Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[J N Winkler]

Kind of depressing to go through my timeline and see that most of my trips are just to work and back.  Then again, glad I have some sort of proof of where I am if I'm ever falsely accused of a crime.

Where is this timeline?  I don't think I have ever seen it.  (I use a separate GPS recording app on my phone that allows me to segment travel records by vehicle or mode used.)

[slorydn1]

Kind of depressing to go through my timeline and see that most of my trips are just to work and back.  Then again, glad I have some sort of proof of where I am if I'm ever falsely accused of a crime.

Where is this timeline?  I don't think I have ever seen it.  (I use a separate GPS recording app on my phone that allows me to segment travel records by vehicle or mode used.)

Click on the symbol (or picture) at the upper right hand corner that leads to your google account, click on "Your personal info" under "Personal Info and Privacy", scroll down to "Timeline In Google Maps" and click on "See the places you've been".

Your phone has been tattling on you and you haven't even been aware of it, lol.

[jakeroot]

Never seen this before. Definitely didn't know they were following me. But I'm not really surprised. Not angry either. I think it's pretty cool, actually.

EDIT: Noticed there seemed to be a lot of gaps. They have data from way back in 2013 when I visited family in Colorado, but nothing on my jaunt north to Edmonton two summers ago. Then, it hit me: it wasn't tracking me when I had an iPhone. Only when I've had Android phones was it following me. Obviously not surprising given who created Android, but interesting discovery nonetheless.

[slorydn1]

Never seen this before. Definitely didn't know they were following me. But I'm not really surprised. Not angry either. I think it's pretty cool, actually.

EDIT: Noticed there seemed to be a lot of gaps. They have data from way back in 2013 when I visited family in Colorado, but nothing on my jaunt north to Edmonton two summers ago. Then, it hit me: it wasn't tracking me when I had an iPhone. Only when I've had Android phones was it following me. Obviously not surprising given who created Android, but interesting discovery nonetheless.

Yeah it was a shock to me as well when I first found it a year or so ago but it doesn't bother me either. If it had, I would have shut it off.

Actually, I find that it's not exactly accurate. If I pull up one of my road trip dates and match it up with the GPS track I uploaded from my Garmin to the BaseCamp program the overall look zoomed out seems accurate enough but when I zoom in to certain areas I'll note that it seems to jump from one point to another point in a straight line, sometimes missing places where I jumped off for gas (etc). It still is pretty cool though, I'm not complaining either way.

[J N Winkler]

Click on the symbol (or picture) at the upper right hand corner that leads to your google account, click on "Your personal info" under "Personal Info and Privacy", scroll down to "Timeline In Google Maps" and click on "See the places you've been".

Your phone has been tattling on you and you haven't even been aware of it, lol.

Thanks for the explanation.  When I follow that breadcrumb trail on my phone, I get a dialog that asks me to turn on Location History.  Of course, Google cannot give me a credible assurance that it is not tracking the movements of my phone when Location History is turned off.

Actually, I find that it's not exactly accurate. If I pull up one of my road trip dates and match it up with the GPS track I uploaded from my Garmin to the BaseCamp program the overall look zoomed out seems accurate enough but when I zoom in to certain areas I'll note that it seems to jump from one point to another point in a straight line, sometimes missing places where I jumped off for gas (etc). It still is pretty cool though, I'm not complaining either way.

Since the main purpose of Google's location tracking appears to be targeted advertising, I suspect a generic set of GPS recording parameters is used that is just precise enough to detect close proximity to mapped businesses.  For my own GPS logs, I use a set of parameters (10 m distance filter, 50 m accuracy filter, 60 sec to match accuracy filter, 120 sec to obtain fix) that keeps me "within the curbs" > 99% of the time and produces tracks that are consistently 2% longer than odometer mileage (in a 2005 Toyota Camry V6 XLE with tire pressures maintained at label + 4 PSI) regardless of distance travelled, but with a lot of random corner-cutting in open areas and a lot of choppiness in downtown areas with tall buildings.  However, that translates to about 1.5 MB (GPX format) per 100 miles.

One reason I keep location history turned off is that I do not want targeted advertising to be visible that conflicts with how I choose to present myself to the world.  For example, I live in a city that is Facebook-notorious for having an adult bookstore next door to a church (the two are on Broadway/US 81 just within the southern Wichita city limits), so if I were a regular churchgoer and that was my church, in principle anyone could walk past my computer and see porn ads.

[freebrickproductions]

Anyone else been having issues with getting Street View to load? Here's a video from a user on a forum I help run highlighting this issue:

I'm also having issues with moving around. It seems like Google will refuse to let me move to certain spots where there are images for no reason at random. Anyone else having that issue?

[Max Rockatansky]

Anyone else been having issues with getting Street View to load? Here's a video from a user on a forum I help run highlighting this issue:

I'm also having issues with moving around. It seems like Google will refuse to let me move to certain spots where there are images for no reason at random. Anyone else having that issue?

I had the same problem last night and this morning.  It went away around mid-day and hasn't been a problem since.

[jakeroot]

Anyone else been having issues with getting Street View to load?

I've had some black-screen and failure-to-render issues, but they almost always fix themselves when I click around in the small map in the bottom left, or refresh. Sometimes, it will lock up on me entirely, and I have to refresh to get it to work again properly. Very strange issues, but relatively uncommon in my experience, so it doesn't bug me much.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

It also happened to me using the .es mirror. No longer now, as I'm doing another 'roadtrip' and runs fine.

[vdeane]

I've been having this problem the past couple days.

[Lyon Wonder]

state borders are now invisible in google maps.

