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I don't personally care about Latitude, but it does seem recently that Google have been on a crusade to ruin Google Maps on mobile devices. The two most notewor

by gjm11 13y ago

I don't personally care about Latitude, but it does seem recently that Google have been on a crusade to ruin Google Maps on mobile devices. The two most noteworthy instances: (1) screwing up the offline-maps feature (http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/Ck_Pd6UgZCU http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/Ck_Pd6UgZ... -- but they've slightly walked this back: see https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3246076 https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3246076) and (2) adding advertisements to the Android version of Maps: http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/attract-new-customers-with-local-ads-on.html http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/attract-new-customers-... (I don't mind this at all on the web version of Maps, where I'm usually on a display with plenty of pixels, but on a mobile device that's a whole lot of space being taken up by advertisements instead of actually useful information).

davidw 13y ago
Don't forget that from one day to the next they also killed terrain mode for maps on Android. That one made me very grumpy.
wpietri 13y ago
My current theory is that this is a simple extortion ploy: After getting me to depend on Android Google Maps, they have replaced it with something unusable. Shortly they will release Google Maps Classic for $49.95/year. I will happily pay that; it's cheaper than the blood pressure medication I'd need to counteract all the rage-inducing misfeatures they've put in the latest version.
- 1djj12dj0 13y ago
  Bullshit. Google does not sell web services to end users.
  - illumen 13y ago
    Someone on the internet is wrong!!! (ps. it's you). You can pay Google for services as an end user.
    - andybak 13y ago
      He might have overstated the case but the commentator he is replying to is, actually, talking bullshit.
- sidmkp96 13y ago
  sheer bullshit u r taking about
  - wpietri 13y ago
    If only there were some kind of well-understood cultural phenomenon where people could say hyperbolic or absurd things for the amusement of their fellow humans. It's a shame something like doesn't exist. I bet it would be fun.
zaidf 13y ago
Google Maps on iOS has been destroyed. It is incredible how good solid apps commit suicide. For example, I entered "34th and 6th ave ny,ny" for my end destination. Soon as I submit, it renames it to "34th Street Partnership". Few weeks ago it would rename to some chiropractor's office a full avenue away. Before I upgraded my iOS, I'd come to rely on Maps as a regular part of my life and couldn't live without it. But now it's just a painful experience. This is the algorithm gone extraordinarily wrong. I really wonder if the guys who make decisions to change the UI or functionality of highly rated apps ever take time to really use their own creation. Because if they did, I don't see how they'd continue with their botched modifications to what was once a great app.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- magicalist 13y ago
  The app is fine. Google just really has trouble with 6th ave for some reason. Try it on maps.google.com, it has the same problem ("Avenue of the Americas" almost always works, but who wants to type that? (or call it that?)).
  - zaidf 13y ago
    It worked fine in the previous version. The concept of auto changing street intersections or street address with names of random venues sucks and is inaccurate at so many levels. That it would make it to the product symbolizes an overall failure with the present Maps team.
    - jsnell 13y ago
      That kind of rewriting would be stupid, but of course isn't what's actually happening. In reality there's no match for the geocoding search [34th and 6th ave ny,ny], so it is interpreted as a local search for [34th and] in the vicinity of [6th ave ny, ny]. Why isn't there a match for the geocoding search? It's not because somebody "destroyed Google Maps on iOS", but most likely just due to a switch to a newer geocoding index. These would be updated frequently with new data from all kinds of sources, just like web search won't use a static index but one that changes over time. Why wouldn't this kind of change be noticed when changing to a new set of data? Because it'd be essentially impossible to find all possible changes to geocoding results from a data change, and even less feasible to verify which of the results are correct. So there's always going to be some kind of sampling going on when validating new data or code changes. And with a sensibly sized sample, you're not very likely to be checking a particular intersection in a very large country. These kinds of regressions would have popped in and out during the whole lifetime of Google Maps. Just because you noticed such a change for the first time doesn't mean that they are currently failing when they weren't before.
_delirium 13y ago
I'd recommend moving to one of the OpenStreetMaps apps for offline usage. They allow basic things like the ability to search for points of interest while offline, so you can do things like ask where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is and get a pointer on the map. Google Maps doesn't really provide a proper offline mode with such functionality, and never has. All they do is cache images that they let you zoom/pan, and not even that works properly.
- akent 13y ago
  Which app in particular are you thinking of? All the ones I've tried so far haven't been all that impressive.
  - hnha 13y ago
    osmand, Oruxmaps, mapswithme
Shooti 13y ago
Sponsored locations were already a part of the old Android and iOS apps, so its more accurate to say that they're bringing the ads back to the new design.
abhiv 13y ago
Google Maps on my Android (Galaxy Nexus) phone has now developed an annoying habit of making the keyboard disappear while I'm typing in an address. I type in a couple of letters and the keyboard slides out. I tap again in the input box to bring it back up, type in another letter, and then it slides out again. I haven't been able to figure out a repeatable way to get this to happen, but it seems to have started happening in the last few weeks. Rebooting the phone usually makes it go away, but only for a short while. I haven't seen this weird keyboard disappearing behavior in any other app, so it makes me think it's something specific to Google Maps. It's making the app pretty much unusable. Anyone else seeing this?
- kenrikm 13y ago
  There is a bug in iOS[Redacted] that causes similar behavior.
- kevingadd 13y ago
  I used to hit this a lot in Maps on Android. It would happen whenever the GPS position fix changed; my location would change and it would 'reset' the UI for some reason, hiding the keyboard.
DanTheManPR 13y ago
They seem to be on a crusade to strip useful features out of their Android app.
bane 13y ago
Don't worry, I'm on the beta for the new web google maps and after being impressed with it initially, found it borderline unusable.

