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I, too find the new maps occasionally frustrating (although I prefer it to the old version. To answer other's questions. It's a game of "who moved my cheese" i

I, too find the new maps occasionally frustrating (although I prefer it to the old version. To answer other's questions. It's a game of "who moved my cheese" in which Google changes the way some feature works (for example - creating a link to a location), and when I try to find out how to do it "the new way", I only get results for "the old way". I just discovered recently that you can show the sidebar (with the "Print" and "Link" buttons) in new maps by clicking the gear icon and select "My Places" in the lower right corner of the screen. This is non-obvious behavior. Am I stupid? Perhaps. Can a case be made for the fact that moving navigational elements is bad UX? I think so.

nandhp 13y ago
I do agree that the new maps are sometimes frustrating. However, I feel the need to point out two things with respect to your particular objections to it. 1. "Gear > My Places" appears to do basically the same thing as "Help > Return to Classic Google Maps", which has a significantly more obvious name. 2. In the new Google Maps, the Print and Link buttons are mostly redundant. If you want to print the map, use your browser's Print command. In some situations (e.g. step-by-step directions) there is a print button on the Google Maps button-bar (under Google's global navigation) which offers more options (e.g. print with maps or print text only). As to making links to things, there's a perfectly good URL in the address bar. If that isn't good enough (it's really long, so maybe you want a short URL), you can do "Gear > Share and embed map". Yes, this really ought to be named "Share or embed map", since those are actually separate features.
- chadgeidel 13y ago
  Thanks, but the example I listed (wanting to link to a specific location, not printing) was just that - an example. I find that there are many things that IMHO should be "obvious" yet there is no obvious way to do them. This is my primary frustration. Googling "how to do X" results in the old way which no longer works. This is my secondary frustration.
  - _delirium 13y ago
    > Googling "how to do X" results in the old way which no longer works. This is my secondary frustration. For 3rd-party posts there's not much Google can do about this (besides avoiding major UI changes), but I'm often frustrated by finding the wild-goose-chase obsolete information actually located on google.com, in un-updated help pages. One thing they could do to at least make it easier for people to recognize that is to date help pages with the last-updated date, so I can tell at a glance whether a given page is from 2014 or 2010.

nandhp 13y ago

I do agree that the new maps are sometimes frustrating. However, I feel the need to point out two things with respect to your particular objections to it. 1. "Gear > My Places" appears to do basically the same thing as "Help > Return to Classic Google Maps", which has a significantly more obvious name. 2. In the new Google Maps, the Print and Link buttons are mostly redundant. If you want to print the map, use your browser's Print command. In some situations (e.g. step-by-step directions) there is a print button on the Google Maps button-bar (under Google's global navigation) which offers more options (e.g. print with maps or print text only). As to making links to things, there's a perfectly good URL in the address bar. If that isn't good enough (it's really long, so maybe you want a short URL), you can do "Gear > Share and embed map". Yes, this really ought to be named "Share or embed map", since those are actually separate features.

chadgeidel 13y ago
Thanks, but the example I listed (wanting to link to a specific location, not printing) was just that - an example. I find that there are many things that IMHO should be "obvious" yet there is no obvious way to do them. This is my primary frustration. Googling "how to do X" results in the old way which no longer works. This is my secondary frustration.
- _delirium 13y ago
  > Googling "how to do X" results in the old way which no longer works. This is my secondary frustration. For 3rd-party posts there's not much Google can do about this (besides avoiding major UI changes), but I'm often frustrated by finding the wild-goose-chase obsolete information actually located on google.com, in un-updated help pages. One thing they could do to at least make it easier for people to recognize that is to date help pages with the last-updated date, so I can tell at a glance whether a given page is from 2014 or 2010.