Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[jakeroot]

I generally avoid using Street View in Earth. The lack of historical imagery bothers me as well, and the lack of a small map to click around makes it difficult to use (the control are indeed quite clunky). So, I often am running both Earth and Maps at the same time.

Although I find myself using Historic Aerials quite often now, I still prefer to use Google Earth's Historic Imagery because it doesn't have watermarks, and usually more recent historic imagery (Historic Aerials might have 10 shots from 2000-2017, but Earth would have 25+ at least in my area).

[empirestate]

It also doesn't help that Google suffers from creator provincialism and applies California traffic law everywhere.

In what way?  I'm just curious.

I think he's referring to prohibiting left turns across painted flush medians.

Ah.  I guess Google is being conservative, because even if some jurisdictions allow such left turns, some don't, and it's hard to keep track of thousands of local jurisdictions' laws.

I don't see where it's all that hard on that issue.  California is the only place I've ever heard of with that prohibition.

The way I understood UT law as I learned it in drivers ed, that movement would also be illegal in Utah. I can't find the law on that right now, though.

Pretty sure it's not allowed in NY, either.

[MNHighwayMan]

I generally avoid using Street View in Earth. The lack of historical imagery bothers me as well, and the lack of a small map to click around makes it difficult to use (the control are indeed quite clunky). So, I often am running both Earth and Maps at the same time.

Although I find myself using Historic Aerials quite often now, I still prefer to use Google Earth's Historic Imagery because it doesn't have watermarks, and usually more recent historic imagery (Historic Aerials might have 10 shots from 2000-2017, but Earth would have 25+ at least in my area).

Yep, that's why I use both on a regular basis. It's too bad Google can't seem to put them together to make one awesome product.

[adventurernumber1]

I can't stand how it is unbearably hard to differentiate between limited-access highways and surface streets, and another very annoying thing is that you can't even see the very, very minor small neighborhood roads and such. If I want to get a general idea of what the entire road system of a town or a city looks like (including all the small neighborhood roads), it is miles harder to do that now. Take the suburban sprawl in the Atlanta Metro Area, for example: when I try to get a feel of the entire road system of this area, it is almost impossible to detect all the very minor roads. When I look here, it is so freakin hard to see all the very small roads, because they completely blend in with the white background; the only thing I can really see is the names of the roads, and there's even only so many of those that are actually listed and visible. It actually hurts my eyes when I try to make out the white roads! They have truly jacked up the colors for small roads and big highways alike - it is all a terrible disaster now!

I think you may need to adjust either the brightness of your display, or (more likely) the contrast settings. I have no problem seeing the minor roads against the background.

Freeways and highways are definitely harder to tell apart now, though. That said, I can still somewhat differentiate between the two due to the slightly different colors (I have good color vision), plus, I think I'm the only one with my contrast settings set correctly (vdeane is/was having similar issues).

This issue actually happened on my local news last night. They used Google Maps to show a location, but the streets were completely invisible and the only things anyone could see were the street names and the interstate.

Wow, what a story. I can't believe that actually happened, but I could see it happening: the news anchors aiming to show a location on Google Maps to the camera in the next few seconds, but they are unpleasantly surprised to find that they cannot see any of the small roads at all except for street names on a few of them and the big highways nearby. That is definitely quite embarrassing for Google.     

Well, I guess when this implementation is all said and done, there'll be a lot less poorly-adjusted monitors!

That's taking a rather hopelessly proactive view on users' reactions to Google's change.

Everytime Google changes something, people get all up in arms, threaten to leave the service, etc. But the fact is that there is nothing anywhere near as good as Google Maps. Other mapping services are good at directing you from A to B, but they don't have the integration that Google Maps does. I'm not suggesting we all permanently hail El Goog, but it's still the best mapping service, apart from some color issues.

