4 ms·

Huh? Who searches Google for addresses? I search Google Maps for addresses... I guess my mom, or someone else who thinks that the Google search bar is "the Inte

by glesica 13y ago

Huh? Who searches Google for addresses? I search Google Maps for addresses... I guess my mom, or someone else who thinks that the Google search bar is "the Internet" might do that, and perhaps other savvy people have workflows that I have never picked up, but I just don't see this as a big deal from my perspective.

jholman 13y ago
Wait, what's your workflow here, that you find searching GM more fluent than searching all-of-Google? (I'm genuinely curious, hoping to improve my workflow). Here's my approach: I type the address I want into Firefox's "awesomebar" (i.e. the URL bar). It loads Google, with a search result, with the top result being the address I want. I move my hand to the mouse, click for GM, it loads my search, and I continue using the mouse to navigate GM. The alternative (afaik) is loading GM somehow (bookmark? type URL and hit enter? other?), waiting a surprisingly long time for GM to load, then typing the address, then hitting enter, THEN I can move my hand to the mouse and start the mouse-oriented navigation.. It seems to me it has inferior flow. AND it requires me to either allocate screen space to a GM bookmark, or else type "maps.g" every time. So that's extra work. So although I don't think Google is "the internet"... I'm having trouble figuring out what workflow you're referring to that improves on my do-the-dumbest-thing approach.
- toble 13y ago
  I too go directly to a search engine's map service for location stuff. One reason being that I don't want to become addicted to the overly accessible nature of Google's AI and service integration; becoming addicted would make an eventual switch to a competitor far more jarring. It's for the same reason that I use email clients rather than a service provider's webmail interface. Or Open Office over Google Docs.
- dcsommer 13y ago
  I made "m" a search keyword in Firefox which queries google maps directly. So I just do ctrl-l m <address/query> enter. No cache misses, ahem mouse clicks, involved.
- glesica 13y ago
  Well first of all, I seldom search for an address. 99% of the time I'm either looking for a general category (places to eat or sleep, that sort of thing) or directions from one town to another (specifics can be worked out later on a mobile device once I get there). So, if I'm looking for, say, a place to eat, I just go to Google Maps (I just tested it, I only need to hit "m" to make it auto-complete in Chromium) and then type "restaurants" or whatever and hit enter. Or, if I'm looking for a place to eat in another town, I type the town name, hit enter, then type "restaurants" and hit enter again. An alternative, since I have DDG configured in Chromium, is to type "!m <place> restaurants", which gets me the same result, no clicking. But frankly, I don't even usually take advantage of the shortcut because it just doesn't seem that much better for the frequency with which I search Google Maps (probably twice a day, on average).

by glesica 13y ago

jholman 13y ago

Wait, what's your workflow here, that you find searching GM more fluent than searching all-of-Google? (I'm genuinely curious, hoping to improve my workflow). Here's my approach: I type the address I want into Firefox's "awesomebar" (i.e. the URL bar). It loads Google, with a search result, with the top result being the address I want. I move my hand to the mouse, click for GM, it loads my search, and I continue using the mouse to navigate GM. The alternative (afaik) is loading GM somehow (bookmark? type URL and hit enter? other?), waiting a surprisingly long time for GM to load, then typing the address, then hitting enter, THEN I can move my hand to the mouse and start the mouse-oriented navigation.. It seems to me it has inferior flow. AND it requires me to either allocate screen space to a GM bookmark, or else type "maps.g" every time. So that's extra work. So although I don't think Google is "the internet"... I'm having trouble figuring out what workflow you're referring to that improves on my do-the-dumbest-thing approach.

toble 13y ago
I too go directly to a search engine's map service for location stuff. One reason being that I don't want to become addicted to the overly accessible nature of Google's AI and service integration; becoming addicted would make an eventual switch to a competitor far more jarring. It's for the same reason that I use email clients rather than a service provider's webmail interface. Or Open Office over Google Docs.
dcsommer 13y ago
I made "m" a search keyword in Firefox which queries google maps directly. So I just do ctrl-l m <address/query> enter. No cache misses, ahem mouse clicks, involved.
glesica 13y ago
Well first of all, I seldom search for an address. 99% of the time I'm either looking for a general category (places to eat or sleep, that sort of thing) or directions from one town to another (specifics can be worked out later on a mobile device once I get there). So, if I'm looking for, say, a place to eat, I just go to Google Maps (I just tested it, I only need to hit "m" to make it auto-complete in Chromium) and then type "restaurants" or whatever and hit enter. Or, if I'm looking for a place to eat in another town, I type the town name, hit enter, then type "restaurants" and hit enter again. An alternative, since I have DDG configured in Chromium, is to type "!m <place> restaurants", which gets me the same result, no clicking. But frankly, I don't even usually take advantage of the shortcut because it just doesn't seem that much better for the frequency with which I search Google Maps (probably twice a day, on average).