Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[jakeroot]

What were the employees thinking? Google do this at 2 am?

I don't think this involves employees. Likely a bug.

does google do automated work on maps?

The vast majority of Google Maps is automated, based on code. The images you see were not hand-picked by Google. The code selected the image based on various things, however, the code isn't working right, since many of the images aren't correct. I think any human would know that Stafford, CT doesn't have a tropical beach.

Could it be choosing the photo based on the location from which it was uploaded, rather than where it was taken? Perhaps someone from Stafford, CT took a photo of a beach while on vacation, then uploaded it to Google after returning home.

Very well could be. Or perhaps based on a tagging system, where people have tagged their upload location, rather than the location of the photo. I uploaded a picture of the Shard (tall building in London) on Instagram a few years back, but tagged it "Burger King" because that's where I was when I uploaded it. All of my subsequent tags were of the actual location. But, that Burger King permanently has a photo of the Shard attached to the location.

Then why are they all pictures of famous or beautiful things?

Good question. Perhaps Google has an algorithm to automatically detect photos that are good, versus ones that are shitty, but doesn't have enough data to determine if the good photos are geographically correct?

[index]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

[hotdogPi]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

[jakeroot]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

Also not me. Not every glitch is a feature.

[index]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

Also not me. Not every glitch is a feature.

It's not a glitch.

https://www.blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-gets-new-look/

A quick google search will also show some articles relating to a new look for maps.

While improvements have been made, it, in my opinion, was not a smart choice to reduce road color coding to only yellow or white.

[jakeroot]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

Also not me. Not every glitch is a feature.

It's not a glitch.

https://www.blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-gets-new-look/

A quick google search will also show some articles relating to a new look for maps.

While improvements have been made, it, in my opinion, was not a smart choice to reduce road color coding to only yellow or white.

My bad. I see, too often on this thread, users complaining about a bug being some sort of new feature. It's kind of a knee-jerk response at this point.

I do agree, however. The new color scheme is a bit confusing. I'm not sure how many users use Google Maps to quickly find freeways, though. Most people seem to use Google Maps to find POIs, and then to help them get there. You don't need colors for navigation (Waze has a flat color scheme for comparison), you just need it for wayfinding. And this update makes it easier to do that, as long as you aren't trying to scope out the nearest freeway.

[index]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

Also not me. Not every glitch is a feature.

It's not a glitch.

https://www.blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-gets-new-look/

A quick google search will also show some articles relating to a new look for maps.

While improvements have been made, it, in my opinion, was not a smart choice to reduce road color coding to only yellow or white.

My bad. I see, too often on this thread, users complaining about a bug being some sort of new feature. It's kind of a knee-jerk response at this point.

I do agree, however. The new color scheme is a bit confusing. I'm not sure how many users use Google Maps to quickly find freeways, though. Most people seem to use Google Maps to find POIs, and then to help them get there. You don't need colors for navigation (Waze has a flat color scheme for comparison), you just need it for wayfinding. And this update makes it easier to do that, as long as you aren't trying to scope out the nearest freeway.

I can agree with what you've said, I don't really think it matters to the traveler whether something's a freeway or expressway or arterial, but toll routes are a definite thing to consider when taking a route. Though, to be fair, Google maps does have an option to avoid tolls.  Perhaps these new road color schemes are just something that would bug people who are interested in roads?

[jakeroot]

Perhaps these new road color schemes are just something that would bug people who are interested in roads?

Almost certainly! Most of the changes to Google Maps, over the last few years, have not favored roadgeeks who simply use it to browse for fun. Ask any resident of the UK. The roads there used to be colored to match the route designation (blue, green, orange, white, etc). Now, all the colors match the rest of the world. This makes looking at maps confusing, especially since A-roads will sometimes be yellow, and sometimes white. Before, they were always green. Bing Maps still colors UK roads properly.

[jp the roadgeek]

1 year and 6 change requests, and CT 31 north of US 44 is still signed as a county route. of which there are none in CT.   I've had more luck with city hall and the DMV.

[vdeane]

I don't see anything in the article about road colors, though.

[jakeroot]

I don't see anything in the article about road colors, though.

I thought I saw the changes in some of the preview images, but looking again, the Google Search and Google Assistant previews show the old colors. I thought I saw the new colors in the Google Maps preview, but I actually think it's showing the West Side Highway in Manhattan (notably not a freeway), which is already shown as a yellow today.

[LM117]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

I see it when I use Google Maps through the desktop version on Google's webpage, but not on my android app. I think the change sucks. If there's a way to fuck something up, Google will find it, come hell or high water.

[Eth]

We've got another stupid update. The "improvement" in this one is that freeways, expressways, tolled routes, major arterials, and the like, are all the same color...

It's not happening to me.

Also not me. Not every glitch is a feature.

It's not a glitch.

https://www.blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-gets-new-look/

A quick google search will also show some articles relating to a new look for maps.

While improvements have been made, it, in my opinion, was not a smart choice to reduce road color coding to only yellow or white.