That is a very good point. I am quite upset with this new update, but I don't see myself really leaving Google Maps, still. As I said in my post just slightly upthread, I will have to manage my navigating online maps by having both Google Maps and something else (such as Bing Maps or Google Earth, or both, or more) open - which will definitely be more of a hassle, but I think it is just what I am going to have to begin doing consistently. I will definitely still be using Google Maps, despite my high dissatisfaction with the new update, but I now must have supplementary online mapping sites along with it to be able to function with that. I just hope Google Maps changes their mind and goes back to the better style; I truly would love to see that happen. 

[empirestate]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

[J N Winkler]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

It depends on whether you use the desktop or mobile version.  Mobile doesn't show county lines (but will drop a placemark at or near the approximate centroid of the county), but desktop (even after latest revision) shows the county lines and shades the county.  I think there was some discussion upthread many pages ago about Google eliminating county lines and shading in the desktop version, but if they actually tried that, they had to retreat from it.

[hotdogPi]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

It depends on whether you use the desktop or mobile version.  Mobile doesn't show county lines (but will drop a placemark at or near the approximate centroid of the county), but desktop (even after latest revision) shows the county lines and shades the county.  I think there was some discussion upthread many pages ago about Google eliminating county lines and shading in the desktop version, but if they actually tried that, they had to retreat from it.

You have to search for a county for its boundaries to be shown in Google Maps. In OpenStreetMap, they are shown automatically.

[kphoger]

You have to search for a county for its boundaries to be shown in Google Maps.

Plus, the shading disappears at closer zoom levels.

[vdeane]

Last I checked, Google Maps could show Village, City, and County lines if searched for; they took away Town lines at some point.

I do find it rather intriguing that some user's displays could have the contrast so fubar'd that they couldn't tell the colors apart, though (considering how far apart on the brightness scale the background and minor road colors actually are).

Factory settings on a lot of monitors (particularly those on the low end) are absolutely trash, and I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of people assume the defaults are good or never bother to ensure they're properly adjusted.

Indeed.  They're usually set to look sexy on a store shelf, not to have accurate color/decent contrast/brightness.  I actually had to dig around to figure out how to get mine set properly; I had previously adjusted it some, but I had to find an explanation for what many of the settings meant (I was previously only familiar with contrast/brightness, neither of which seemed to help until I learned what "sRGB Mode" was).  It's amazing how many other things I'm suddenly noticing contrast on, such as VLC's media library.

[Hurricane Rex]

You have to search for a county for its boundaries to be shown in Google Maps.

Earth to Google: How are we supposed to find the borders if you remove them? I can't even find Deschutes National Forest thanks to you (New project ending at the border of the forest). FIX IT!
Also, make freeways blue and keep the normal highways yellow, that will differentiate it a little more.

[20160805]

While on the subject of road colors, my mom's car has a built-in navigation program, and it uses red for freeways, orange for expressways and big boulevards, green for arterials, and gray for side streets.  The only problem is that it is completely unreliable when it comes to city boundaries, is missing several streets, and the differentiation between gray and green and between green and orange are case-by-case, arbitrary, and inconsistent.  College Ave in metro Appleton between Casaloma Dr and County CB shows up as gray, for example.

When I make maps, I use a similar coloring scheme, but I also add a dark green color for minor arterials.

[jakeroot]

While on the subject of road colors, my mom's car has a built-in navigation program, and it uses red for freeways, orange for expressways and big boulevards, green for arterials, and gray for side streets.  The only problem is that it is completely unreliable when it comes to city boundaries, is missing several streets, and the differentiation between gray and green and between green and orange are case-by-case, arbitrary, and inconsistent.  College Ave in metro Appleton between Casaloma Dr and County CB shows up as gray, for example.

This consistency issue could be part of the reason that Google has consolidated their colors into white, bright yellow, and dark yellow. Google also uses thicker lines to indicate more important roads, so that they appear from further zoom levels.

