Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[index]

Google appears to have let B&V cam's vastly inferior GSV imagery start to take over a lot of areas, sometimes with no option for old street view because it just won't show up. Why are they just allowing a downgrade? The quality of B&V's GSV is horrible. Granted, it's better than 07-09 GSV, but still.

[TheGrassGuy]

Sometimes when I try to leave satellite, it goes back to satellite.

[kphoger]

Sometimes when I try to leave satellite, it goes back to satellite.

That's happened to me occasionally for a long time.

[vdeane]

Google appears to have let B&V cam's vastly inferior GSV imagery start to take over a lot of areas, sometimes with no option for old street view because it just won't show up. Why are they just allowing a downgrade? The quality of B&V's GSV is horrible. Granted, it's better than 07-09 GSV, but still.

Unfortunately they sometimes default to B&V even when the Google imagery is newer.

[ErmineNotyours]

Sometimes when I try to leave satellite, it goes back to satellite.

I've finally found a solution to that problem.  When you go back to regular map, don't immediately adjust the scale or press any buttons for a second or two.  That must have been what was tripping me up for months now.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

When Google Maps' language is set to French (works in any mirror), the Arabian city of Ha'il shows up as Grêle, which is French for "hail"... as in the stony ice precipitation. And it has been that way for a long time. It doesn't happen in Spanish, as it shows correctly as Hail instead of Granizo.

[Lyon Wonder]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

[CtrlAltDel]

When Google Maps' language is set to French (works in any mirror), the Arabian city of Ha'il shows up as Grêle, which is French for "hail"... as in the stony ice precipitation.

That's hilarious.

[vdeane]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

I suspect they stopped driving during the pandemic.

[US 89]

When Google Maps' language is set to French (works in any mirror), the Arabian city of Ha'il shows up as Grêle, which is French for "hail"... as in the stony ice precipitation.

That explains why the METAR aviation reporting code for hail is GR...

[hotdogPi]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

I suspect they stopped driving during the pandemic.

I found one for October 2020 in Boston proper.

[CoreySamson]

I've found a lot of March 2020 footage in Florida, but that's the newest I've seen.

[vdeane]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

I suspect they stopped driving during the pandemic.

I found one for October 2020 in Boston proper.

From Google, or third party?  There's 2020 footage in Kingston, but it's from 360 Tour Gallery.

[hotdogPi]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

I suspect they stopped driving during the pandemic.

I found one for October 2020 in Boston proper.

From Google, or third party?  There's 2020 footage in Kingston, but it's from 360 Tour Gallery.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3515518,-71.1202901,3a,75y,270.22h,89.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9xS8YSbTzO32vtluBdhs7g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[vdeane]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

I suspect they stopped driving during the pandemic.

I found one for October 2020 in Boston proper.

From Google, or third party?  There's 2020 footage in Kingston, but it's from 360 Tour Gallery.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3515518,-71.1202901,3a,75y,270.22h,89.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9xS8YSbTzO32vtluBdhs7g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Interesting.  That has to be the only piece of post-COVID street view from Google I've seen in the US.

[jakeroot]

IMO, Google has been slacking off with their street view since the last updates (at least in the midwest) were in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic.

I suspect they stopped driving during the pandemic.

I found one for October 2020 in Boston proper.

From Google, or third party?  There's 2020 footage in Kingston, but it's from 360 Tour Gallery.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3515518,-71.1202901,3a,75y,270.22h,89.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9xS8YSbTzO32vtluBdhs7g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Interesting.  That has to be the only piece of post-COVID street view from Google I've seen in the US.

Depending on your cutoff, there are quite a few areas with March 2020 imagery: Los Angeles, Lake Tahoe, and Phoenix

Bay Area proper also has quite a lot of recent shots (my link is Oct 2020, same as the Boston example above).

[CNGL-Leudimin]

France has also a lot of post-"end of the World (as we knew it)" imagery. I first found such recent imagery there.

Spain, on the other hand, is still in 2019. Normally they update Street View in Spain around this time of the year.

[Katavia]

Google appears to have let B&V cam's vastly inferior GSV imagery start to take over a lot of areas, sometimes with no option for old street view because it just won't show up. Why are they just allowing a downgrade? The quality of B&V's GSV is horrible. Granted, it's better than 07-09 GSV, but still.

Unfortunately they sometimes default to B&V even when the Google imagery is newer.

B&V? Not familiar with anything w/ that acronym, is it the program where El Goog's allowing 3rd-party images to show up on GSV?

