Google Maps just fucking SUCKS now

[pderocco]

Has anyone noticed Google Maps being slow as fucking molasses the past couple weeks?

That's what happens when their servers do so many AI tasks.

Also, why the fuck can't I disable white infoboxes popping up everytime I hover over any town or business? If I wanted to see an infobox, I'd click on the text.

That's why Google Maps is free. Advertising. I wish they had a subscription service, so that for, say, $10 a month, you get a much cleaner Google Maps.

[LilianaUwU]

Has anyone noticed Google Maps being slow as fucking molasses the past couple weeks?

That's what happens when their servers do so many AI tasks.

Also, why the fuck can't I disable white infoboxes popping up everytime I hover over any town or business? If I wanted to see an infobox, I'd click on the text.

That's why Google Maps is free. Advertising. I wish they had a subscription service, so that for, say, $10 a month, you get a much cleaner Google Maps.

Or I wish I could pick with uBlock Origin to remove them, but they go away too fast for me to do so.

[Rothman]

Has anyone noticed Google Maps being slow as fucking molasses the past couple weeks?

That's what happens when their servers do so many AI tasks.

Also, why the fuck can't I disable white infoboxes popping up everytime I hover over any town or business? If I wanted to see an infobox, I'd click on the text.

That's why Google Maps is free. Advertising. I wish they had a subscription service, so that for, say, $10 a month, you get a much cleaner Google Maps.

Nah.  Data collection.

[vdeane]

Has anyone noticed Google Maps being slow as fucking molasses the past couple weeks?

That's what happens when their servers do so many AI tasks.

Also, why the fuck can't I disable white infoboxes popping up everytime I hover over any town or business? If I wanted to see an infobox, I'd click on the text.

That's why Google Maps is free. Advertising. I wish they had a subscription service, so that for, say, $10 a month, you get a much cleaner Google Maps.

Those hovers aren't advertising; they're previews so you can see a picture and get some basic info about a business without having to click on it (and then close it afterwards, as well as Google's record of what you clicked in your search history).  Good for settling the "what is that?" question without doing a deep dive.

I do use the business information in Google Maps when planning trips and as a replacement for the Yellow Pages, though I seem to be a unicorn among forum denizens in that.

Now what's really annoying?  When the business markers in street view interfere with navigation and you accidentally click on one.

[pderocco]

Has anyone noticed Google Maps being slow as fucking molasses the past couple weeks?

That's what happens when their servers do so many AI tasks.

Also, why the fuck can't I disable white infoboxes popping up everytime I hover over any town or business? If I wanted to see an infobox, I'd click on the text.

That's why Google Maps is free. Advertising. I wish they had a subscription service, so that for, say, $10 a month, you get a much cleaner Google Maps.

Those hovers aren't advertising; they're previews so you can see a picture and get some basic info about a business without having to click on it (and then close it afterwards, as well as Google's record of what you clicked in your search history).  Good for settling the "what is that?" question without doing a deep dive.

I don't mean that individual businesses pay to have the hover for their business. I just think hovers were implemented the way they are because Google found that advertising businesses liked it, and therefore it would overall increase their ad revenue.

[Scott5114]

I do use the business information in Google Maps when planning trips and as a replacement for the Yellow Pages, though I seem to be a unicorn among forum denizens in that.

I use it for store hours of chain businesses. It's usually easier to just bring up Google Maps and pan it to the location I want to visit, rather than visiting the website and trying to figure out how to give me the correct location.

[kphoger]

I do use the business information in Google Maps when planning trips and as a replacement for the Yellow Pages, though I seem to be a unicorn among forum denizens in that.

I do that too.  A very common type of search for me would be something like {restaurants near anytown usa}.

I use it for store hours of chain businesses. It's usually easier to just bring up Google Maps and pan it to the location I want to visit, rather than visiting the website and trying to figure out how to give me the correct location.

I start there, then click on the link to go to the business's actual site to confirm.  That, to me, is easier than doing a regular Google search and hoping the top result is the right website.

[Scott5114]

I start there, then click on the link to go to the business's actual site to confirm.  That, to me, is easier than doing a regular Google search and hoping the top result is the right website.

To me, usually the hard part isn't finding the site, it's making sure I'm looking at the right store. Store websites vary in how they handle store hours and locations. Sometimes it's just a list of store numbers and addresses (better than nothing, but I usually don't know the exact address of a store and there might be more than one location on the same street), or sometimes you get a box where you can punch in a zip code (may not be all that helpful if the store is far away from home, or you're on a trip and you don't know what the zip code is where you're at offhand).

[kphoger]

That's true.  Then again, I've also had instances of Google telling me the business hours of a place that wasn't even in business anymore.

[vdeane]

I think Google Maps has a memory leak.  I've noticed that I often need to reload the page when browsing.  If I don't catch it in time, it can cause the tab to die or even freeze my computer.

[Molandfreak]

The contrast in the new interstate shields sucks.

[kkt]

I think Google Maps has a memory leak.  I've noticed that I often need to reload the page when browsing.  If I don't catch it in time, it can cause the tab to die or even freeze my computer.

Memory leaks just seem to be an accepted part of applications now.

[vdeane]

I think Google Maps has a memory leak.  I've noticed that I often need to reload the page when browsing.  If I don't catch it in time, it can cause the tab to die or even freeze my computer.

Memory leaks just seem to be an accepted part of applications now.

