Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[Roadgeekteen]

Is it true that Google Maps no longer stores timelines in the cloud, only locally on your device?

Of course.  Didn't you go through that whole nonsense they notified everyone about six times over?

I remember hearing about it a bunch of months back when I could no longer access my timeline on my computer. Not sure if they have any plans to fix this or change this.

None whatsoever.  It was changed due to a European lawsuit over data privacy.  It's not coming back.

Man, those dang Europoors always ruining everything... /s/

Really, I wonder if this would be fixed by making the timeline opt-in only if you want it. Lots of people go their history deleted and are pissed about it. Wonder if Google is actually also trying to save server money.

Is it true that Google Maps no longer stores timelines in the cloud, only locally on your device?

Of course.  Didn't you go through that whole nonsense they notified everyone about six times over?

I remember hearing about it a bunch of months back when I could no longer access my timeline on my computer. Not sure if they have any plans to fix this or change this.

None whatsoever.  It was changed due to a European lawsuit over data privacy.  It's not coming back.

I believe this had more to do with the increasing number of police requests for user's travel history - by making the change to have the data exist only on the user's mobile it puts the data out of reach for those police requests.

Why would google want to go against the police?

[vdeane]

Why would google want to go against the police?

To give users their 4th Amendment rights back?  Going to tech companies and getting their data on someone rather than searching that person's own data is a fairly prominent loophole.

[Roadgeekteen]

Why would google want to go against the police?

To give users their 4th Amendment rights back?  Going to tech companies and getting their data on someone rather than searching that person's own data is a fairly prominent loophole.

Oh yeah, obviously it's the moral thing to do, I just didn't think Google cared about morals at all.

[Rothman]

Is it true that Google Maps no longer stores timelines in the cloud, only locally on your device?

Of course.  Didn't you go through that whole nonsense they notified everyone about six times over?

I remember hearing about it a bunch of months back when I could no longer access my timeline on my computer. Not sure if they have any plans to fix this or change this.

None whatsoever.  It was changed due to a European lawsuit over data privacy.  It's not coming back.

Man, those dang Europoors always ruining everything... /s/

Really, I wonder if this would be fixed by making the timeline opt-in only if you want it. Lots of people go their history deleted and are pissed about it. Wonder if Google is actually also trying to save server money.

Is it true that Google Maps no longer stores timelines in the cloud, only locally on your device?

Of course.  Didn't you go through that whole nonsense they notified everyone about six times over?

I remember hearing about it a bunch of months back when I could no longer access my timeline on my computer. Not sure if they have any plans to fix this or change this.

None whatsoever.  It was changed due to a European lawsuit over data privacy.  It's not coming back.

I believe this had more to do with the increasing number of police requests for user's travel history - by making the change to have the data exist only on the user's mobile it puts the data out of reach for those police requests.

CJEU privacy lawsuits and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) definitely played a role in Google's decision as well.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Anyone decided to pay Google for their new 'Google Earth' Layer program?

[pderocco]

Anyone decided to pay Google for their new 'Google Earth' Layer program?

I looked at the list of layers and didn't see anything I'd be interested in, except that there was something that could show elevation contour lines. I always wanted a function that drew lines on the map at the same elevation as the cursor, but that's not what this is. For static contour lines in the U.S., I can just turn on the Earth Point Topo Map kmz file. There's a lot of vaguely green stuff, like EV charging stations, surface temps, tree canopy, rooftop reflectivity, etc. And the administrative area layers mostly duplicate what's already available in the desktop/laptop version.

So for all that, they want $75 bucks a month. I'd happily pay $30 bucks a month just for preferential download bandwidth, having the crash bugs that have been there since the Pleistocene Era fixed, and restoring the little features they silently withdraw, like many of the layers. One "Places" layer? C'mon.

I'm not sure, but it looks like the new features are only available in the web version, and perhaps the mobile apps, not the "real" Google Earth Pro desktop/laptop version. But it also smells like they're trying to completely eliminate the desktop/laptop program, perhaps by making it worse and worse until practically everyone has given up on it. I've tried the web-based version and the Android app, and they're both pieces of shit, miserly with features, clumsy to use.

This thread is about Google Maps, but it will never replace Google Earth, and I do most of my road viewing and researching in Google Earth. The only advantage of Google Maps is that it has historic street view, and a lot more server bandwidth.

[kphoger]

They should realize that people are more inclined to rob their ass if their house is blurred.

But the potential burglars can't see what security measures are in place without physically driving over there and scoping it out.  They can't simply sit in their living room and plan a way around the front porch camera, for example.

[kphoger]

I just didn't think Google cared about morals at all.

They do have to report to their investors/shareholders, though, and individuals generally want to invest their money in companies they think are at least somewhat ethical in their business.

[Roadgeekteen]

I planned to take the supposed 7 PM Peter Pan from Amherst to Springfield. That bus ended up not existing and instead one came at 8 (scheduled at 7:40), throwing off my whole plans to get home and making me go through Hartford. What the hell Google.

