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> This one always felt off to me. Humans spent millennia working out the navigation problem. Even the navigation problem still offers some challenges that most
by tzs 2y ago
> This one always felt off to me. Humans spent millennia working out the navigation problem.
Even the navigation problem still offers some challenges that most apps fail to address. Consider the store locator function common on retail business websites and apps. They usually just compute the straight line distance from you to the stores and show the stores within some particular range, sorted by distance.
That's probably fine most of the time, but consider a place like Seattle and its surrounding areas. Suppose you are in Kingston, which is on the west side of Puget Sound about 5 miles away from the east side, which is the side Seattle is on.
The Walgreens store locator shows 10 stores when searching for stores near Kinston, and 9 of them are on the Seattle side of Puget Sound. Crossing the Sound there is a 30 minute ferry ride that costs around $20 each way if you are bringing your car.
The one it shows on the west side of the Sound is on Bainbridge Island and that is probably not the one someone in Kinston would go to. They would go to the one in Silverdale. It's actually closer to Kinston than the one on Bainbridge by road distance, but slightly farther away straight line.
The one in Silverdale is on their list, as are three in Bremerton and one in Port Orchard, which are all closer in terms of time and travel expenses to Kingston than are any of the ones on the Seattle side, but you only see those on the map if you hit the "load more" button. Once brings in Silverdale and a couple in Bremerton, and twice brings in the rest.
Similar for businesses whose site has an option to find items in stock locally. They often report an item is locally available, but it turns out to only be in stores across the Sound.
- schoen 2y agoAnother example: a relative of mine was on a trip last year and was almost in walking distance of a place I thought he might like to see. But it was on the other side of a border with tight controls and long lines, so it wouldn't have been convenient to visit at all. Actually, I guess there are quite a lot of places like that. I've been to both the Brazilian and the Argentine sides of Iguazu Falls, and they're both great, but one is not officially allowed to cross between them inside the parks, so no infrastructure has been built to facilitate that, even though it's literally just across a river. Or, I've heard it's quite inconvenient to get between Kinshasa and Brazaville, the two largest cities in their area, both national capital cities that face each other across a river just about two kilometers apart. There is a ferry but it's not quick and easy.
- kridsdale3 2y agoMeanwhile a national border separates the towns of Chamonix and Courmayeur (distance, about 4 miles), and not only do you not have to deal with border issues, and you don't have to summit the tremendous mountain range in between, they dug a direct tunnel and built cable-cars!
- kridsdale3 2y agoI work for Google Maps in Fremont Seattle and encounter this software issue frequently with services like food delivery and ridesharing apps. (I only mention my work to note that I have a pretty geo-spatial oriented way of thinking, so I notice this). I complain all the time about the same thing you detailed here, and I thought I had it bad, having restaurants that are multiple bridges and slow-streets away be listed. At least there is a bridge! Thanks for giving me some perspective.