Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[jakeroot]

I've noticed that some businesses now have square markers.  Here are a couple of examples.  Any idea what the square is for?

They're not square on my screen.

Seconded. Just a bunch of pins.

Try a screenshot, vdeane.

[Rothman]

Garden State Parkway is showing again as NJ 444.

[Roadrunner75]

My latest complaint about Google Maps is that after a little while of scrolling around and jumping in and out of Streetview (from the "Lite" version of the maps site) the GSV pegman eventually stops functioning for no apparent reason.  I can see the highlighted GSV streets but the pegman just jumps right back to his spot on the corner of the screen and GSV won't open.  The only way to get it to work again from that same location is to reload the page which always gives me the "I'm not a robot" checkbox page and usually Google's fun little game of having to select the boxes with the traffic lights, clouds, cars, or whatever else it throws at me to prove I'm an actual human.  Google seems to think that scrolling around randomly looking at stuff is for bots trying to hack their system.

I'm concerned that eventually they're going to ask me to identify the specific model of the traffic lights shown in the images and then I'm going to have to spend all my time asking people here just to use Google Maps.

[kphoger]

Seeing this in several places in the Android App....arrows pointing the wrong way on divided highways without access control

I noticed this on the desktop version somewhere just recently.

In the past, stuff like that was indicative of road construction, with one roadway completely closed and the other carrying both directions of traffic.  But I don't think that's necessarily what's going on with these new cases.

[vdeane]

I've noticed that some businesses now have square markers.  Here are a couple of examples.  Any idea what the square is for?

They're not square on my screen.

Seconded. Just a bunch of pins.

Try a screenshot, vdeane.

I happened to mouse over a few after I posted this last night, and I figured out what they all have in common: they're ads!  I guess Google is no longer using the "larger marker with the business logo" paradigm any more.

[NWI_Irish96]

Anybody have any idea why so many state boundaries are off, sometimes by quite a bit?

Example 1: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5740327,-87.5255677,146m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is a few hundred feet from my house.  The actual state boundary is in the median of State Line Rd.  The boundary marked on the map is in the NB lane.  Off by only a few feet, but off nonetheless.

Example 2: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5253767,-87.5254971,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is a few miles to the south.  The actual state boundary is along the fenceline that the shed of the house with the pool backs up to.  The boundary marked on the map is through everybody's front yards.  Much more significant different. 

I am not an expert on mapping technology but it seems like it shouldn't be hard to at least be more accurate than Example 2, if not Example 1.

[kphoger]

Anybody have any idea why so many state boundaries are off, sometimes by quite a bit?

Example 1: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5740327,-87.5255677,146m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is a few hundred feet from my house.  The actual state boundary is in the median of State Line Rd.  The boundary marked on the map is in the NB lane.  Off by only a few feet, but off nonetheless.

Example 2: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5253767,-87.5254971,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is a few miles to the south.  The actual state boundary is along the fenceline that the shed of the house with the pool backs up to.  The boundary marked on the map is through everybody's front yards.  Much more significant different. 

I am not an expert on mapping technology but it seems like it shouldn't be hard to at least be more accurate than Example 2, if not Example 1.

I figured this was worth posting as a possible partial explanation:

[NWI_Irish96]

I understand that explanation as to why it might not be perfect, and could reasonably be off as far as it is in Example 1, but I went a bit farther south and found this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5227606,-87.5257605,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

[kphoger]

I understand that explanation as to why it might not be perfect, and could reasonably be off as far as it is in Example 1, but I went a bit farther south and found this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5227606,-87.5257605,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

I may be totally off base here, but are you sure a "straight line" definition of the border actually matches the official boundary markers?

[NWI_Irish96]

I understand that explanation as to why it might not be perfect, and could reasonably be off as far as it is in Example 1, but I went a bit farther south and found this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5227606,-87.5257605,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

I may be totally off base here, but are you sure a "straight line" definition of the border actually matches the official boundary markers?

I don't know about the original definition of the boundary, but the straight line is what is observed by the states, counties, and municipalities involved.  Nobody considers the properties on that street to be straddling the boundary.

[kphoger]

I understand that explanation as to why it might not be perfect, and could reasonably be off as far as it is in Example 1, but I went a bit farther south and found this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5227606,-87.5257605,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

I may be totally off base here, but are you sure a "straight line" definition of the border actually matches the official boundary markers?

I don't know about the original definition of the boundary, but the straight line is what is observed by the states, counties, and municipalities involved.  Nobody considers the properties on that street to be straddling the boundary.

I'm not saying that my suggestion is what is causing the discrepancy:  it's quite possible the mismatch is due to errors in the dataset or during data transformation.  But, if what you're looking for is accuracy, then you're looking for a map whose borders follow the official boundary markers, not one whose borders follow where those boundary markers are supposed to be, not one whose borders follow the line people consider to the the border.

[NWI_Irish96]

I understand that explanation as to why it might not be perfect, and could reasonably be off as far as it is in Example 1, but I went a bit farther south and found this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5227606,-87.5257605,123m/data=!3m1!1e3

I may be totally off base here, but are you sure a "straight line" definition of the border actually matches the official boundary markers?

