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Comment by psaintla | Hacker News Reader

I agree completely, there are so many great features I think they could have added instead of changing the interface.

1.) Send directions to a mobile device. There are many times where I search for directions or map out an alternate route on my desktop. The only way I can access those directions is to email it to myself then open the email on the mobile device. Why not just store the data and let the user retrieve it on their mobile device?

2.) Better accuracy of property in rural/suburban areas. It's odd to say this but Bing Maps is actually much more accurate in rural areas.

3.) More fine grained control over street view placement.

4.) Offline maps! Not everywhere has good cell coverage.

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Offline maps never really went away, but they did get harder to manage. Type "OK maps" in the search bar to cache the visible area (it saves several zoom levels). Apparently with the newest version there's another method: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-use-google-maps-offline-on...

Agreed on the apparent deprecation of social/offline features, but the navigation does seem to be getting better.

Google Maps' offline feature is a bit misleading. You can't search or get directions without an internet connection. Although, if you are already navigating and the connection drops and you have the maps offline it would continue to navigate you.

Yes, that's true, search doesn't work.

However, your starred items do remain even while offline. So for travelling without data, given some planning time, you can star a bunch of stuff while you have wifi, and then navigate using the offline map without search.

I've tried many other solutions, and this really was the simplest and best for me.

> Send directions to a mobile device.

Yeah. How is this not a thing?! I imagine a lot of people search for things on their desktop and then want to "push" it to their phone for navigation, but yet I have to re-enter the zip into the phone to do so.

I tend to get Google Now notifications for directions I've searched for on my desktop.

That is really intermittent for me. When I first started using Google now, I got them. These days, it only shows destinations I frequently travel to.

This has been available on Android for a while:

Firefox: www.foxtophone.com

Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-chrome-to-p...

I actually tried that, it's kind of hacky and is not well integrated with google maps or android. Also, if your phone is off or the screen is locked for a few minutes it doesn't work.

I've been using Chrome to Phone pretty much every day for the past couple of years, for this and other stuff. You look up a route, click the button, the link is sent to your phone, you click on it, it opens up in Maps. Then it works the same as if you manually enter the route query on your mobile device.

I'm not sure how the could integrate it more (or even less) with Maps or Android or what the phone being off or locked has got to do with it. It syncs the same way all Google services do. I suppose it may be working less well on an older or oddly (manufacturer) customized device.

Better integration would work by allowing users to save routes on google maps. Those same routes would show in your list of saved routes on the google maps app, possibly with a cached offline version of the route on your cellphone.

If you're logged in on both devices the search history is shared and you'll see the last destination you searched for on your desktop at the top of the list when you open Google Maps on your mobile.

This was the reason Chrome-to-phone was developed, and even now, one of my favorite use cases for Pushbullet.

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