Well, it can certainly hinder things.  I've been making heavy use of Google Maps when updating the photo gallery of my website, and it's become a pain to manage memory for it.  Measure a few things, go in and out of street view, zoom out, pan somewhere else, zoom in, etc. and pretty soon you're using 600 MB, the tab gets sluggish, and if you're lucky, it just crashes rather than locking up the whole browser.  Yep, one time it brought the whole thing down (and even crashed Firefox when I tried to look up how to stop just that tab rather than lose my entire session).  That was infuriating.  I thought tab isolation was supposed to prevent such things?

[pderocco]

I think Google Maps has a memory leak.  I've noticed that I often need to reload the page when browsing.  If I don't catch it in time, it can cause the tab to die or even freeze my computer.

Memory leaks just seem to be an accepted part of applications now.

Well, it can certainly hinder things.  I've been making heavy use of Google Maps when updating the photo gallery of my website, and it's become a pain to manage memory for it.  Measure a few things, go in and out of street view, zoom out, pan somewhere else, zoom in, etc. and pretty soon you're using 600 MB, the tab gets sluggish, and if you're lucky, it just crashes rather than locking up the whole browser.  Yep, one time it brought the whole thing down (and even crashed Firefox when I tried to look up how to stop just that tab rather than lose my entire session).  That was infuriating.  I thought tab isolation was supposed to prevent such things?

Since I never have this problem using Edge, I suspect it's a problem with the Java or JavaScript implementation. (I would think the actual map drawing would be Java.)

[CoreySamson]

Anyone else's Google Maps using new shield icons for routes on desktop? The new interstate shields look a little cartoony.

[GaryV]

My Google Maps Lady has started saying things like, "You'll take your next right." How does she know what I'll do next?

[vdeane]

Anyone else's Google Maps using new shield icons for routes on desktop? The new interstate shields look a little cartoony.

It's been appearing intermittently for me for a bit now, although now it's consistent.  They also adjusted the other shields.  And in Canada, routes on the TCH now only have TCH shields.  Very unhelpful in the case of Ontario and Québec.

I think Google Maps has a memory leak.  I've noticed that I often need to reload the page when browsing.  If I don't catch it in time, it can cause the tab to die or even freeze my computer.

Memory leaks just seem to be an accepted part of applications now.

Well, it can certainly hinder things.  I've been making heavy use of Google Maps when updating the photo gallery of my website, and it's become a pain to manage memory for it.  Measure a few things, go in and out of street view, zoom out, pan somewhere else, zoom in, etc. and pretty soon you're using 600 MB, the tab gets sluggish, and if you're lucky, it just crashes rather than locking up the whole browser.  Yep, one time it brought the whole thing down (and even crashed Firefox when I tried to look up how to stop just that tab rather than lose my entire session).  That was infuriating.  I thought tab isolation was supposed to prevent such things?

Since I never have this problem using Edge, I suspect it's a problem with the Java or JavaScript implementation. (I would think the actual map drawing would be Java.)

I wonder if Google Maps has decided to be incompatible with Linux again.  I remember a while where they blacklisted graphics cards on Linux from hardware acceleration.

[hotdogPi]

And in Canada, routes on the TCH now only have TCH shields.  Very unhelpful in the case of Ontario and Québec.

If you zoom in very close, you'll see both. Still not a good change.

[cockroachking]

In Australia, they added white borders to the alphanumeric route shields. The borders were only ever used in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, but they have been phased out in recent years, with borderless numbers on newer signs.

So, Google's "improved, modern-looking" shields somehow ended up going back in time...

[vdeane]

Not Just Bikes spent a video talking about Google Maps today.  The bit about street widths was notable, because he didn't tie it back to his earlier point about differences in city design, even though I suspect this is a large part of why those streets barely show up.  In the US, the street with the most businesses is often the big stroad that's important to cars; the routes that aren't important to cars are either residential areas or back alleys.  Unlike the Netherlands, where the important streets might not even allow cars at all (and thus are shown as pedestrian paths).

The park and ride discussion does highlight a feature Google should have - a hybrid direction option that can start out driving and then shift to transit.

[kphoger]

Now, when I click on a business and expand its listed hours, it only shows me the hours for the current day.  It used to show hours for all seven days.

[kphoger]

Now, when I click on a business and expand its listed hours, it only shows me the hours for the current day.  It used to show hours for all seven days.

And also, no photos show up for me to look at.

But I just figured out that it only does this when I'm in an incognito window.  I tried on both Opera and Firefox so far, and both work fine in a regular window but not in an incognito window.

This did not use to be a thing.  Anyone else having the same issue?

[vdeane]

Now, when I click on a business and expand its listed hours, it only shows me the hours for the current day.  It used to show hours for all seven days.

And also, no photos show up for me to look at.

But I just figured out that it only does this when I'm in an incognito window.  I tried on both Opera and Firefox so far, and both work fine in a regular window but not in an incognito window.

This did not use to be a thing.  Anyone else having the same issue?

I got the no photos problem once at work this week.  It said something about suspicious activity and to sign in for the full experience.  I guess, like Facebook jail, there's now Google Maps jail.

[Alps]

Now, when I click on a business and expand its listed hours, it only shows me the hours for the current day.  It used to show hours for all seven days.

can't replicate that on phone or computer, logged in or incog

[kphoger]

Now, when I click on a business and expand its listed hours, it only shows me the hours for the current day.  It used to show hours for all seven days.

can't replicate that on phone or computer, logged in or incog

I'm at home now instead of at work.  Just tried it with an incognito window of Edge, and it's still the same.  But it works correctly with an incognito window of Chrome.