Google Maps Ditches Walking Calorie Counter After Backlash (engadget.com)

Following online backlash, Google is removing a planned feature in Maps that shows you how many calories you'd burn when in walking mode. Google's attempt to promote a healthy lifestyle caused a number of people to lambast the feature on Twitter, claiming it would "shame" and even "trigger" those with eating disorders. Engadget reports: Taking note of the negative reaction, Google is now dumping the experiment. It confirmed to Engadget that the update was briefly tested on iOS, and has been abandoned based on user feedback. As The Hill's Taylor Lorenz noted in her tweets, there was no way to turn off the feature. Lorenz also claimed that using pink cupcakes as the unit of measurement was "lowkey aimed at women." Others pointed out that Maps wasn't the appropriate place for the update. After all, there are plenty of fitness and calorie counting apps that keep track of your activity and consumption -- again emphasizing how misplaced the feature was.

Comments

Re:Whatever

[Nethemas the Great]

What do I not get about people with eating disorders that would cause them to short-circuit by seeing a calorie estimate if they walked? Seems to me that it'd make for a positive motivator; it would encourage people to dare I suggest, "walk." I have a hard time seeing this as anything more than guilt avoidance by people choosing exercise impoverished lifestyles.

To me it looked like a pretty cool feature. It posed a "what if" that might encourage me to opt-in to walking when I otherwise might not have decided to walk and therefore opened my exercise tracking app. That's kind of a shame, I hope they revisit the idea, and just pacify the nay-sayers with an "off" switch.