[hotdogPi]

Google appears to have let B&V cam's vastly inferior GSV imagery start to take over a lot of areas, sometimes with no option for old street view because it just won't show up. Why are they just allowing a downgrade? The quality of B&V's GSV is horrible. Granted, it's better than 07-09 GSV, but still.

Unfortunately they sometimes default to B&V even when the Google imagery is newer.

B&V? Not familiar with anything w/ that acronym, is it the program where El Goog's allowing 3rd-party images to show up on GSV?

I don't know what the acronym stands for, but there are two bad types of new imagery. This is one of them:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3748203,-70.9863082,3a,75y,306.32h,80.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJLaXFQJIThE--7HHVykqTg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
which is worse than 07-09 imagery.
The other is this:
https://goo.gl/maps/pZ1gEmXhka6iCcKM6
which isn't quite as bad as the first link. Somehow the other direction is from the same year and month but has no problems.

[kphoger]

That explains why the METAR aviation reporting code for hail is GR...

Whence does it actually derive?

My mind immediately goes to Spanish.  HAIL = GRANIZA

[jakeroot]

Google appears to have let B&V cam's vastly inferior GSV imagery start to take over a lot of areas, sometimes with no option for old street view because it just won't show up. Why are they just allowing a downgrade? The quality of B&V's GSV is horrible. Granted, it's better than 07-09 GSV, but still.

Unfortunately they sometimes default to B&V even when the Google imagery is newer.

B&V? Not familiar with anything w/ that acronym, is it the program where El Goog's allowing 3rd-party images to show up on GSV?

I don't know what the acronym stands for, but there are two bad types of new imagery. This is one of them:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3748203,-70.9863082,3a,75y,306.32h,80.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJLaXFQJIThE--7HHVykqTg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
which is worse than 07-09 imagery.
The other is this:
https://goo.gl/maps/pZ1gEmXhka6iCcKM6
which isn't quite as bad as the first link. Somehow the other direction is from the same year and month but has no problems.

I'd say that first imagery is quite good, apart from that it was uploaded sideways.

The second one seems to be the camera trying to compensate for low lighting conditions?

I googled out the rear end for "B&V". Seems like one of those acronyms that a few people use but no one else knows what it means.

[kphoger]

Google appears to have let B&V cam's vastly inferior GSV imagery start to take over a lot of areas, sometimes with no option for old street view because it just won't show up. Why are they just allowing a downgrade? The quality of B&V's GSV is horrible. Granted, it's better than 07-09 GSV, but still.

Unfortunately they sometimes default to B&V even when the Google imagery is newer.

B&V? Not familiar with anything w/ that acronym, is it the program where El Goog's allowing 3rd-party images to show up on GSV?

I don't know what the acronym stands for, but there are two bad types of new imagery. This is one of them:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3748203,-70.9863082,3a,75y,306.32h,80.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJLaXFQJIThE--7HHVykqTg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
which is worse than 07-09 imagery.
The other is this:
https://goo.gl/maps/pZ1gEmXhka6iCcKM6
which isn't quite as bad as the first link. Somehow the other direction is from the same year and month but has no problems.

I'd say that first imagery is quite good, apart from that it was uploaded sideways.

The second one seems to be the camera trying to compensate for low lighting conditions?

I googled out the rear end for "B&V". Seems like one of those acronyms that a few people use but no one else knows what it means.

From what I can tell, "B&V Cam" is just a Google user whose imagery exists on Google Maps.

Go to the link below, and you can clearly see that "B&V Cam" is just the source's screen name.  It's obvious now, but it wasn't obvious back in 2018.

Interestingly enough, I've noticed recently along the PA Turnpike that there's some kind of new photo sphere appearing along it. It's called "B&V Cam" and the imagery is from April this year (example from the new I-95 interchange). The area by the tunnel doesn't appear to be on GM yet but it apparently can go through tunnels since the bubbles appear on the EB Fort Littleton ramp.

[US 89]

That explains why the METAR aviation reporting code for hail is GR...

Whence does it actually derive?

My mind immediately goes to Spanish.  HAIL = GRANIZA

Appears to actually be French, although Spanish is also a Romance language and naturally has a lot of similar words. France was pretty influential in the early days of aviation - just look at all the words for parts of airplanes that are obviously French in origin: fuselage, empennage, nacelle, aileron...

French also gave us the METAR codes for graupel/snow pellets (GS, grésil) and mist/light fog (BR, brume), among others.

[TheGrassGuy]

Got a new laptop, and now minor roads are a nearly unreadable blotch of white.

[kphoger]

Got a new laptop, and now minor roads are a nearly unreadable blotch of white.

Adjust your brightness and contrast settings.