It looks like they may have rolled this back. I saw the change a couple days ago, but today it seems to be back to how it was last week. Maybe they realized they needed to make some adjustments.

[myosh_tino]

Interesting...

To me it looks like it depends on what browser you are using.  On my main desktop Mac running OS X 10.12 (Sierra) using Safari, Google Maps appears like the example Index posted where arterials and freeways are the same color.  However, if I switch to Google Chrome, the colors of each type of roadway are different.

To make thing even more bizarre, on my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) using Safari, freeways and arterials are colored differently.

So to summarize...
MacOS X 10.12 w/Safari v10 -- Arterials/Freeways Same Color
MacOS X 10.12 w/Chrome v62 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color
MacOS X 10.11 w/Safari v9 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color

[Eth]

So to summarize...
MacOS X 10.12 w/Safari v10 -- Arterials/Freeways Same Color
MacOS X 10.12 w/Chrome v62 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color
MacOS X 10.11 w/Safari v9 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color

My own observations:
MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) w/ Chrome (61? I updated today, so may have been 61), November 18 – Arterials/Freeways Same Color
MacOS 10.13 w/ Chrome 62, November 20 – Arterials/Freeways Different Color
MacOS 10.13 w/ Safari 11, November 20 – Arterials/Freeways Different Color
Android 7.1.1 w/ Google Maps app v9.66.1, November 20 – Arterials/Freeways Different Color

[jakeroot]

On Windows 10....something, I can't get "the look" to show up on any browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, IE -- nothing.

[myosh_tino]

Just did a quick check on my Windows 7 machine...

Windows 7 w/Firefox v55 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color

On Windows 10....something, I can't get "the look" to show up on any browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, IE -- nothing.

Windows 10 is banned from my computers 

[jakeroot]

On Windows 10....something, I can't get "the look" to show up on any browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, IE -- nothing.

Windows 10 is banned from my computers 

Windows 10 is by far the best OS Microsoft has ever made. They like to shove updates down the throats of users, but it's mostly for the greater good. Not like Apple doesn't do the same thing.

You could have also been making a "Windows sucks in general" joke. In which case, that's fine. But it's lost on gamers like me. You just can't game on a Mac.

[MNHighwayMan]

You could have also been making a "Windows sucks in general" joke. In which case, that's fine. But it's lost on gamers like me. You just can't game on a Mac.

That's why I have Win10 too. It also helps that I have never had to purchase Windows myself. My first computer was a gift, and for the computer I built for myself in 2010 (and am still using albeit with upgrades), I got a license for Windows 7 for free from my university (which I later used to get the free 10 upgrade).

[20160805]

I just upgraded to Windows 7 from XP this past January.  I like being a little behind the times 

[index]

I just upgraded to Windows 7 from XP this past January.  I like being a little behind the times 

As do I. I intend on staying on Windows 7 as long as it does what I need it to do and is supported by the programs, drivers, and hardware I use.

[index]

Interesting...

To me it looks like it depends on what browser you are using.  On my main desktop Mac running OS X 10.12 (Sierra) using Safari, Google Maps appears like the example Index posted where arterials and freeways are the same color.  However, if I switch to Google Chrome, the colors of each type of roadway are different.

To make thing even more bizarre, on my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) using Safari, freeways and arterials are colored differently.

So to summarize...
MacOS X 10.12 w/Safari v10 -- Arterials/Freeways Same Color
MacOS X 10.12 w/Chrome v62 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color
MacOS X 10.11 w/Safari v9 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color

On Windows 10....something, I can't get "the look" to show up on any browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, IE -- nothing.

On the topic of this, I believe it's because Google is rolling out the new update in waves. Not all browsers/people/etc will get it at the same time. It showed up for one of my friends (who uses Chrome) the day after Google announced it, and showed up for another person I know a few days after it was announced. (they use Firefox) As for me, I still haven't got it yet. I'm a Chrome user.

[silverback1065]

it looks terrible, they just cant stop fucking with it.

[J N Winkler]

Windows 7 w/Firefox v55 -- Arterials/Freeways Different Color

Also true here for same OS, Firefox version 48.

Not to drag this thread too far OT, but I have no plans to upgrade from Windows 7 on the current primary computer (purchased 2011, not going to be replaced until 2019 at earliest) and still run XP on a laptop (purchased 2006) that is now used primarily to operate a four-in-one multifunction printer as a document scanner.  In spite of repeated assurances from people working in IT support who maintain that Windows 10 is just fine on the majority of computers that meet its hardware specs, in this household we have noticed its implementation of SMB is rough-edged.  The family member who uses an Android tablet to look at PDF documents held on his laptop HD has had problems with Windows 10 suddenly refusing to serve directory listings or files over the SMB connection.  This is a well-known issue with Windows 10 and there are varying recipes for fixing it, each of which works for one subset of users and not for others.

[Brandon]

it looks terrible, they just cant stop fucking with it.

That's the problem with programmers.  It's perfect, so let's make it "better"!  More like, better, my ass.