Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[CtrlAltDel]

Just block it with uBlock Origin or any adblocker that allows picking elements to block.

I tried that. It leaves an empty black vertical bar. Which is admittedly an improvement. That said, further exploration shows that it also blacks out any directions that it gives you.

I've also noticed that the width of the window is a factor and that it won't appear if the window is too narrow.

[bm7]

Just block it with uBlock Origin or any adblocker that allows picking elements to block.

I tried that. It leaves an empty black vertical bar. Which is admittedly an improvement. That said, further exploration shows that it also blacks out any directions that it gives you.

I've also noticed that the width of the window is a factor and that it won't appear if the window is too narrow.

If it blocks the directions, you blocked the wrong part. Unblock it, get directions, then try blocking it again and you can make sure you're only getting rid of the sidebar and not the directions as well.

[kphoger]

It leaves an empty black vertical bar. Which is admittedly an improvement.

How is that an improvement?  Isn't the same amount of the map covered up either way?

[Scott5114]

It leaves an empty black vertical bar. Which is admittedly an improvement.

How is that an improvement?  Isn't the same amount of the map covered up either way?

If you prefer dark mode, having a black bar would be less visually intrusive than a white bar.

[CtrlAltDel]

It leaves an empty black vertical bar. Which is admittedly an improvement.

How is that an improvement?  Isn't the same amount of the map covered up either way?

Well, it's not only the map being covered up that bothers me.

Just block it with uBlock Origin or any adblocker that allows picking elements to block.

I tried that. It leaves an empty black vertical bar. Which is admittedly an improvement. That said, further exploration shows that it also blacks out any directions that it gives you.

I've also noticed that the width of the window is a factor and that it won't appear if the window is too narrow.

If it blocks the directions, you blocked the wrong part. Unblock it, get directions, then try blocking it again and you can make sure you're only getting rid of the sidebar and not the directions as well.

Yes, that is a good plan and one I should have thought of on my own. That said, I tried it, and it worked, but when I came back this morning, it had reverted somehow to the new standard. So, there's some dynamic process here which furthers my annoyance.

[CtrlAltDel]

The sidebar is now optional:

[vdeane]

Now if only they could fix the measure distance tool so that one could add points in the middle again.

[kurumi]

Here's Google Maps on Firefox for the past several days. Each highway gets a distinctive pattern instead of a route marker.

I see Scotland on that map.  They're probably just different tartans.

The problem went away with a Firefox update. Now it's just a Canterbury Tale.

[Scott5114]

[pderocco]

Thing is, he's right.

Imagine if paper road maps had white roads outlined in light gray lines on a very light gray background. Everyone would think the printer was running out of ink.

But this isn't unique to Google. Some time around a quarter century ago, that became the accepted style, for the "lesser" roads, in everybody's maps. Bing does. Mapquest does. OpenStreetMaps does. Mapillary does. Here Wego does. TomTom does. The old MSS&T software did. They all suck.

DeLorme at least sold Topo USA for desktop/laptop that used contrasty colors. It sucked for other reasons.

So what color should roads be? How about black? Is black good for you? Pavement is black, or blacker than the lines on these maps, so you'd think that choice might have occurred to someone, somewhere along the line. The background should be white, or pale colors indicating park land or city/town extents.

If they provided a choice, it would be interesting to see how many people would switch.

[J N Winkler]

I find my color and contrast preferences depend on what I am trying to do.  If I'm hunting for the shortest routing (in either distance or time) between two points, it helps to have the roads sort of fade into the background.  If I'm looking at an unfamiliar country and trying to get a sense of how its motorway system is structured (as I have been doing recently with the Netherlands, having just downloaded the more than 100,000 sign images in its signing database), it is inconvenient not to be able to view that road class at higher contrast.

One solution--which I do not expect ever to receive development effort, because it does not contribute to the corporate goal of profiting through ads--would be to make the colors for all displayed features fully user-adjustable, with the ability to define different color profiles for different purposes.

[SkyPesos]

LA Metro's Regional Connector opened a couple of days ago, and Google Maps still haven't updated their transit layer yet, and even didn't give transit directions involving the Reginal Connector until a day or two after opening. Apple maps updated both within an hour of it opening.

