Classic Google Maps RIP

[Joaz Banbeck]

Google terminated the old google maps last week. It was quick, easy to use, and light on CPU cycles.

Is it just me, or does anyone else miss it?

[DrStraw]

Never used it. Just be glad they didn't wipe the actually houses of the map. They have the power.

[Bonobo]

Yup, me.

[Bantari]

Hmm... I am confused.

I go to goole, type in an address, and I get a map of the area. This is how it worked before as well. Looks the same too, more or less. I can find direction from here to there, just like before. I can go to street view or see images, just like beofre.

The app on my cell phone works the same as well.

So what has changed and why is that so tragic?
Just asking...

[Uberdude]

The thing I miss most is the correct UK road colours. A year or two ago Google unilaterally recoloured roads in the UK against the standard convention here (which is reflected in road signs; blue motorways, green trunk roads, red A roads, orange B roads, yellow C, white minor). Not only was this ugly and arrogant, many A/B/C/minor roads that used to be differently coloured all became indistinguishable white/gray which made route finding next to impossible on them (e.g. http://www.markgoodge.com/2013/07/googl ... n-and-red/). There was a hack I had to sort-of fix this on classic, but it doesn't work on new. As the author of that links says:

Google no longer expects users to use its maps as maps. Instead, it expects the maps to be merely a means of conveying other data, such as computer-generated routes, and advertising, and links to other Google products. The idea that someone would look at a map, and, just by looking at it, be able to tell how to get from one place to another seems incredibly old-fashioned. And so there’s no longer any need for the visual clues necessary to make map-reading easy and intuitive.

[DrStraw]

Google no longer expects users to use its maps as maps. Instead, it expects the maps to be merely a means of conveying other data, such as computer-generated routes, and advertising, and links to other Google products. The idea that someone would look at a map, and, just by looking at it, be able to tell how to get from one place to another seems incredibly old-fashioned. And so there’s no longer any need for the visual clues necessary to make map-reading easy and intuitive.

Hey, if people actually think for themselves then they cannot easily be dumbed down and so they cannot be controlled.

[Fedya]

I don't care for it either.

By the same token, the Internet Movie Database seems finally to have gotten rid of its plain long list pages of people born on this date. Now you only get 50 people on a page, so instead of scrolling up/down to find people born in, say, the 1910s (I blog about classic film, so I'm generally looking for people born in the 1890-1930 range), you have to click through multiple pages.

You can, however, sort by height, which is ever-so-helpful.

[tj86430]

When I go to https://www.google.fi/maps it looks pretty much as it used to be. What has changed?

[perceval]

slightly off topic but i love this little game around google street view/goolge maps:

https://geoguessr.com/world/play


to me, australia ressemble south africa, but they are so far appart it hurts.
Same for east and west russia

[DrStraw]

slightly off topic but i love this little game around google street view/goolge maps:

https://geoguessr.com/world/play


to me, australia ressemble south africa, but they are so far appart it hurts.
Same for east and west russia

Nice. I'd never seen that before. No idea what a good score is but I scored 10300.

[EdLee]

Could someone post a side-by-side comparison of the previous version and the current version, on the same location ?

[Uberdude]

Could someone post a side-by-side comparison of the previous version and the current version, on the same location ?

Not unless they saved them already. That's the point, Google have removed the ability to choose the old version. But if you look in the link I posted you can see such a comparison for a part of England (it's changed even more since then with different navigation tools, image banners and more, but that shows the road colour change).

[Bantari]

The thing I miss most is the correct UK road colours. A year or two ago Google unilaterally recoloured roads in the UK against the standard convention here (which is reflected in road signs; blue motorways, green trunk roads, red A roads, orange B roads, yellow C, white minor). Not only was this ugly and arrogant, many A/B/C/minor roads that used to be differently coloured all became indistinguishable white/gray which made route finding next to impossible on them (e.g. http://www.markgoodge.com/2013/07/googl ... n-and-red/). There was a hack I had to sort-of fix this on classic, but it doesn't work on new. As the author of that links says:

Google no longer expects users to use its maps as maps. Instead, it expects the maps to be merely a means of conveying other data, such as computer-generated routes, and advertising, and links to other Google products. The idea that someone would look at a map, and, just by looking at it, be able to tell how to get from one place to another seems incredibly old-fashioned. And so there’s no longer any need for the visual clues necessary to make map-reading easy and intuitive.

This explains why I see no difference when I look at Google maps in here.

So they changed colors in England, eh?
Hmm...

Looking at the "old-vs-new" images in the article you link, I realize that here in the US we have had something resembling the "new" for a long time now... come to think of it, I don't really remember *ever* seeing green and blue roads. Looking at some paper maps I purchased for my European trips, I also do not see any funky road colors. Is that specific to UK?

In any case, I feel your pain, dude - but I still think too much is made out of it. "Route finding next to impossible"? Puh-leeze... I have been using Google for sucessfully finding routes for years now, all over the world, did not have any problems at all. Same for the paper maps. You will get used to it as well. I think what Google did was to bring the UK map to be on par with the rest of the world, so when somebody visits they can see the familiar map and colors and be able to find their way easier. Which is not a bad idea, in and of itself.

But I understand that, like every change, this change takes some used to.

[Fedya]

It's not just that, Bantari. There's something different about the route planner and the map that it presented for the route, that I can't quite put my finger on.

[DrStraw]

It's not just that, Bantari. There's something different about the route planner and the map that it presented for the route, that I can't quite put my finger on.

So routes are now designed to avoid sensitive government installations?