I don't know about the original definition of the boundary, but the straight line is what is observed by the states, counties, and municipalities involved.  Nobody considers the properties on that street to be straddling the boundary.

I'm not saying that my suggestion is what is causing the discrepancy:  it's quite possible the mismatch is due to errors in the dataset or during data transformation.  But, if what you're looking for is accuracy, then you're looking for a map whose borders follow the official boundary markers, not one whose borders follow where those boundary markers are supposed to be, not one whose borders follow the line people consider to the the border.

I find it virtually impossible that, back when the Indiana Territory was carved out of the Northwest Territory, that the border took a random perpendicular jog of several hundred feet, at a spot that had no significance at the time but over a hundred years later would become the border between two townships within Lake County.

[kphoger]

I find it virtually impossible that, back when the Indiana Territory was carved out of the Northwest Territory, that the border took a random perpendicular jog of several hundred feet, at a spot that had no significance at the time but over a hundred years later would become the border between two townships within Lake County.

You can't imagine a group of surveyors making their way through wilderness to plot boundary markers and not walking a perfectly straight line?

The two 90-degree angles I don't understand, but it's easy to understand how one line segment could be farther west than another, even if the theoretical border is a straight line.

[hotdogPi]

Apple Maps has it as only the eastern line.

[kphoger]

Apple Maps has it as only the eastern line.

So it goes through the people's houses?

[hotdogPi]

Apple Maps has it as only the eastern line.

So it goes through the people's houses?

Yes.

[CtrlAltDel]

You can't imagine a group of surveyors making their way through wilderness to plot boundary markers and not walking a perfectly straight line?

The two 90-degree angles I don't understand, but it's easy to understand how one line segment could be farther west than another, even if the theoretical border is a straight line.

If the surveying were off, then it's far more likely than not (although admittedly not certain) that the houses and other lines on the ground would show some sort of skew, as the streets do in Vegas.

What I think is happening in this case, though is some sort of error in the data, in that shortly north of the jog, the border disappears, only returning near the airport.

[empirestate]

I am not an expert on mapping technology but it seems like it shouldn't be hard to at least be more accurate than Example 2, if not Example 1.

It isn't hard at all, somebody just has to, you know...do it. The process for online commercial mapping these days is vastly automated, and it's pretty rare (if not completely unheard of) for an actual cartographer to come and check over the data, resolve any discrepancies, etc.

[ErmineNotyours]

Today, Google Maps is placing my current location in Magnolia, just south of Discovery Park, instead of accurately in Renton.  This only happens when viewed in Firefox.  On Chrome and on my Android smart phone, the location is accurate.  Because I'm in the middle of dealing with changing my bank account because someone has hijacked it, perhaps I'm getting paranoid that someone has hacked my Google account too, though it may be something as simple as someone from Magnolia moving their Wi-Fi router near me.

[bm7]

Something that irritates me about Street View coverage is that in the UK and Ireland, they'll gladly drive down just about anything, even something like this, that calling a road would be generous. Meanwhile in the US, it seems as though they run away in fear at the sight of a wide gravel road.

[J N Winkler]

Something that irritates me about Street View coverage is that in the UK and Ireland, they'll gladly drive down just about anything, even something like this, that calling a road would be generous. Meanwhile in the US, it seems as though they run away in fear at the sight of a wide gravel road.

The UK has almost three times the number of drivers per centerline mile of road that the US does--200 versus 75.  And over there, over 99% of public road mileage has had some form of bound surfacing since the 1950's; only about two-thirds of ours does.

Where Google Maps really falls short, IMV, is not upgrading to high-resolution StreetView even along lengths of road that not only are paved but are also state highway.

[Roadrunner75]

Something that irritates me about Street View coverage is that in the UK and Ireland, they'll gladly drive down just about anything, even something like this, that calling a road would be generous. Meanwhile in the US, it seems as though they run away in fear at the sight of a wide gravel road.

Agreed, but they're probably more likely to encounter some angry property owner coming out guns a'blazing on that same "road" in the US.

[kphoger]

Agreed, but they're probably more likely to encounter some angry property owner coming out guns a'blazing on that same "road" in the US.

Having grown up in a small town in a very rural part of the country, where I used to be able to name all the paved roads and streets in the entire county from memory, I don't find that statement to match reality.

[Roadrunner75]

Agreed, but they're probably more likely to encounter some angry property owner coming out guns a'blazing on that same "road" in the US.

Having grown up in a small town in a very rural part of the country, where I used to be able to name all the paved roads and streets in the entire county from memory, I don't find that statement to match reality.

Did you see the link?  That's basically someone's driveway.

[kphoger]

Agreed, but they're probably more likely to encounter some angry property owner coming out guns a'blazing on that same "road" in the US.

Having grown up in a small town in a very rural part of the country, where I used to be able to name all the paved roads and streets in the entire county from memory, I don't find that statement to match reality.

Did you see the link?  That's basically someone's driveway.

Plenty of dirt roads that are basically just driveways around where I grew up, and I never once encountered a person pulling a gun out if I came up that road by car or by bicycle.  I think you must have a warped view of what this part of the country is like.