Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[kphoger]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

You know there are still state highways in other places with zero coverage, including 2008 coverage, yeah? I've been on that stretch you've linked to. There aren't many cars period, much less GSV cars.

Ha!  I grew up one county away, and even I haven't been on that stretch of road.

[roadman65]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

Is it any different?

The quality of the images are. Not the land, as unlike Florida will not get developed here anytime soon.

[JayhawkCO]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

You know there are still state highways in other places with zero coverage, including 2008 coverage, yeah? I've been on that stretch you've linked to. There aren't many cars period, much less GSV cars.

Ha!  I grew up one county away, and even I haven't been on that stretch of road.

I was clinching all of Colorado's mileage, so obviously I had to cross the Kansas border a couple of times to make it official, and K-27 is so close to the border that I'd use that to double back instead of just turning around at the border.

[jlam]

I hate the new blue.  Mob-rule still uses the old colors with the old zoom levels for labels.  The old way is much easier to read.

Not a problem for me if I try to evade it hard enough. My Apple products still use the old colors.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

That segment is literally the only road in Kansas I've been on (though it was a clinch-motivated trip)

[kkt]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

Meanwhile, dead end streets in California get two cars at the same time.

With Google based in California that probably makes more sense for something dumb like that to happen.

Probably training a new camera car driver.

[pderocco]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

That's happened in much more scenic locations. When they began Street View, it looks like their sent their cars, with their crappy cameras, to capture lots of America the Beautiful. Ever since then, given a choice between going back for better imagery and going someplace new, they opt for the latter.

[bicyclehazard]

I have been using openstreetmap.org It lets you save a map.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have been using openstreetmap.org It lets you save a map.

As if I ever needed additional selling on never using openstreetmap.

[vdeane]

I have been using openstreetmap.org It lets you save a map.

As if I ever needed additional selling on never using openstreetmap.

I wish there was a way to get OSM cartography with the Google Maps driving directions, street view, and business info (photos/reviews/etc.).  The Google Maps cartography has been annoying me lately; the only thing I like about it over OSM is that it shades where businesses of consumer interest are, making it easier to find food and the like without resorting to search.

[kphoger]

It lets you save a map.

What does this mean?  Is this meaningfully different than using Google My Maps?

[SEWIGuy]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AChMSVGzzKT3VA1u7
You mean no one's recaptured this part of K-27 since 08. 16 years and no drive by. Come on.

That's happened in much more scenic locations. When they began Street View, it looks like their sent their cars, with their crappy cameras, to capture lots of America the Beautiful. Ever since then, given a choice between going back for better imagery and going someplace new, they opt for the latter.

Right. They aren't going to head back to places that rarely have changed. The neighborhood I once lived in hasn't seen an update since 2012. Why would they go back there?

Yet we have people here claim this "is not very forgivable." I mean...its a free service.

[pderocco]

That's happened in much more scenic locations. When they began Street View, it looks like their sent their cars, with their crappy cameras, to capture lots of America the Beautiful. Ever since then, given a choice between going back for better imagery and going someplace new, they opt for the latter.

Right. They aren't going to head back to places that rarely have changed. The neighborhood I once lived in hasn't seen an update since 2012. Why would they go back there?

The 2012 imagery is decent quality. The 2007-2009 imagery is so bad you can barely make out the speed limit signs; forget about reading street signs, house numbers, business names, or seeing the road surface quality. It's practically useless imagery. So if it's in a particularly scenic area which many people are likely to want to view, they should prioritize updating it.

[SEWIGuy]

Why do you think people use street view? My guess...idle curiosity...to get familiar with the area you are traveling to...to see where their family, friends and co-workers live...

None of these really apply to an out of the way rural highway in Kansas.

[pderocco]

Why do you think people use street view? My guess...idle curiosity...to get familiar with the area you are traveling to...to see where their family, friends and co-workers live...

None of these really apply to an out of the way rural highway in Kansas.

Then why did they bother to send the GSV car there in the first place, even for crappy imagery?

