Google Maps Testing New Apple Maps-Inspired Map Style (opens in new tab)

Yes, there are many possible conflicts of interest in mapping. This is why I'm excited to see the improving usability of Open Street Maps through apps like Organic Maps, and big commercial investments in open mapping data from the Overture Maps Foundation.

In many cases OSM has much more detail than google maps, with business listings and addresses being the biggest exceptions I have encountered. Fortunately, business listings are one of the main things added to the first data release from Overture Maps. For the curious, you can interact with the POI data [here.](https://bdon.github.io/overture-tiles/places.html)

What irks me more is that I'll see pins for hotels, restaurants, etc.. but a search won't surface/highlight the pins I'm looking directly at!

Also attempting to search for a property that happens to have "hotel" or "apartment" in their name automatically switches to the stupid hotel finder interface, which only shows hotels that are bookable from online.

Google maps can't be a cheap service to run. If this is the trade-off then ok.

There's always OSM

Yes, absolutely. They seem to be imprinted on the tiles, too, you can't filter them out with an ad-block rule.

The API doesn't show all this in satellite (aerial view) mode, so sometimes it's tempting to use a service that relies on the maps API.

But even with the API it seems that now the maps view has all those pins for places; I seem to remember it wasn't always the case, but I'm not sure.

yeah nobody cares about the "Latest in <location>" menu that takes up a third of your phone's screen when you use the Maps app.

This feature has surfaced locations that I never would have known about. I don't mind it.

I'm pretty sure only the square pins are ads. So the deluge of hotel pins showing in the map near my house isn't even making them money, it's just an out of control algorithm or terrible product choice.

Many people use hotels, bars, and restaurants as landmarks.

If you know an area, it’s easier to remember something is near so and so resturaunt than to remember street names (if in fact your streets actually have names).

Honestly yes, I usually am looking for restaurants etc nearby.

I don't know how to say this without it coming off as typical internet hyperbole. I mean it quite literally that this makes the thing unusable (as a map) for me. it is a major contributor to why I use Apple Maps for actual maps now.

unfortunately, I still have to use Google Maps to find POI. I suspect this is all they want me to use it for, anyways, since that's all that gives them money.

We have been in Italy in the mountains near Lake Garda, and the hosts where we were staying specifically instructed us not to use Google Maps as it will lead us to sketchy shortcuts which is barely managable to pass trough, while the "official" route to their village is paved, easy to follow, and thus, much faster to pass than Google's route.

I left on Google Maps out of curiosity and indeed, it started to show directions which lead to poor dirty roads where my car would barely fit trough.

One would think that Google has some data about much less cars passing through that road than the paved one and drive some conclusion out of it, as I hardly think anyone would use those roads apart from a few locals who are living there. Especially in an area which is filled with tourists.

Also, Google Maps also often suggests much less efficients routes in my local area where I definitely know that there's a route which not shorter, but still much faster.

+1 (or 100 if I could). Besides all their satellite imagery, Google also knows the average speed on any road while you're navigating, so it can tell if a road is unpaved (or worse, for farm equipment rather than cars). However if it's faster (or equivalent but shorter) it will always recommend an unpaved road over a paved one.

It's crazy, really. I once got routed into a tractor path that was literally a dry creek bed for >2 kms (covered with large, pointy rocks and all). But yeah, it was quicker by 5' than the paved road so it was the top route. Longest 20' of my driving life.

I would seriously pay extra for an option of "ignore unpaved roads" or even better "don't suggest slower roads if the route is shorter than X%"

In this context (driving in central Europe) I've found Apple Maps to choose the conventional route more often. The trip may be slightly longer but more enjoyable, for the exact reasons you mentioned. Google Maps indeed seems to be weighted towards stressful shortcuts.

That's super interesting, because to me the new one literally looks like a captcha! It would be completely unusable with careful perusal, let alone glancing down while navigating. The words all have lines of nearly the exact same color overlayed so I can't read them without squinting and going letter by letter.

I found out several years ago that I have some form of color blindness - amusingly enough during a design review for a map we were designing. I had the exact same problem, with everything bleeding together in an indistinguishable mass, and everyone looking at me like I had 3 heads when I asked how we could possibly ship something so unusable with no contrast.

I suspect there is something similar going on here. To me, the foreground text and background roads are nearly identical in hue and saturation. Is it high contrast to other people? The map I struggled with years ago was using two colors with similar saturation but different hues (a purple and a green/yellow), so I had to push to make sure that "high contrast" meant a difference in both hue AND saturation.

