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. Preci

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.