[hotdogPi]

I planned to take the supposed 7 PM Peter Pan from Amherst to Springfield. That bus ended up not existing and instead one came at 8 (scheduled at 7:40), throwing off my whole plans to get home and making me go through Hartford. What the hell Google.

You had to see what the scheduled time was when you bought the ticket. Was it labeled 7 PM on the ticket?

[Roadgeekteen]

I planned to take the supposed 7 PM Peter Pan from Amherst to Springfield. That bus ended up not existing and instead one came at 8 (scheduled at 7:40), throwing off my whole plans to get home and making me go through Hartford. What the hell Google.

You had to see what the scheduled time was when you bought the ticket. Was it labeled 7 PM on the ticket?

I like to travel last minute, so I was planning on buying the tickets right before as I was also considering a few other ways home and Peter Pan has a ridiculous 18 dollar fee to make your ticket refundable.

[Road Hog]

Google Maps in my area is way behind; their imagery is from February or March at the latest, judging from the construction progress behind my store.

But it's better than Apple Maps, which still shows an empty field from 2021. So Google has that going for them.

[pderocco]

Has anyone noticed that Google has tweaked the algorithm for determining where to put route number labels on roads, and they're now extremely sparse, sometimes requiring that you zoom waaaaay in to see the actual route number? I'm also seeing that they're less likely to show street names at a particular zoom level, so you have to zoom in for that as well.

The other thing I've noticed is that the type size for town names has changed, and I'm now seeing that practically everything has the same size, except for a few major cities. For instance, in NV, Reno, Las Vegas, and Henderson have larger bold names, while everything else is the same small size, from Carson City all the way down to Alpha (population zero). Google Earth is even worse, displaying all place names with the same type size, but it at least shows only significant towns when zoomed out.

[Rothman]

Yep.  Hate how far in you have to zoom in to see the route labels.

[Scott5114]

One thing I've learned from Minh, from talking to him about AAMaps, is that coming up with a methodology for automatically deciding whether and where to render labels is a lot more complicated than you'd think. I was complaining about how sparse the labels were for street names, and how it seemed to prioritize some pretty unimportant streets. He showed me how to flip it into label debug mode* and it turns out that it was trying to render the labels, but it detected that they'd collide with other labels, so it decided not to render them. Adding to the complexity, it turns out that a label-drawing procedure which works well for a rectilinear street grid like Las Vegas absolutely sucks for a non-rectilinear street system like Boston, and vice versa.

All that to say that it's a shame Google managed to screw up the perfectly fine label-rendering procedure they had before.

* map.showCollisionBoxes = true in the browser console; red circles mean it tried to draw a label there, but it was collided out.

[pderocco]

One thing I've learned from Minh, from talking to him about AAMaps, is that coming up with a methodology for automatically deciding whether and where to render labels is a lot more complicated than you'd think. I was complaining about how sparse the labels were for street names, and how it seemed to prioritize some pretty unimportant streets. He showed me how to flip it into label debug mode* and it turns out that it was trying to render the labels, but it detected that they'd collide with other labels, so it decided not to render them. Adding to the complexity, it turns out that a label-drawing procedure which works well for a rectilinear street grid like Las Vegas absolutely sucks for a non-rectilinear street system like Boston, and vice versa.

All that to say that it's a shame Google managed to screw up the perfectly fine label-rendering procedure they had before.

* map.showCollisionBoxes = true in the browser console; red circles mean it tried to draw a label there, but it was collided out.

I understand that it's a complex algorithm, and there's no perfect answer, but as you said, it was better before.

I think street names are more of a problem because they take more space. But route number symbols used to be much more prolific, without bumping into each other, and now they're all gone on vacation somewhere.

[CoreySamson]

This is weird:


Ramps between arterial roads are showing up as green instead of grayish-white at certain zoom levels on satellite view. I'm using Safari, and I have traffic turned off.

[pderocco]

Seems to occur only the uncommon case of ramps between dark gray (non-freeway) roads. They do a lot of fiddling with things. I wonder if they have meetings and host focus groups, or if there are just some 20-something programmers messing around.

[pderocco]

Here's another example:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vrnm3UNqFt4pA9kdA

I think the purpose is to use color to indicate grade separations.

[CtrlAltDel]

I noticed an instance of this in College Station TX as well:

[TheCatalyst31]

Another example in Madison, WI. Oddly enough, the green only seems to show up in satellite view, where it kind of looks like the nearby bike path crossing.

[kphoger]

I don't understand this at all.  In what person's mind did green seem like the best color choice for a ramp?

[vdeane]

I don't understand this at all.  In what person's mind did green seem like the best color choice for a ramp?

It's Google Maps; are we sure thinking was involved?

[kphoger]

It's Google Maps; are we sure thinking was involved?

I mean, somebody made a decision, and someone approved it.  There were probably meetings about it.  I'm sure that, at some point in that process, at least one person engaged in thought.

[pderocco]

The color seems like a random choice, but it's being applied according to some algorithm, and that algorithm doesn't seem to make sense. Why do these ramps need a different color? Further west on that road, half a ramp has that color. Go figure...