Most annoying thing for me is being unable to filter businesses out of my search results. I cannot tell you how many times I have been looking for coffee shops and had to scroll past dozens of gas stations that sell coffee. It’s also a problem that I can’t filter out fast food or massive chains. Yes Starbucks is a coffee shop, but if I want something small or local I’m shit out of luck on Google maps because they dominate my results.
This is such a simple feature for a SEARCH ENGINE COMPANY to implement but I’m sure they don’t want to risk upsetting potential ad revenue by allowing users to filter out the advertisers business.
Hmm, I just tried a route and it looks like you’re right, it draws it out but doesn’t give you turn by turn. I could have sworn it does when I’m actually following it, but maybe not. I’ll have to actually test it.
I find it interesting that many of these complaints essentially boil down to: listen, I know you have vast amounts of data about who I am as a person, so why aren’t you using this data effectively?
I’m shocked the auto zoom function isn’t mentioned. I am zoomed into the area where I am. I search for something. The app zooms out to show me results from places literal hours away… Sometimes on different continents. I’m annoyed, I zoom back in to where I was, click on a result, and it zooms out AGAIN. WTF?
I haven’t experienced that particular issue, but it sounds very frustrating. Have you put in a big report with them? It sounds like something unintentional that they can correct
Idk...the article starts with talking about the history of Google Maps, then talks about Apple's Maps, and then complains pretty much at what looks like desktop features based off the snapshot in the article. Maybe the setup is different on iOS vs Android?
When I use Google Maps in my car, it doesn't pop up all these different places...it asks me to input a destination, and then it gives directions. Granted, I don't use it to include walking or other forms of transportation. The CarPlay interface has options to find gas stations, hotels, restaurants, etc., yet it doesn't clutter the display with those when I'm in transit.
I'm in agreement that the desktop version has a lot of clutter, no doubt. As far as my experience, the mobile app doesn't have a lot of issues where I use it the most.
I’m certainly seeing the same issues on my android that the author writes about. Especially when you’re just browsing and haven’t keyed in a destination.
My biggest gripe is that it can’t handle multi part trips with turn by turn directions. By that I mean - let’s say I want to go across town to my destination and that involves using the subway that I need to walk to. For some reason Maps doesn’t give you turn by turn walking directions to the subway part, but will show you the map with your location to the subway then to destination. You have to start and stop turn by turn directions to each part separately. That’s such a pain in the butt and is nonsensical.
I’d love to see a video of it working. As far as I know, there is no way to do so. You cannot plan a trip that has public transportation and have it give you turn by turn walking directions to the pickup point, have it automatically turn off those turn by turn directions when you’re on the public transport, then automatically turn the turn by turn walking dirrections back on when you’re off the transport.
It simply shows you the overhead map and tells you to walk to the transportation. It does not allow you to see turn by turn directions to the location when you’ve got a mixed mode of transport (walking and pubic transport).
in general i'm baffled by most UX changes google pushes to their products. it just makes no sense to me, even if we're being generous with a profits-first perspective
you like that super convenient 1-click "remove" button on your youtube "watch later" list? let's make that a 2-click action by putting it under a dot menu with no other options in there
I think it’s change for the sake of change. The same reason why grocery stores redo their layout every couple of years. They want to make things appear ‘new’ while also keeping you on your toes in the hopes that you’ll buy more product.
They’ve been doing this for years now with Android. The biggest changes are always with icons and menu layouts now that they ran out of innovative ideas.
Grocery stores are actually a bit more sinister than that, they reorganize things periodically so people have to spend more time walking around the store and can impulse buy more. They are getting wiser though, they tend to do it more sectionally rather than the whole store so people don’t get as fed up.
Oh God, I swear our local supermarket moves the fresh fish every three weeks. It’s always the fish and it just fills me with rage. I don’t want to do a meter by meter search for a chunk of salmon while my picky children are whining and chewing on my kneecaps.
It’s a steaming pile of garbage. When I click “maps” I’m expecting a map to open up. With google maps I’m faced with all kinds of menus and shit I never asked for that I need to start clicking away to uncover the map underneath.
Every single one of their apps just screams “consumption” and that’s it. Gas, coffee, restaurant, hotels, groceries. These things are all great when I’m traveling but should be 1 menu deep not splattered across the first screen. It’s just clutter and it’s unattractive.
Unless there is another app that will give me directions to multiple locations and either allow me to arrange those addresses or automatically arrange the addresses in the shortest distance to drive, I'll be sticking to Google Maps unfortunately. It has its limitations, but I honestly don't know of another app that can do this.
Yet for the moment, Waze and Google Maps remain separate products with different capabilities. Waze still seems to be the best for real time information while driving a car, though it has declined some, and I’m surprised Google hasn’t killed it.
Waze still seems to be the best for real time information while driving a car
And yet the moment I find an alternative that works with Android Auto, I’m dropping Waze too. I try my best to actively avoid Google’s shit these days.
And yes, for the pedantic, I know Android Auto is Google’s… If there was an alternative I’d take that too.
That has definitely been rumored and would be consistent with what I think we’ve all come to expect from Google. It doesn’t seem to be announced yet though, and Waze recently expanded to support built-in infotainment systems.
OsmAnd will do that. If you edit the destinations you can manually specify their order. Click sort there and choose door-to-door to get the most efficient routing.
The app takes some getting used to, but it works very well, and can act as a front-end for contributing to OpenStreetsMap.
It’s based on Open Street Map and sadly you need to know the location you want to go to (without needing to enter a door # I mean) in many cases because it relies on people entering the information on the map.
The version on my S5 is a quarter the size of the version on my XCover. Both give the same directions. The app ballooned to 4x the size for ads and features I have literally never used on the phone like street view and "explore".
The version on my near decade old phone is also snappier and uses less data because it isn't background loading a bunch of ads for me to tune out.