by gjm11 13y ago

davidw 13y ago

Don't forget that from one day to the next they also killed terrain mode for maps on Android. That one made me very grumpy.

wpietri 13y ago

My current theory is that this is a simple extortion ploy: After getting me to depend on Android Google Maps, they have replaced it with something unusable. Shortly they will release Google Maps Classic for $49.95/year. I will happily pay that; it's cheaper than the blood pressure medication I'd need to counteract all the rage-inducing misfeatures they've put in the latest version.

1djj12dj0 13y ago
Bullshit. Google does not sell web services to end users.
- illumen 13y ago
  Someone on the internet is wrong!!! (ps. it's you). You can pay Google for services as an end user.
  - andybak 13y ago
    He might have overstated the case but the commentator he is replying to is, actually, talking bullshit.
sidmkp96 13y ago
sheer bullshit u r taking about
- wpietri 13y ago
  If only there were some kind of well-understood cultural phenomenon where people could say hyperbolic or absurd things for the amusement of their fellow humans. It's a shame something like doesn't exist. I bet it would be fun.

zaidf 13y ago

Google Maps on iOS has been destroyed. It is incredible how good solid apps commit suicide. For example, I entered "34th and 6th ave ny,ny" for my end destination. Soon as I submit, it renames it to "34th Street Partnership". Few weeks ago it would rename to some chiropractor's office a full avenue away. Before I upgraded my iOS, I'd come to rely on Maps as a regular part of my life and couldn't live without it. But now it's just a painful experience. This is the algorithm gone extraordinarily wrong. I really wonder if the guys who make decisions to change the UI or functionality of highly rated apps ever take time to really use their own creation. Because if they did, I don't see how they'd continue with their botched modifications to what was once a great app.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
magicalist 13y ago
The app is fine. Google just really has trouble with 6th ave for some reason. Try it on maps.google.com, it has the same problem ("Avenue of the Americas" almost always works, but who wants to type that? (or call it that?)).
- zaidf 13y ago
  It worked fine in the previous version. The concept of auto changing street intersections or street address with names of random venues sucks and is inaccurate at so many levels. That it would make it to the product symbolizes an overall failure with the present Maps team.
  - jsnell 13y ago
    That kind of rewriting would be stupid, but of course isn't what's actually happening. In reality there's no match for the geocoding search [34th and 6th ave ny,ny], so it is interpreted as a local search for [34th and] in the vicinity of [6th ave ny, ny]. Why isn't there a match for the geocoding search? It's not because somebody "destroyed Google Maps on iOS", but most likely just due to a switch to a newer geocoding index. These would be updated frequently with new data from all kinds of sources, just like web search won't use a static index but one that changes over time. Why wouldn't this kind of change be noticed when changing to a new set of data? Because it'd be essentially impossible to find all possible changes to geocoding results from a data change, and even less feasible to verify which of the results are correct. So there's always going to be some kind of sampling going on when validating new data or code changes. And with a sensibly sized sample, you're not very likely to be checking a particular intersection in a very large country. These kinds of regressions would have popped in and out during the whole lifetime of Google Maps. Just because you noticed such a change for the first time doesn't mean that they are currently failing when they weren't before.

_delirium 13y ago

I'd recommend moving to one of the OpenStreetMaps apps for offline usage. They allow basic things like the ability to search for points of interest while offline, so you can do things like ask where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is and get a pointer on the map. Google Maps doesn't really provide a proper offline mode with such functionality, and never has. All they do is cache images that they let you zoom/pan, and not even that works properly.

akent 13y ago
Which app in particular are you thinking of? All the ones I've tried so far haven't been all that impressive.
- hnha 13y ago
  osmand, Oruxmaps, mapswithme

Shooti 13y ago

Sponsored locations were already a part of the old Android and iOS apps, so its more accurate to say that they're bringing the ads back to the new design.

abhiv 13y ago

Google Maps on my Android (Galaxy Nexus) phone has now developed an annoying habit of making the keyboard disappear while I'm typing in an address. I type in a couple of letters and the keyboard slides out. I tap again in the input box to bring it back up, type in another letter, and then it slides out again. I haven't been able to figure out a repeatable way to get this to happen, but it seems to have started happening in the last few weeks. Rebooting the phone usually makes it go away, but only for a short while. I haven't seen this weird keyboard disappearing behavior in any other app, so it makes me think it's something specific to Google Maps. It's making the app pretty much unusable. Anyone else seeing this?

kenrikm 13y ago
There is a bug in iOS[Redacted] that causes similar behavior.
kevingadd 13y ago
I used to hit this a lot in Maps on Android. It would happen whenever the GPS position fix changed; my location would change and it would 'reset' the UI for some reason, hiding the keyboard.

DanTheManPR 13y ago

They seem to be on a crusade to strip useful features out of their Android app.

bane 13y ago

Don't worry, I'm on the beta for the new web google maps and after being impressed with it initially, found it borderline unusable.