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Comment by gdulli | Hacker News Reader

I've seen nothing to convince me that I should pay attention to Google's idea about what makes a good workplace. The more Google reaches, the less of my engagement they've kept. At this point Google has reverted to being nothing more than a search engine for me. And a couple other services I use grudgingly or unenthusiastically.

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You've seen nothing, what about all the billion dollars? "Google Inc. Races Apple To $1 Trillion Valuation"... And what about Translation, and Google Drive, I love it. Google Maps, too. It changed the world. Maybe too much? I think we're biased against them, from the power they hold. We feel subservient from the lack of alternatives, like for governments. Science is their private army. The low hanging fruits have been picked. They were first, they hire the best, they'll remain the best... Maybe, it makes us reflect that we chose this, capitalism, man against man, and when we pay the price, there comes the cognitive dissonance, that it's too much both good and bad.

The most amazing service after their search engine has been Google Photos. The way their deep neural net can identify objects in images is going to be unmatched for a long time to come.

I liked Mail and Maps once, but feel like after endless redesigns they got less useful, less responsive, less straightforward to use, etc.

Have you found a maps replacement that you like?

I've switched over to using Here Maps[1]. It's fast and doesn't hide controls, unlike the new Google Maps, and you can get fully offline directions in its app by downloading map sets ahead of time.

[1] here.com

No. But I've lived in the same area for a while and know how to get around so it doesn't come up much. I use a dedicated GPS device in my car when I need it and prefer that to a smartphone app.

I feel the same way, I moved to fastmail.com about a year and a half ago and I'm perfectly happy with it.

have you tried maps in lite mode?

maps.google.com/?force=lite

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