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Google Sunsetting Old Version of Google Maps
New submitter Robertgilberts writes with word that Google is dropping the old version of Maps. The new version of Google Maps came out of preview back in February 2014 and was in beta for several months before that. The only way to access the old version of Google Maps was via a special URL or if you had a very old browser that did not support the new version of Google Maps. Consolation prize: There will still be a lighter-weight version, which "drops out many of the neat Google Maps features in exchange for speed and compatibility."
The new version still does not have the Distance Measurement Tool. I still switch to the old version for that feature.
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Congratulations on approving an SEO spammer who just happened to submit something on-topic!
I use open street maps and never looked back. https://www.openstreetmap.org/
They focus test for all the advertising spam that pops shows up instead of what you're really trying to search for.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
"Where you been all these years? Looking good old friend!"
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
Currently you can use classic with this URL:
https://www.google.com/maps?ou...
Since like, no one linked it or mentioned it yet.
To return to the old version:
1. Go to maps.google.com
2. Click on the ? icon in the lower right corner
3. Click "return to classic Google Maps"
But there doesn't seem to be a way to make it permanent.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
On the Google Maps support forum, there was a long ongoing discussion about the "new" maps.
People overwhelmingly hated it.
It is harder to use, some features don't work anymore (or at least not as well as they did), etc.
It seemed to faze them not at all. Google asked people details about just exactly they didn't like, and why... and changed none of it.
Well, gee, perhaps I should just mouseover to see what each button does? Oh yeah that's right, there's not even a bloody mouseover for half of the buttons. Gotta just try clicking them and seeing what happens.
Lets look at your list. 5 bloody buttons for Google Integration. Which again, the vast majority of people using Google Maps want nothing to do with. "Gee, I need directions to my friend's house. I could really use a button to open up Google Drive right now!" And hey, let's put them in top of the screen where most people expect to find their most important controls!
Hey, that view type? The one in the lower left, which is probably the least likely place a person would look for it? Let's make that only represent half of the possibilities for the view type! Let's put the other half in the upper left right near the directions button!
Hey, pictures? Let's make them suddenly appear when you turn on satellite. But not on the map - my god no, why would you want to know where on the map the pictures are? Let's make them take up a massive thumbbar at the bottom of your screen, clearly people will want that! What, people are complaining? Okay, let's put a tiny line when you mouseover the image that only emphasizes how the ordering of the images has no correlation to where they are on the map.
There's three buttons on the bottom right, to the right of the streetview person. Let's see what each of them do. PSYCH! Haha, gotcha, they're all just one button, and it's not even a button, just a toggle to the annoying "photo bar". The seemingly disconnected arrow icon is the same thing.
Clearly we've now got too much stuff on the screen, so let's take away people's ability to choose their zoom level, because nobody gives a rat's arse about that, what they really want is a quick link to Google Drive!
Language input is in the upper left. Language choice is in the setting bar on the lower right. Making a route is in the lower left. Sharing a link to the route is in the setting bar on the lower right. And of course, all of the stuff on the lower right is below a bloody link to what you've been searching for on Google, as if that has any bloody purpose in being there whatsoever. But a link to My Maps? No no, not there! It's in the bloody suggested searches entry on the upper left.
Whatever flock of drunken geese designed the interface should never be allowed to touch design again.
*Kid Rock runs for Senate* Democrats: We must run Kid Scissors.
There's still an option to allow exact searches: Search tools->all results->Verbatim.
Drives me nuts too, I'll have to figure out how to specify that in the URL so I can at least call the page with that option already switched on.