or desperation. Or something. But it's definitely imitation. It indeed looks like nobody is in charge, as Ian Hickson suggested in the article that was on HN last week when he left Google after 16 years. Indecisiveness and a lack of leadership are on full display here. Nobody calling BS on this is a problem. Leadership allowing this out of the door, or worse, insisting it is released in this form, is a problem. I guess somebody needed their Christmas bonus so they shipped "something" and forced it through. Just speculating here but corporate stupidity tends to work like that. It's not hard to make an educated guess at the multiple levels of mundane stupidity at play here from the outside. Because I've seen it from the inside in other companies.
- codewench 3y ago
  >Only when I search for them do they show up. That's the goal. You're assuming their metrics are tied into being a 'map' or 'useful to end users', but this is Google. Their metrics are 100% focused on ad revenue. They want you to see people who have paid to be included, and they want to force you to rely on their search (which they control) rather than being able to organically find new places.
thinkingemote 3y ago
They conditionally show labels and venue points depending on context. This might be search history, referrer, device, desktop/mobile, time of day, directions for car etc For example we can imagine that if a user usually uses it on the phone, at night in the city, on foot, often searching for restaurants, it might default to showing more restaurant venues without the user initially searching for it if the user is in the city at night. There's a blog post they made about it several years ago from what I recall it was something like "if you look for fast food it will show other fast food venues"

arlcode 3y ago

Well you see SOME venues reliably, in particular those that chose to get (aka pay for) a logo etc. Maybe I'm just being cynical but my pet conspiracy is that in order to make the map space marketable it needs to get worse first so companies are "encouraged" to pay for the privilege. It would fit in with Googles business model.

water-your-self 3y ago
This is frankly obvious, ever since google maps spoken directions began mentioning chain stores by name. "Turn left at the [national fast food chain] is too obvious.
- arlcode 3y ago
  Ah that didn't yet arrive in Germany I think
linker3000 3y ago
It's the 'Supermarket bacon' method of enshittification. The normal product heads towards lower quality until the vendor can then sell one that's closer to the original, but call it a premium item, and charge more for it.
- rwmj 3y ago
  The difference is that you are the supermarket's customer. For Maps the customer isn't you.

pixelesque 3y ago

It's difficult enough to see street names sometimes: you often have to zoom all the way in, which is very frustrating when you want to quickly work out what street you're on...

morkalork 3y ago
I can't believe this is still a problem. How hard is it to write the code for "the label for a street in the viewing frame should be located within the viewing frame"? Why am zooming in and out, and moving the window around to get a street name to appear when there's clearly room for it. It's a map app!
- morganf 3y ago
  What makes you think this is a problem in Google's eyes? If you can't reasonably see the street names then you are much more likely to use Google Directions, which is the precise behavior they want to encourage in this case. From your and my eyes and all users this is a real frustration and a detail all of us hate; and clearly Google could fix it easily if they wanted to. But knowing how they benefit from making the street names hard to find - for the reason in my first sentence - why would they fix it?
  - morkalork 3y ago
    Does the directions feature make them money? Or is it just some kpi being tracked?
    - kyboren 3y ago
      Google's business model is basically a fully-automated digital pimp: Step 1: Surveil the ever-loving shit out of everyone and everything you can Step 2: Pimp out (via RTB) anyone wandering by to advertisers who want to take a crack at them Step 3: Profit This plays into Step 1. If someone even thinks about going somewhere, Google insists on knowing where. Bitch better have my money!
    - 3y ago

mojuba 3y ago

I have a hypothesis that Google prioritizes businesses that are tied to Google somewhere somehow, for example their web site uses Google Analytics, or pays for ads, etc. This way, by promoting google-tied businesses they may (marginally) improve profits. A little dirty trick that makes sense for Google so much that I'd be very surprized if it's not true. Can't verify it though, hope someone can?