[index]

I don't know what Google did, but for about a month now Google Maps has been painfully slow to the point of unusability on Firefox. Everything else works fine. On Chrome it is perfectly fine, maybe even better than it used to be now. This reeks of antitrust-type fuckery. I've had to use Chrome for everything Maps-related for a while, and I hate using Chrome.

[kphoger]

I noticed yesterday that N. West Street, here in Wichita, gained an additional 3 miles by overlapping with W 21st Street.

[therocket]

I don't know what Google did, but for about a month now Google Maps has been painfully slow to the point of unusability on Firefox. Everything else works fine. On Chrome it is perfectly fine, maybe even better than it used to be now. This reeks of antitrust-type fuckery. I've had to use Chrome for everything Maps-related for a while, and I hate using Chrome.

Firefox user here: It works perfectly fine

[index]

I don't know what Google did, but for about a month now Google Maps has been painfully slow to the point of unusability on Firefox. Everything else works fine. On Chrome it is perfectly fine, maybe even better than it used to be now. This reeks of antitrust-type fuckery. I've had to use Chrome for everything Maps-related for a while, and I hate using Chrome.

Firefox user here: It works perfectly fine

For you, maybe. A chat I am in with two other people who use Firefox + Google Maps to look at roads have complained of the same issue.

[jakeroot]

I don't know what Google did, but for about a month now Google Maps has been painfully slow to the point of unusability on Firefox. Everything else works fine. On Chrome it is perfectly fine, maybe even better than it used to be now. This reeks of antitrust-type fuckery. I've had to use Chrome for everything Maps-related for a while, and I hate using Chrome.

Firefox user here: It works perfectly fine

For you, maybe. A chat I am in with two other people who use Firefox + Google Maps to look at roads have complained of the same issue.

Firefox on Mac user here, no issues.

[pderocco]

I've had the same problem on my desktop machine, and eventually switched my default to Edge (which is Chrome). However the slowness wasn't limited to Google Maps, it was present on some other sites too. Yet Firefox with the exact same config is still fine on my laptop.

[index]

I've had the same problem on my desktop machine, and eventually switched my default to Edge (which is Chrome). However the slowness wasn't limited to Google Maps, it was present on some other sites too. Yet Firefox with the exact same config is still fine on my laptop.

I am using my laptop for the first time in about four months (I am selling my desktop as I no longer need it) and it looks like Google Maps on Firefox is messed up on there as well. I guess I'm just going to have to totally get used to using Chrome for Google Maps. I'm no stranger to having to open up Chrome for stuff every now and then anyway. So many websites only design and test for Chromium-based browsers and Safari, and don't care for anything else. So annoying.

[hotdogPi]

I don't think this is "only testing for Chromium-based browsers and Safari"; I think it's Google intentionally throttling Firefox to get people to switch to Chrome. They did that with Internet Explorer about a decade ago.

[index]

I don't think this is "only testing for Chromium-based browsers and Safari"; I think it's Google intentionally throttling Firefox to get people to switch to Chrome. They did that with Internet Explorer about a decade ago.

Well, yeah, I did bring up that possibility when I originally posted about this issue. In that post I was speaking in a more general sense about how non-Chromium users get shafted all the time.

[Chris]

I use Firefox and also noticed Google Maps is relatively slow. Not 'unusable', but it takes a few seconds to load Google Maps. I have a fiber-optic internet connection so that's definitely not the bottleneck.

[cstp3103]

yeah, Maps still works on Firefox for me, but it's noticeable slower to the point that if I'm only using Maps I'll just use Chrome instead

[jakeroot]

I guess this bears repeating: I use Google Maps + Firefox regularly, and I have noticed zero lag compared to using Chrome.

The difference to the rest of you, maybe, is that I use a Mac. I think 1 also does.

I did notice poor performance on Safari; Google Maps would eventually stop loading, and I would have to either reload or close the tab entirely.

[hotdogPi]

The difference to the rest of you, maybe, is that I use a Mac. I think 1 also does.

While I use a Mac, I also use Safari, so I can't join the Firefox comparison. No issues on Safari, though.