As to updating that imagery, I'm talking about "particularly scenic areas". I spend quite a bit of time using GSV to see what the roads and views are like in rural places that I might like to explore, and then I go and explore them. But I live in the Southwest, which has more than its share of spectacular scenery, much of which I can visit on a weekend, some even on a day trip. I suspect many people use GSV in that way. But the really old imagery isn't useful for that, and as far as I can see, isn't useful for anything much.

[kphoger]

As to updating that imagery, I'm talking about "particularly scenic areas". I spend quite a bit of time using GSV to see what the roads and views are like in rural places that I might like to explore ... But the really old imagery isn't useful for that ...

How is it not useful for that?  I can get a good feel for the scenery from that '08 imagery.

[pderocco]

Well, you have to do a lot of mental interpolation. But when you look at a beautiful view in the 2007 imagery, it looks ugly as sin, and unless you do a lot of compensation, you wouldn't want to go there based on what you saw.

There is a more recent form of GSV imagery that I've seen in various places, which comes from really low-quality cameras driven around by other companies. For instance, in my erstwhile hometown Provincetown MA, there's a lot of it, although they recently replaced it with newer good imagery on the major Commercial St. The back streets are still ugly, though. This was captured by a company called PTown Hacks, an LGBT travel guide company:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LZMhR3txm2F3neUC6

[Redacted what appears to have been a joke that didn't go over well with the audience. -S.]

[freebrickproductions]

TBF, the 3rd Party street view imagery is often done via 360° cameras, the quality of which isn't the best on lower-end & cheaper ones.

[Rothman]

TBF, the 3rd Party street view imagery is often done via 360° cameras, the quality of which isn't the best on lower-end & cheaper ones.

And yet, Google accepts it.

[seicer]

I wonder if the older imagery is being deliberately degraded to save on storage space as newer imagery is added. I distinctly remember seeing clear images that date to 2008 just a few years back, but now those images are mostly illegible.

[Rothman]

I wonder if the older imagery is being deliberately degraded to save on storage space as newer imagery is added. I distinctly remember seeing clear images that date to 2008 just a few years back, but now those images are mostly illegible.

I dunno.  Looking at my older digital photos is eye-opening to see how much progress has been made.

[jakeroot]

I highly doubt Google is short on storage space.

[Scott5114]

I wonder if the older imagery is being deliberately degraded to save on storage space as newer imagery is added. I distinctly remember seeing clear images that date to 2008 just a few years back, but now those images are mostly illegible.

The 2008 imagery was mostly done with the potato-quality cameras, but there were a few areas where they were testing clearer ones at that time.

[freebrickproductions]

I wonder if the older imagery is being deliberately degraded to save on storage space as newer imagery is added. I distinctly remember seeing clear images that date to 2008 just a few years back, but now those images are mostly illegible.

The 2008 imagery was mostly done with the potato-quality cameras, but there were a few areas where they were testing clearer ones at that time.

I suspect it's also that screens are much larger now, especially in terms of the number of pixels they hold, and it appears that street view blows-up the images to fit the screen.

[pderocco]

Perhaps storage space can be an issue in the camera, but I doubt on the servers. But I suppose in a car, it could be connected to a box of M.2 drives.

When I see lousy imagery of a nice place, I find myself wishing they'd send me to photograph it. Personally, I'd love to drive a GSV car around in the mountains, or in quaint towns, or charming cities, or anyplace beautiful, as long as they paid all my expenses. That would be like a free vacation. But I suspect there is a huge surplus of people who'd like to do that. Driving around grimy industrial areas, boring suburbs, slums, endless farm roads in the Great Plains, not so much.

[Rothman]

Perhaps storage space can be an issue in the camera, but I doubt on the servers. But I suppose in a car, it could be connected to a box of M.2 drives.

When I see lousy imagery of a nice place, I find myself wishing they'd send me to photograph it. Personally, I'd love to drive a GSV car around in the mountains, or in quaint towns, or charming cities, or anyplace beautiful, as long as they paid all my expenses. That would be like a free vacation. But I suspect there is a huge surplus of people who'd like to do that. Driving around grimy industrial areas, boring suburbs, slums, endless farm roads in the Great Plains, not so much.

"I'll drive your camera car, but only where others want to, too, rather than where you decide to send me."