Google Maps removes "search nearby" feature!?

[Mr. Analog]

I actually noticed this on Tuesday I was looking for Sport Check locations on my tablet to figure out which would be the best one to visit over the weekend and it only showed a single result in the Google Map app, when I do a Google Search it shows multiple locations, then I see this news today:

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/01/16/1819210/

And nearly 300 posts on the support forum already about it:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/maps/GqGuGPY9Xfc%5B1-25-false%5D

And once again I am baffled by their "strategy" here...

I'm also kind of curious if transit overlays are still working or not, I read some comments that indicate they may not be, I use that feature quite a bit too.

*le sigh*

[Tom]

That thread seems to say they are actually looking at bringing it back. Which is better than other google groups, where they don't give a crap about things like this. One of them seems to be honestly broken, rather than removed due to "vision".

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah, I mean this isn't the first time they've had a landslide of negative feedback change their opinion about a feature change but I have to wonder what decision making process leads to these kind of things in the first place.

[Tom]

One thing that seems to have been hitting google is a lack of foresight and testing. They get an idea, half implement it, then roll it out without any kind of testing or care for feature compatibility. Or they treat their partial roll outs AS the testing. Which is just a stupid idea. let people opt into helping to test, rather than just rolling it out to random people.

Of course the other thing they do is gut and break stuff based on some crazy vision, and refuse any and all input. The two are related, I think it stems from the same issues with their corporate culture.

[Mr. Analog]

I would be more forgiving if the changes were additive.

I mean I remember when they buried the GMail "logout" link in sub-menus a couple of years ago (into that horrible black bar), looking back you could see how the migration to G+ was being played out even then

[Tom]

Yeah. I have a hunch that one big issue is that the G+ group is 100% isolated from the rest of the company in its own building across the main campus. I wonder about what kind of actual talk happens between the G+ group and main app teams. The G+ group has also been given free reign to do whatever. It's not really a good precedent to give to a bunch of nerds with "vision" that no one outside of their group actually gives a crap about.

[Mr. Analog]

Actually I'm pretty sure it's a company wide initiative that has members working toward integration on all fronts to some kind of G+ singularity

It might explain why all this stuff is coming together piecemeal the way it is...

[Tom]

Well it is an initiative, but who knows how integrated the other teams are with it. There really is a main G+ group that is separated physically and organizationally from the rest of the company.

[Darren Dirt]

One thing that seems to have been hitting google is a lack of foresight and testing. They get an idea, half implement it, then roll it out without any kind of testing or care for feature compatibility. Or they treat their partial roll outs AS the testing. Which is just a stupid idea. let people opt into helping to test, rather than just rolling it out to random people.

Of course the other thing they do is gut and break stuff based on some crazy vision, and refuse any and all input. The two are related, I think it stems from the same issues with their corporate culture.

You'd think searching in Google/Gmaps for "gas station near here/City/Neighborhood" would be something they'd want to keep forever, since it makes Google look brilliant when it helps you find something quickly that mighta taken you a while via other searching methods, Yellow Pages, asking strangers on the street etc.


Maybe it's being killed because its results are undependable? Maybe too much map info = harder to provide accurate map info?

[Tom]

My bet they just forgot about it.

[Mr. Analog]

I'm pretty sure the intention was to pave the way to monetise the feature into some kind of "Google Suggests" type deal

You search "pizza" relative to your position and Google will "suggest" whoever paid the most, much like how certain keywords produce top paid for results in search

[Tom]

That doesn't mean they have to break that feature though. Could have just made it relative to A location rather than the current location. big old derp.


speaking of food....