9 ms·

Yeah I hear ya. Whoever guided this Titanic into the iceberg...well he ain't no Steve Jobs. That's for sure. It's hard to overstate how just plain awful Google

Yeah I hear ya. Whoever guided this Titanic into the iceberg...well he ain't no Steve Jobs. That's for sure. It's hard to overstate how just plain awful Google Maps is now. It's amazing, in a way. I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. Manifestly obviously just shit awful. To observe this one only needs a few seconds with Google Maps. A few minutes cements it. Yet here we are...

Silhouette 12y ago
I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. That one's easy. It turns out that roles like management and marketing and customer support are actually important for developing good products, but the culture at "engineer"-led organisations doesn't always acknowledge or respect that.
masterleep 12y ago
Pegman sealed the deal.
- Serow225 12y ago
  At least they listened to the outcry and brought them back!
Shish2k 12y ago
> I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. It doesn't matter how many smart engineers and ux designers can see the obvious, if one person from upper management can't :( (See also: G+ real names policy)
- fragsworth 12y ago
  My guess is the original person leading the Google Maps project was very, very competent, and they either moved to another project or quit - and got replaced by someone really awful. I think it happened at some point pre-2013, because Maps was great until then, and has been in decline ever since.
  - joel_perl_prog 12y ago
    Yeah, I experienced a similar timeline. That's when the Maps API stopped working for the Java app on my feature phone, roughly. Then the cascade or rot hit the PC / tablet experience, piece by piece, until it was just completely terrible. Which brings us to today. =)
kevrone 12y ago
I've been bitching and moaning about the new g-maps for so long! And this thread makes me feel...vindicated? I guess? Too bad I'm still stuck with it. The funny thing is that it's possible the UI could have been screwed while keeping the search stable, but as the article points out, the search is killing me. It's Apple Maps-ish in a way. I mean, if I'm zoomed in to a particular level and I do a search, there's a good bet that I'm only interested in results within those bounds, right? I'm not crazy to want that am I?
- shyn3 12y ago
  Click on the ? at the bottom right, then select Return to old Google maps lastly click on the classic yellow ribbon which appears at the top asking to remember your preference. 6 more months of classic maps then they will probably phase it out, sadly.
  - brazzy 12y ago
    THANK YOUUU!!!
  - dennisgorelik 12y ago
    Is there a way to switch to classic view permanently? Every time I start Google Maps again - it starts with crippled version. Update: I just noticed that after switching to Classic, Google Maps is asking me if I want to remember that choice permanently. The question is not prominent enough though.
    - shyn3 12y ago
      They do this with every service/option they don't want you to use. For example, if you enable delay e-mail send in gMail, you get a tiny pop-up to undo your message... I guess you just have to learn to always look at the top middle for Google's hidden/minimally displayed functions.
- tammer 12y ago
  As crazy as it sounds, I did some back-and-forth tests to find things nearby and I got the same or more relavent results from Apple Maps. I switched over and the service has gotten a lot better from where they were at launch. Google Maps has gotten significantly worse.
hindsightbias 12y ago
The product is becoming the Windows ME of Google.

Silhouette 12y ago

I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. That one's easy. It turns out that roles like management and marketing and customer support are actually important for developing good products, but the culture at "engineer"-led organisations doesn't always acknowledge or respect that.

masterleep 12y ago

Pegman sealed the deal.

Serow225 12y ago
At least they listened to the outcry and brought them back!

Shish2k 12y ago

> I literally cannot understand how so many smart people can, all together, fail to observe the obvious. It doesn't matter how many smart engineers and ux designers can see the obvious, if one person from upper management can't :( (See also: G+ real names policy)

fragsworth 12y ago
My guess is the original person leading the Google Maps project was very, very competent, and they either moved to another project or quit - and got replaced by someone really awful. I think it happened at some point pre-2013, because Maps was great until then, and has been in decline ever since.
- joel_perl_prog 12y ago
  Yeah, I experienced a similar timeline. That's when the Maps API stopped working for the Java app on my feature phone, roughly. Then the cascade or rot hit the PC / tablet experience, piece by piece, until it was just completely terrible. Which brings us to today. =)

kevrone 12y ago

I've been bitching and moaning about the new g-maps for so long! And this thread makes me feel...vindicated? I guess? Too bad I'm still stuck with it. The funny thing is that it's possible the UI could have been screwed while keeping the search stable, but as the article points out, the search is killing me. It's Apple Maps-ish in a way. I mean, if I'm zoomed in to a particular level and I do a search, there's a good bet that I'm only interested in results within those bounds, right? I'm not crazy to want that am I?

shyn3 12y ago
Click on the ? at the bottom right, then select Return to old Google maps lastly click on the classic yellow ribbon which appears at the top asking to remember your preference. 6 more months of classic maps then they will probably phase it out, sadly.
- brazzy 12y ago
  THANK YOUUU!!!
- dennisgorelik 12y ago
  Is there a way to switch to classic view permanently? Every time I start Google Maps again - it starts with crippled version. Update: I just noticed that after switching to Classic, Google Maps is asking me if I want to remember that choice permanently. The question is not prominent enough though.
  - shyn3 12y ago
    They do this with every service/option they don't want you to use. For example, if you enable delay e-mail send in gMail, you get a tiny pop-up to undo your message... I guess you just have to learn to always look at the top middle for Google's hidden/minimally displayed functions.
tammer 12y ago
As crazy as it sounds, I did some back-and-forth tests to find things nearby and I got the same or more relavent results from Apple Maps. I switched over and the service has gotten a lot better from where they were at launch. Google Maps has gotten significantly worse.

hindsightbias 12y ago

The product is becoming the Windows ME of Google.