[empirestate]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

It depends on whether you use the desktop or mobile version.  Mobile doesn't show county lines (but will drop a placemark at or near the approximate centroid of the county), but desktop (even after latest revision) shows the county lines and shades the county.  I think there was some discussion upthread many pages ago about Google eliminating county lines and shading in the desktop version, but if they actually tried that, they had to retreat from it.

I've never seen county lines displayed on either the desktop version or the mobile. Closest you can get is a single county's boundary highlighted as a search result, but once the search is no longer active, the outline disappears.

[jakeroot]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

It depends on whether you use the desktop or mobile version.  Mobile doesn't show county lines (but will drop a placemark at or near the approximate centroid of the county), but desktop (even after latest revision) shows the county lines and shades the county.  I think there was some discussion upthread many pages ago about Google eliminating county lines and shading in the desktop version, but if they actually tried that, they had to retreat from it.

I've never seen county lines displayed on either the desktop version or the mobile. Closest you can get is a single county's boundary highlighted as a search result, but once the search is no longer active, the outline disappears.

I think that's what Jonathan is getting at. Desktop will show you the outline only after searching for the county, and only from a certain zoom. But GMaps-Mobile doesn't show a damn thing, just (as JN mentions) a pin near the approximate center of the county. I'll still take the desktop implementation over nothing.

[Roadsguy]

On the plus side, at least they finally figured out at some point that I-587 and I-42 aren't signed yet.

[empirestate]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

It depends on whether you use the desktop or mobile version.  Mobile doesn't show county lines (but will drop a placemark at or near the approximate centroid of the county), but desktop (even after latest revision) shows the county lines and shades the county.  I think there was some discussion upthread many pages ago about Google eliminating county lines and shading in the desktop version, but if they actually tried that, they had to retreat from it.

I've never seen county lines displayed on either the desktop version or the mobile. Closest you can get is a single county's boundary highlighted as a search result, but once the search is no longer active, the outline disappears.

I think that's what Jonathan is getting at. Desktop will show you the outline only after searching for the county, and only from a certain zoom. But GMaps-Mobile doesn't show a damn thing, just (as JN mentions) a pin near the approximate center of the county. I'll still take the desktop implementation over nothing.

There's a difference in terminology here, then. By "show", I don't mean either a dropped pin or a highlighted search result. When I say that a map shows a feature, that means you see it as you look at the map. If additional interaction is required for the feature to appear, that's not what I'd call "showing" a feature. So to me, it doesn't depend on desktop or mobile–neither version shows the feature I'm interested in.

[adventurernumber1]

I know that Google Maps will show city limits and county lines if the city or county name is typed into the search bar - however, it seems like at one time somewhat recently (maybe one or two years ago), Google Maps stopped having that feature (for a brief period of time). They had done it before that, and they have done it after that (which is right now), but they temporarily were no longer doing it. I don't know why, but thankfully they must have listened to the feedback and that may be why they have brought it back for a while now. If it never went away, then I am insane, or something was wrong with my computer. 

[J N Winkler]

Yes:  when I said upthread that Google Maps "shows" county lines, I was referring to the fact that if you search for one county in the desktop version, it will highlight just that county (not any others) and show its borders at the zoom setting it lands on.  I realize this is not the same as showing all county (and other second-tier subdivision) lines at all zoom levels, but it is also not the same as never showing those lines at all, which is what you get with the mobile version.

And as Adventurernumber1 points out, this very limited way of showing counties in the desktop version is one that Google has toyed with taking away before.

[SectorZ]

I know that Google Maps will show city limits and county lines if the city or county name is typed into the search bar - however, it seems like at one time somewhat recently (maybe one or two years ago), Google Maps stopped having that feature (for a brief period of time). They had done it before that, and they have done it after that (which is right now), but they temporarily were no longer doing it. I don't know why, but thankfully they must have listened to the feedback and that may be why they have brought it back for a while now. If it never went away, then I am insane, or something was wrong with my computer. 

