Edit: In fact, I just confirmed it now. Opened up Google Maps and started looking at small roads. For the third road I checked, Maps wouldn't show a name no matter how far I zoomed in, and I had to drag the view as described above.
Note that none of the larger roads leading to the roundabout at the top-left is named, while some (but not all) smaller streets names are here. Instead you have the "D509" label copy/pasted haphazardly but that's not the actual name of the boulevard that would be used on a post address so it's of very limited use (and even leaving those labels in there's plenty of room to add the actual street name).
Here's Open Street Map for the same map at a similar zoom level: https://svkt.org/~simias/up/20191219-175553_map-osm.png
OSM doesn't have all the bells and whistles of GMaps, but as far as the map itself it's vastly superior IMO.
Yes he does. You touch anything and state is erased. Don't know exactly which one of the search results you want to go to? Tough shit, the interface works against you.
And still, getting directions used to be simpler. Now you have to decipher unlabeled hieroglyphs, and the interface keeps changing. You can't even get used to it. You are constantly being nudged to do shit that is not what you really want to do, such as "exploring your neighborhood".
> And I've never had an issue with Google maps hiding street names when there was ample room to show them, but if you're more than a little zoomed out, there isn't that room. Showing only major roads is a decent trade off, as is the mouse scroll wheel for zoom in/out.
Luck you, I guess. I have this problem all the time. A better trade off: if I searched for "Market Street", show that label! That would be a start. And frequently labels aren't shown even when there is plenty of space.
Oh, and why not show the scale of the map by default? Is this also a "power user" feature? I thought it was a crucial piece of information when reading a map...
> Or maybe it's my own failure of imagination: how would you improve in this particular area?
Easy. Revert to the interface circa 2010. It had none of the above problems.
I should be able to get directions without having the GPS. If the GPS is lost, I really need those street names, NOW, without touching my phone.