hutzlibu 3y ago
"Can't verify it though, hope someone can?" If someone could, that would be very troubling for google.
- mojuba 3y ago
  Why would it be though? Are they promising businesses to represent them in a fair manner on the Maps, or in Search for that matter?
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    It all became quite muddy, but I am sure they did at some point. Clearly mark sponsored content, that can be highlighted (also on the map) - but otherwise the algorithm for the search needs to be neutral, that was the basic claim of google (and demand of regulators) in all monopol abuse related legal battles. So if they favor their best paying clients in a non transparent way and this is verified, then I believe this would be very expensive for google, possibly the end of them - as then every small and middle company can sue them for compensation.
  - PeterisP 3y ago
    Anti-trust laws generally make it illegal to leverage a dominant position in one market (which google has in search) to favor your business in another market.
wslh 3y ago
I so think this and could correlate with the search engine. It seems the vision of organizing the world data was misdirected to another side. Google is forgetting many sites and its search is subpar and doesn't target obvious SEO Spam endeavors. Finally, don't forget how they increase the number of ads in the search results at the top, you need to really think where the real results start. Business wise speaking, it seems that Google is aware that the clock is ticking for several of their offerings. This is even beyond the antitrust case. Microsoft Bing finds stuff that Google doesn't. Something impossible to think a few years ago.

Xerox9213 3y ago

My least favorite thing about Google Maps is when they don’t display the street names in a place that makes sense. Sometimes I just want to look at the route and then drive there without instructions, but have to scroll halfway across the city just to see the name of the street I turn on.

canada_dry 3y ago
Garmin GPS maps in cars have this bloody aggravating issue too.

jillesvangurp 3y ago

For a company that is about search, they are really screwing up their search metrics with Google Maps lately. Two common metrics are precision and recall. Precision in the context of maps would be that everything you see is highly relevant. It's not. Random selection of crap I don't care about would be the friendliest thing to say about it. Recall would be that if it is there, you should be able to find it by zooming in. It fails hard with that too. Google maps is neither very precise or very good at recalling things. It used to be better at this. Not showing the street names is a problem. Filtering out business I know exist and that I know they have is a problem. Bakeries, bars, coffee places, etc. They have them all. But not on the map. And it's not like there is a lot of other content competing for attention when fully zoomed in. I live in the middle of Berlin, not in a freaking desert. Only when I search for them do they show up. Showing me nothing where I know they have stuff is a choice. A bad one. It's all form over function lately at Google. Lipstick on a pig. And it doesn't even look that good. Hating the bright greens particularly. Fugly as hell. But Apple does it so it must be good. I guess imitation is a form of flattery. Or desperation. Or something. But it's definitely imitation. It indeed looks like nobody is in charge, as Ian Hickson suggested in the article that was on HN last week when he left Google after 16 years. Indecisiveness and a lack of leadership are on full display here. Nobody calling BS on this is a problem. Leadership allowing this out of the door, or worse, insisting it is released in this form, is a problem. I guess somebody needed their Christmas bonus so they shipped "something" and forced it through. Just speculating here but corporate stupidity tends to work like that. It's not hard to make an educated guess at the multiple levels of mundane stupidity at play here from the outside. Because I've seen it from the inside in other companies.

codewench 3y ago
>Only when I search for them do they show up. That's the goal. You're assuming their metrics are tied into being a 'map' or 'useful to end users', but this is Google. Their metrics are 100% focused on ad revenue. They want you to see people who have paid to be included, and they want to force you to rely on their search (which they control) rather than being able to organically find new places.

thinkingemote 3y ago

They conditionally show labels and venue points depending on context. This might be search history, referrer, device, desktop/mobile, time of day, directions for car etc For example we can imagine that if a user usually uses it on the phone, at night in the city, on foot, often searching for restaurants, it might default to showing more restaurant venues without the user initially searching for it if the user is in the city at night. There's a blog post they made about it several years ago from what I recall it was something like "if you look for fast food it will show other fast food venues"