You're not insane; it did go away a couple years back for a month at least.

[adventurernumber1]

And as Adventurernumber1 points out, this very limited way of showing counties in the desktop version is one that Google has toyed with taking away before.

I know that Google Maps will show city limits and county lines if the city or county name is typed into the search bar - however, it seems like at one time somewhat recently (maybe one or two years ago), Google Maps stopped having that feature (for a brief period of time). They had done it before that, and they have done it after that (which is right now), but they temporarily were no longer doing it. I don't know why, but thankfully they must have listened to the feedback and that may be why they have brought it back for a while now. If it never went away, then I am insane, or something was wrong with my computer. 

You're not insane; it did go away a couple years back for a month at least.

Oh okay. I thought that they must have done so at one point and that I recalled things correctly. I'm just glad that it wasn't that way for very long it sounds like, and that they brought it back.

And as J N Winkler says, while it is definitely not as good as showing all of the county lines without having to do anything at all, at least Google Maps does outline county borders and city limits if the said city or county is searched up (though not on mobile), and it is better than nothing.

Hopefully, Google Maps may even decide to show county lines and such by default in the future. That would be incredibly nice. 

[Rothman]

People have been begging for the return of county lines for years, if not a decade.  Google has resisted the calls for them and I don't see that changing.

[jakeroot]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

It depends on whether you use the desktop or mobile version.  Mobile doesn't show county lines (but will drop a placemark at or near the approximate centroid of the county), but desktop (even after latest revision) shows the county lines and shades the county.  I think there was some discussion upthread many pages ago about Google eliminating county lines and shading in the desktop version, but if they actually tried that, they had to retreat from it.

I've never seen county lines displayed on either the desktop version or the mobile. Closest you can get is a single county's boundary highlighted as a search result, but once the search is no longer active, the outline disappears.

I think that's what Jonathan is getting at. Desktop will show you the outline only after searching for the county, and only from a certain zoom. But GMaps-Mobile doesn't show a damn thing, just (as JN mentions) a pin near the approximate center of the county. I'll still take the desktop implementation over nothing.

There's a difference in terminology here, then. By "show", I don't mean either a dropped pin or a highlighted search result. When I say that a map shows a feature, that means you see it as you look at the map. If additional interaction is required for the feature to appear, that's not what I'd call "showing" a feature. So to me, it doesn't depend on desktop or mobile–neither version shows the feature I'm interested in.

Very well. Seems a bit pedantic, though. Google does show county lines, you just have to search for it. It's not like county lines are inaccessible (not anymore, at least). If everything were shown by default, the map would be a bit busy.

[myosh_tino]

Not wanting to veer too much off-topic but if anyone is interested in seeing how destructive the October 2017 Wine Country fires in Northern California were, Google Maps Satellite View has been updated to show the devastation.

Coffey Park Neighborhood (Santa Rosa): https://goo.gl/maps/ZoVK8EKaMoM2

Fountaingrove Neighborhood (Santa Rosa): https://goo.gl/maps/vJovtKWeRAN2

Silverado Country Club: https://goo.gl/maps/J5FUKn93fiD2

Note: You will need to turn off the 3D view to get the updated satellite images.

[LM117]

On the plus side, at least they finally figured out at some point that I-587 and I-42 aren't signed yet.

On the down side, I-495 is still labeled between I-540 and I-440 despite the fact that I-495 has been decommissioned since last spring.

[oscar]

For me, it's been necessary for a long time to use multiple mapping services, if for no other reason than that Google doesn't show county lines.

The county-counting site www.mob-rule.com has a feature where you can overlay county lines on a Google map. That comes in handy for places like Alaska and Canada where online mapping of county lines is uneven or non-existent even in OpenStreetMap. But mob-rule.com is slow to catch up with the latest changes to county (equivalent) definitions, which are fortunately rare in the lower 48 (mostly renames, and independent cities in Virginia folded into their surrounding counties).