Shipping a couple map-related products has given me a real appreciation for how differently users can experience visual layouts. For one thing, technical people generally like maps a LOT more than the general population does, to the point that we take it for granted that it's the ideal way of presenting anything with a position component.

Quite a lot of people get overwhelmed by maps - they basically shut down and can't figure out the UI at all. Looking at the new version gave me that panicked feeling that I hear those users talk about.

Yeah, I don’t know what the author is talking about. I loved his comparisons over the years, but Google Maps (and others, really) are atrocious to use because of extremely low contrast; the blue version is much better (even if potentially “uglier”)

For a product meant to be used outdoors, Maps does an awful job at being readable.

I find the new map far more cluttered than the old. You don’t want to see a dark grey line for every alleyway and minor path at the high level view. It just looks like a grey mess. The lack of contrasting colours between the main and minor streets (particularly interstates) is a massive step backwards and makes it far hard to plan your route at a glance.

Personally, I don't need to see every single street and avenue in high contrast, I'm more interested in the general layout and things around that area. I agree with the author, the NYC map is almost unparseable at a glance.

Depends on what you're talking about.

For aesthetics? No question Apple's superior.

For navigation? A tossup in my experience?

For discovery of places and reviews? Google's so far ahead it's not even close.

Apple's interface with Google's database of places and reviews would be the holy grail.

Disagree with that, I keep trying it sometimes and it's still inferior in too many ways. It feels like they don't use their own product, which wouldn't come as a surprise.

I’m not sure if it’s a law already but if not I’m claiming it in my name:

The more useful some graphics would be in an article, the less likely it is to contain any.

I think the point is (despite the title) less that they're aping Apple's style, and more that the author believes the new style is generally worse than the old style.

On that point I personally agree, though it seems there's at least a few other people in the comments here who prefer the new style.

They also have an international version called Windy Maps (Mapy.cz has some Czech-centric features): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.wind...

Thanks for the tip. The map style is very dense but IMHO the best for urban areas.

Some names are only rendered in Czech, and hill shading seems to be available only with an active internet connection. I still prefer the shading of "Bergfex Touren" for mountain sports.

Absolutely. I’m actually Czech, so they’re my no. 1 choice anyway, but I’m currently on vacation in Italy and the maps are still great and very useful.

We haven't, and I hope you are not implying that one of the largest tech companies in the world would take advantage of their complete dominance of the internet to weaken their remaining competition.

In all seriousness, it's not a new issue, if you search for it, there are complaints about it going back years.

Now, I'm sure there is a "non-evil" explanation, such as "oh we just test more with Chrome so we optimized for that, but we will try to convince an intern to install Firefox", "Chrome is just better", "Firefox doesn't have x and y features, so it's slow, but it they implement it, it will be fast, too"...

... and there are the "evil" explanation, "let's make one of our most popular products slightly slower on a competing browser to nudge people into using our browser".

It shouldn't flash. You probably have a bad webgl implementation. New graphics drivers?

I'm pretty sure Waze data, in highly processed form, makes it into Google Maps. That's why you get speed trap notifications in Google Maps, IIRC.

Aw t the very least, they have been organizationally combined within the company.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/23499734/google-maps-waze...

They should really allow custom palettes. I don’t understand how they got the product so far along without better accessibility options.

Sounds like a terrible idea. Can't imagine a good UI for that.

Maybe maps hasn’t grown with its users, or can’t be everything for everyone.

If the only metric is engagement it might not be across the features relevant in a single user journey vs head to head.

I needed a map the other day for a repeat need and built it in a few minutes in mapbox studio, only ever used mapbox via code in another life. Didn’t know what to think.

Oddly haven’t looked back for that use. It just embeds and shares and delights.

Still want to try out osm.

Several years ago when I was testing the Apple Maps navigation UI, I started a random navigation trip at home, looked around and tested the UI out without actually driving anywhere. Looked fine until I pressed the power button. Then I found that the Apple Maps hijacked my lock screen to display its own UI. That's the point I noped out of Apple Maps. This is malware-level behavior. No app should be able to override my Lock Screen. Especially not a first-party app because third-party apps are so well sandboxed that they cannot do that. Where are the cries of antitrust?

Apple Maps is malware. Any app that could modify system level behavior such as the Lock Screen is malware. You probably don't agree, but still I will never use it.

https://takeout.google.com probably