I think every major update to Google maps in the last decade or so has made it worse. I expect no different with this one.
I'd agree in the last 4-5 years the changes have been worse. Post-COVID they seem to have focused on making a lot of negative changes by stuffing it with too many ads, worse color schemes and a lot of "features" that are half baked to try and capture users and send them to paying businesses on the platform
Interestingly, that list is mostly what I had in mind when I said that maps was getting worse.
I suppose that it entirely depends on what you want out of a map application. For me, all that stuff just gets in my way. That you think those things are great tells me that maps is no longer aiming to solve the problems that I want solved, and is addressing other problems instead.
That's not saying Google Maps is bad or wrong, just that it's a different product now, and one that isn't going to provide what I want.
So I should just pipe down. I'm not the target demographic anymore. I just need to move on to a different application and be done with it.
The problems most people have are finding places and ways to get to those places. All the changes I outlined, including continuing improvements to their directions, served that purpose for quite a while. Reviews, the commercial areas highlighting and local guides helps find shopping and food spots and I used this extensively during multiple trips with great success. Same with the transit directions and landmarks highlighting and I fail to see any reason how these made maps worse. I cannot possibly think of why adding bus and rail timings made maps worse. They are incredible features. Things I didn't originally include are also traffic conditions and suggesting routes based on that by factoring in timing which is somewhat hit or miss but still leaning towards hit in my experience
I can point specifically to things like their new Business Messaging, the ramped up difficulty to contributions and reducing them primarily to photos and reviews, and the new experimental color schemes as decidedly worse changes
My problem is very basic: I want to see an uncluttered map, to be able to search for a particular address or street and be shown it on that map, and to get driving directions.
The driving directions are OK, but the uncluttered map isn't a thing anymore. Now, the map is obscured with with quick-search buttons, that pull-up thing showing "places of interest" at the bottom, and is populated with irrelevant (to me) pins showing random businesses.
It all just makes actually using the thing as a map more difficult.
> The problems most people have are finding places
Fair enough. That's why I say that Google Maps is not aiming at people like me. I want basic navigation, in a way that is as friction-free as possible. I also have zero interest in things like reviews, local guides, and that kind of thing.
Again, I'm not saying that what you want isn't important, or even that what you want isn't what most people want. It's just not what I want, and the presence of those things makes using the app for my use case more difficult.
So I just need a different product that is aimed more at my needs.
Here's a talk that google gave on improvements happening in Maps 10 years ago: https://youtu.be/HrLyZ24UcRE?si=t0J0FToLO5fBsdA7
It feels like when people say "they used to make cars better in the 1950s; now those were REAL cars"
I honestly don't think it's that at all. It's that google maps has gotten worse at addressing my particular use case.
>I think every major update to Google maps in the last decade or so has made it worse. I expect no different with this one.
I just hold our community to higher standards.
You know offline maps came out in 2015? Because I suppose that wasn’t in your rubric for what’s good and not.
And, of course, Android Auto.
But for discovery? When I look around my neighborhood, I see Circle K, Walgreens, and Wendy's, all with their colorful logos. I don't know for sure, but now it feels like a yellow pages of advertised businesses where it used to be a map.
When I use OSM or Google Earth, I see the parks and street names. I can search for Wendy's if I want that, but it's not promoted info.