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Comment by DoingIsLearning | Hacker News Reader

Maybe if they had _some_ cartographers in the maps team perhaps google would understand the importance of a having a scale shown on a map _all_ the time.

A map is by definition drawn to scale, having a scale on the map is what makes it a map. We may maintain proportions but by removing the scale, it simply becomes a polished drawing with zero intuition of distance.

I am old enough that I navigated forest/mountain treks with a compass and topographic map as a teen. To me not having a map scale when navigating to a new place feels really disconcerting.

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> Maybe if they had _some_ cartographers in the maps team perhaps google would understand the importance of a having a scale shown on a map _all_ the time.

Missing scale in online maps—and Google is a frequent offender—drives me fucking crazy.

It's one of the reasons I use OpenStreetMaps, despite it's shortcomings.

What are its shortcomings compared to Google's offering?

It's not as good at searching for places.

I'm surprised that nobody has apparently invented a more minimalistic scale that goes along the edges of the display. That way it's more consistently obvious while not taking up any space in the middle.

On desktop, the scale shows up all the time at the bottom right corner of the screen. On mobile it's only showing up during zooming, so I often zooming back and forth just to see the scale.

On iOS Google Maps go to Settings->Scales and set Map Scales to Always.

No Google cartographers necessary.

Yes I am aware, however (on android) it remains 'on' when manipulating in 'map mode' but it again dissapears when you ask it to provide route directions from A to B.

So it is not "always" shown.

At least in the mobile application, this can be fixed: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6242110?hl=en

Not quite true.

It remains 'on' when manipulating in 'map mode' but it again dissapears when you ask it to provide route directions from A to B.

So it is not "always" shown.

I never paid attention to the scale when using a map.

I am not sure why you are downvoted as I have the feeling this will be true for a lot of people nowadays.

The scale of a map becomes relevant if you have to travel more than a few kilometres without an external 'absolute' reference like a GPS.

You could argue that navigation as an individual skill is also obsolete. Equally you could argue that ham radio is obsolete, however there are plenty of exanples of infrastruture faults in disaster situations where ham radio comms was the only alternative for emergency services after earthquakes hurricanes etc.

This is same reasoning why pilots training includes instrument loss scenarios. No system is garanteed to never fail.

So, if you're looking at a map of a city, you don't care whether you have to walk 1/4 mile or 2 miles between two places?

This actually happened to me once - I walked for way longer than I expected (I had looked at a map just to get directions not caring much about distances), but anyway it was an errand I absolutely had to do that day, knowing in advance how long it was going to take wouldn't have helped me (except maybe psychologically).

Now, I'm not defending my actions, I just gave the example to see I was not exaggerating.

Maybe it's because I do a lot of hiking, but I'm always acutely aware of scale when I'm looking at a map--and it annoys me if it's not immediately obvious.

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