Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[Roadrunner75]

....
The Google Maps app is more like the Safari browser version I'm used to.  However, I discovered that I can drop a pin on any road, and then click on the location box to access GSV (unlike Safari which only lets you click a named location).  Unfortunately, it requires a couple of steps, and I don't have the little map available as an inset to see where I'm at while in GSV.  I prefer to see them both as with on the PC to see my direction.  I don't understand why it is so hard for Google to just have the Pegman always displayed in a corner like the PC browser version, so that I can click to see what GSV is available. 

I had no idea you could do that! Thanks for the info. I just tried it around the corner from our house and it took me a minute to understand what I needed to do, but sure enough, when I figured it out, there was my RX-7.

For viewing a single location, that's probably easier than the Earth app, and it uses fewer system resources. Thanks for explaining. I still don't see a way to get a Street View link for use here on the forum, though.

Update:  GSV via the Google Maps app on the Ipad isn't actually that bad.  Nowhere near the PC (via browser), but I've gotten used to it and I can toggle between maps and GSV pretty quickly now.  Didn't see the Street View web link yet though, as also noted above.  If I get that, I'm in business for posting GSV here from the Ipad.

[signalman]

I was just forced into the new google maps yesterday.  Now I see what all the complaints are about.  What a useless piece of dog shit!  It's absolutely horrible and as soon as I try to move in any direction or zoom in or out it locks up and says it's loading.  What a shame too, I used to love google maps and the ability to drop into street view whenever I wanted; provided it had been driven by the street car.

[NE2]

I was just forced into the new google maps yesterday.

??? The old one's still there.

[hotdogPi]

Used to be: https://maps.google.com (nothing after it)

Now (for about a week): https://maps.google.com/maps?output=classic&dg=brw

Typing the first one into my address bar will redirect to the second one.

[jeffandnicole]

I was just forced into the new google maps yesterday.  Now I see what all the complaints are about.  What a useless piece of dog shit!  It's absolutely horrible and as soon as I try to move in any direction or zoom in or out it locks up and says it's loading.  What a shame too, I used to love google maps and the ability to drop into street view whenever I wanted; provided it had been driven by the street car.

In the lower right corner, there's a question mark.  Clicking that will reveal the option "Return to classic Google Maps".  Don't bother checking anything - just click the link.

[Alex]

FWIW, I noticed today if you search for a county, the county is outlined in white now instead of with hash marks the way city limits are.

[Pete from Boston]

I was just forced into the new google maps yesterday.

??? The old one's still there.

Reminds me of the commercials against expanding bottle deposits to water and juice that use the phrase "forced deposits" in a way that would make as much sense to use in "forced driver's licenses" and "forced stealing ban." 

In any case, yes, Google realizes lots of people aren't falling for it, so it's only fake-forced.

[signalman]

Thanks for your help, 1 and Jeff.  I didn't realize how easy it was to get back to classic Google Maps.  Of course, I'm not very computer savvy either, despite my not being very old.  It was probably mentioned upthread, but I hadn't been reading this thread since it didn't seem to affect me.  In any case, I appreciate the help and am grateful that I didn't lose what I knew and loved.

[Scott5114]

You know, some discussion earlier in the thread made me realize that although Google Streetview was the first and is still the gold standard in terms of raw coverage, it would be pretty easy to improve upon. Streetview is plagued with problems like bad stitching between images and ridiculously high false-positive rates on their face-blurring algorithm that make reading some signs (not just guide signs, but things like speed limits and business signs) difficult to impossible. A lot of Google coverage is probably never really viewed, in any case. I'd settle for 100% coverage in urban areas and just state highways outside of them if it meant less stupid blurring.

[1995hoo]

I've always wondered why on some roads the Street View image suddenly goes to a grainy black, as though a car were being driven at night with just the parking lights.

[adventurernumber1]

I've always wondered why on some roads the Street View image suddenly goes to a grainy black, as though a car were being driven at night with just the parking lights.

I don't think I've ever seen night street view on any newer higher definition images, but I remember several years ago on my first days on Google Maps, I-24 Westbound in downtown Chattanooga was street view apparently done at night IIRC. I think I had occasionally seen street view done at night in other places, but I haven't seen anything like that in a looong time. One annoying thing was the occasional crappy street view where you could not see anything, and the whole screen looks like a unicorn barfed on the street view car, LOL. In other words, the whole screen had a bunch of rainbow colors and you literally couldn't see anything.

[roadman65]

I hate when they capture the sun blare making it totally blurry do to the bright sun.  Then the ones that use both old and new captions together when you virtually drive along a road to go alternatively between one image to another is one that makes me almost want to scream.

It may suck, but at least it serves its purpose.  I may not like the way you cannot see everything, but something is better than nothing especially when you want to see a place you have not been to ever or in a long time.

[Roadgeek2500]

I may have found a good Gmaps replacement, HERE maps. They are the people who make the maps for all Garmin devices. Check it out. here.com

If it doesn't have street view, it's not even in the running as a replacement.

I tried it out. I wasn't on there long enough to really check it out, but it has some fairly good maps, and it actually does have street view, and it's the only site I've ever seen that has it besides Google Maps. But you must have Google Chrome to use it, and when you try to get street view, the only available street view I saw was clustered in urban areas across the U.S.

EDIT: Here Maps could possibly be on the rise to become a pretty rad website.

Works in IE11 just fine

[billtm]

Giant CAT appears on Google Maps - but Google don't know how it got there:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/giant-cat-appears-google-maps-4516293

Lol

[NE2]

Giant CAT appears on Google Maps - but Google don't know how it got there:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/giant-cat-appears-google-maps-4516293

Lol

If you read the article, it's clear how it got there.

[1995hoo]

Giant CAT appears on Google Maps - but Google don't know how it got there:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/giant-cat-appears-google-maps-4516293

Lol

If you read the article, it's clear how it got there.

And if YOU read the article, it clearly says Google's unsure how it got there. The prior description of the article was accurate.

[NE2]

Google's probably sure by now. But Hoo's OK with tabloid headlines, so who am I to question them?

[1995hoo]

Google's probably sure by now. But Hoo's OK with tabloid headlines, so who am I to question them?

Do you have some kind of problem that causes you to engage in stupid pissing matches?

[Billy F 1988]

The person must have been just flat-ass bored as hell to come up with the cat outline...while in Photoshop! It's clearly a hoax deal. Someone clipped a portion of a map, drew the cat on the map itself and advertised it as if there was a giant kitty on GMaps. Look at it again in reality. It's not there. Again, it's a hoax.

[billtm]

The person must have been just flat-ass bored as hell to come up with the cat outline...while in Photoshop! It's clearly a hoax deal. Someone clipped a portion of a map, drew the cat on the map itself and advertised it as if there was a giant kitty on GMaps. Look at it again in reality. It's not there. Again, it's a hoax.

Its not there anymore because Google deleted it. You know you can edit Google maps right?

[Billy F 1988]

Who cares about editing in GMaps? The functionality is crummy at best. Perhaps that said person used GMaps itself to draw the cat, but it still was Photoshopped in some fashion with the screen capture and crop. As long as I'm around, the GMaps cat is as good as dead. Nine lives my bucket of bolts (to put it nicely)!

[kj3400]

Are we really getting mad over a digital drawing of a cat?

[Pete from Boston]

Are we really getting mad over a digital drawing of a cat?

I don't think so.

[NE2]

Slow emotion day.

[vdeane]

Are we really getting mad over a digital drawing of a cat?

I think he's getting mad over the existence of print screen and image cropping.