Hacker News Reader

Comment by tjbiddle | Hacker News Reader

My biggest gripe is trying to read road names.

So many times I'll see a road name, and I start to zoom in - only to have it now disappear - to then zoom out again and it doesn't show at all - to zoom in again and then 50/50 I can see it.

Drives me nuts.

Where I'm living (Indonesia) most people reference parts of town by the major road nearby. I try to learn where the hell I am in a certain new locale by looking at the road name (They aren't often seen on physical signs, either) and it takes me forever to find it. Doesn't help that it's a regular practice that the road name changes after some time, even though it's the same road.

View on HN

I zoom in so far the only thing visible on the map is a stretch of the road I’m interested in and the road name still doesn’t show. As a programmer I cannot fathom how they could have a bug like this year after year.

You've never had a bug stick around as not prioritized for year after year? Just wait, you will :)

Yes but I don’t have a zillion dollar dev budget.

They probably changed its status from "Bug" to "Feature" ...

Yep, I zoom in on a road name all the time in order to make it large enough to read... only to find it disappear (or even more bizarre, change languages).

Aside from that, it's a little wild to think that after using it for 15 years, Google Maps still prominently features 'Gas' and 'Hotels' buttons on my screen even though I'm looking at a map of the 5km directly around my home and I don't own a car.

Fuck these guys, I'm going to download OpenStreetMaps and give it a whirl tonight

Remember that OSM is just the map, not a piece of software to access it. Organic Maps is one of the most popular phone apps for that.

Same problem here. In the UK, Maps often shows the names of every road but the one you're on! The only way to show the missing name is by zooming to the max, very awkward.

Or it shows the road number and not the name.

Yes, another frustration.

I came up with an approach for placing labels where each gets a min zoom to show up at such that there are no collisions and always appears beyond that. Personally I like the feel of it a lot better, but the downside is that at a given zoom labels are less dense than if they could show/hide to fill in empty spaces. Also, it makes it impossible to dynamically style the labels, or rotate/tilt.

Demo: https://msbarry.github.io/maplibre-minzoom-demo/world

Ah yes. I often use Maps when I have a rough idea where to go, but I just need to commit the street names of a few turns to memory. Finding those names indeed tends to be a frustrating experience.

You could ask for directions and look at the steps.

That some times works, but the references I'm interested in aren't always the one directly on the route. For instance, the name of the street just before the one you need to turn into can be helpful to remember. Also, if it's a list of directions I no longer have the context of the actual map, so it's a subpar solution regardless.

Feels like they don't want you reading the road names, and use the navigation system instead.

That happens for businesses too, it's maddening!

Yeah, I zoom in all the way to a building I know is a business to look up opening times etc, but the name just doesn't appear. I don't get it.

Now they can sell advertising to businesses and guarantee improved CTR.

The same with contour line elevations. They are unreadably small, and when zooming in enough they just disappear. Hate it.

Google has contour lines ? What i really hate on google maps is that you have no idea if a city is on a plane or on the top of a mountain.

there is a Terrain layer if you want to see the relief

Same problem with elevation markings on terrain layer.

Reminds me of navigating with maps and sometimes despite that stretch of road having a local name, they use the route number, so instead of "Turn left on Happy Street" it is "Turn left on Rte. 401"

Really!? I see the opposite problem. https://shot.3e.org/ss-20231124_081012.png

Drop a pin. It sucks. I know.

This is one of those comments I'll think about hundreds of times, followed by remembering how dumb I feel right now, that this has never occurred to me. Thanks for the tip.

Add engagement intensified. Promotion unlocked.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com