[Eth]

state borders are now invisible in google maps.

I had that problem earlier today; it was resolved with a quick stab of the refresh button.

[CtrlAltDel]

state borders are now invisible in google maps.

I had that problem earlier today; it was resolved with a quick stab of the refresh button.

I tried that but it didn't work. It's fine now though. Just for the record, here's what it looked like:

[Sykotyk]

Google has had a known history of experimenting with search algorithms at the same time. So, one person gets one result, another gets another. And they can switch back and forth for the same user. So, one day you'll see an experimental form, and a few days later back to 'normal'. As they determine whether to change full time or not.

[20160805]

The feature I don't understand, but rather enjoy, is that when I'm in Google Street View on my tablet, there has been an odometer thing that pops up after a little while.  It first popped up on 9 August and originally I thought it was for the Olympics, but it didn't go away even after the Paralympics ended.  I've now put on over 4,600 km since the introduction of the feature.

Sometimes, annoyingly, the blue line on the road just dead ends in the middle of nowhere, even though the road physically continues and I'm certain the Google car has gone past that point.  This seems to happen more often on freeways and is why most of my GSV driving is in town and on back roads (not to mention that I find cities more interesting anyway).

Can anyone explain either of these?

[Buck87]

I wish the measure distance tool was available in lite mode.  The only reason I ever switch from lite mode to the laggy piece of shit full mode is to use that tool, and then I quickly switch back.

[kphoger]

Click on the symbol (or picture) at the upper right hand corner that leads to your google account, click on "Your personal info" under "Personal Info and Privacy", scroll down to "Timeline In Google Maps" and click on "See the places you've been".

Your phone has been tattling on you and you haven't even been aware of it, lol.

Thanks for the explanation.  When I follow that breadcrumb trail on my phone, I get a dialog that asks me to turn on Location History.  Of course, Google cannot give me a credible assurance that it is not tracking the movements of my phone when Location History is turned off.

Same here.  I've never enabled my phone's location thingy.

[F350]

I saved a ton of notes/places I wanted to visit on google maps many years ago. Seems like I lost them even though I saved them with my gmail account. I've been itching to access them, any tips?

[D-Dey65]

I've had some black-screen and failure-to-render issues, but they almost always fix themselves when I click around in the small map in the bottom left, or refresh. Sometimes, it will lock up on me entirely, and I have to refresh to get it to work again properly. Very strange issues, but relatively uncommon in my experience, so it doesn't bug me much.

I've never tried refreshing it, but I doubt it'll work for me. I often try to point to one road or one off-ramp, and wind up somewhere other than where I want it to point. A most recent example is southbound Exit 143B on I-95 in Virginia. When I try to point to that ramp, it either goes to the main road or the west to south on ramp from VSR 610. I really want to see why there's a split at the end of that off-ramp.

[jeffandnicole]

I've had some black-screen and failure-to-render issues, but they almost always fix themselves when I click around in the small map in the bottom left, or refresh. Sometimes, it will lock up on me entirely, and I have to refresh to get it to work again properly. Very strange issues, but relatively uncommon in my experience, so it doesn't bug me much.

I've never tried refreshing it, but I doubt it'll work for me. I often try to point to one road or one off-ramp, and wind up somewhere other than where I want it to point. A most recent example is southbound Exit 143B on I-95 in Virginia. When I try to point to that ramp, it either goes to the main road or the west to south on ramp from VSR 610. I really want to see why there's a split at the end of that off-ramp.

Switching to aerial view appears to answer that question with ease: The split to the left allows traffic to turn right, then access the two left turn lanes for Salisbury Drive.  https://goo.gl/maps/qApVDQVR19m  The turn lanes are separated from the thru lanes via a low-concrete barrier.

[inkyatari]

I was  traveling to Wisconsin over the weekend, and wanted to stop at Kettle  Moraine State Forest - South Unit on my way to my destination, and I could not find it on the map anywhere until I zoomed in very tight, and even then, it only showed about 20% of the forest, and not the area near the headquarters.

[Roadgeekteen]

Why do you it sucks? Have not noticed anything different. Unless it was updated again.

[intelati49]

Check the date. This is from 2014

https://maps.googleblog.com/2014/02/thank-you-and-welcome-to-new-google-maps.html

This is the original google maps. (Which honestly is still my favorite. For some reason I associate Maps with lag nowadays)


Oh, and this thread is just for general complaints/missing features of the new google maps. (Which is fair enough for me)

[formulanone]

Why do you it sucks? Have not noticed anything different. Unless it was updated again.

I know you're new here, but please read through the entire thread before posting. Also, it's okay to read and not post. Post Quality > Post Quantity. 

I saved a ton of notes/places I wanted to visit on google maps many years ago. Seems like I lost them even though I saved them with my gmail account. I've been itching to access them, any tips?

Make sure you log in with the same Google Account login data.

That said, I like that they now allow you to mark a place with your own "label"...handy when you've spotted something in Street View (or real life) for later use.

A recent annoyance is when you search hotels *or* restaurants in an area (something I do when booking work reservations), whereby it shows you restaurants, grocery stores, bodegas, convenience stores, hotels, motels, and hostels...just in case. Sure, give me a side of Attention Deficit Disorder with that!

[hotdogPi]

I know you're new here, but please read through the entire thread before posting. Also, it's okay to read and not post. Post Quality > Post Quantity. 

24 pages?

Do you expect someone to read the entire 100+ pages of Erroneous Road Signs or Worst of Road Signs, or 50+ pages of "New Jersey Turnpike", "Florida", or "Update on I-69 Extension in Indiana" just before that person is allowed to post?