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Comment by lnanek2 | Hacker News Reader

In this case Google Maps has been steadily getting worse, so no worries. It feels like every month they remove features and make things take more clicks or require mystery meat navigation. It took me 15 minutes the other day to figure out how to get the list of directions back in navigation mode. You have to tap some unlabeled header. I'm sure that feature is headed for the cutting room floor eventually too even though personally I have no use for step by step navigation and just need to see the list of turns and I'm fine.

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> In this case Google Maps has been steadily getting worse, so no worries.

Whether the UI changes are worse is a subjective claim, but the data Google has has not gotten worse. I've found all the alternative mapping solutions (Here, Bing, OpenStreet, and Apple maps) to be inferior when it comes to data quality which is the more important factor, unless you think getting directed through non-existing streets is a small concern. I'm not a Google fan, I've given up a lot of Google, but I can't quit maps or google search, although I use ddg quite a bit. Google has the most reliable map data, there is no competition and no good alternative.

Depends where you live and what your use cases are. In many countries OpenStreetMap has road data of equivalent or better quality, and path/trail data of vastly superior quality to Google.

Unfortunately the US is not yet (consistently) one of those countries. But "there is no competition and no good alternative" is an over-generalisation.

The UI definitely got worse.

About two weeks ago I was unable to switch to Street View in the android app. It simply wasn't accessible through dropping the pin, as it was in the past.

When Google's flagship app on their own platform forces me to find computer and use the web version, something is seriously wrong.

> About two weeks ago I was unable to switch to Street View in the android app. It simply wasn't accessible through dropping the pin, as it was in the past.

The first thing you should have seen after updating and adding an address is a message telling you to pull up to get more detail. It took me 2 seconds to figure out how to get street view in the new UI. So as I said subjective.

One week ago, it worked.

Two weeks ago, it didn't. I even googled it, how I'm supposed to find it. The street view strip just wasn't there.

It's unpredictable. Nothing subjective, just seek-and-hide UI, which was always hallmark of bad UI.

It doesn't matter how excellent the data is if the UI and access to that data are undermined to the point where I am now open to an alternatives (even if the map data is not quite as good).

It'll just take one half-decent app or company to take me away. Maybe HERE is the one. I will try it.

At some point in the last few years, for a small town I'm familiar with, the alignment between Google maps and aerial imagery got worse, I assume because they switched data providers (or switched what data they are showing or whatever).

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