Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/Google forums
Google Maps is currently the world's number one mobile navigation app, so it goes without saying that every little change that Google makes, with or without an announcement, eventually impacts quite a lot of users.
This is precisely what happened recently, this time with Google doing the whole thing quietly.
The Mountain View-based search giant tweaked the way the saved places appear on the map, clearly in an attempt to make the interface less cluttered.
As you probably know already, if you have a handful of saved places in Google Maps, the application displayed them using the familiar pin. As such, when you launched Google Maps and explored a specific region, you could see all the saved places around you.
As someone who travels to the same location almost every year for vacation, I can confirm that this feature is incredibly useful. I can save all my favorite places, such as restaurants, bars, and so on, on Google Maps, create lists, and then see all their locations on the map in just a second. Choosing the next thing to do is much easier, as I only have to tap a pin and start the navigation to the location.
Not long ago, however, Google changed how the saved places are displayed on the map. Instead of pins, Google Maps now shows dots, and I'm almost certain the idea was to make the map overall cleaner.
While the dots indeed serve this purpose just right, they are also much harder to see than the traditional pin. The change started an unexpected revolution on Google's forums, where users warn they'll jump ship and switch to other apps if the search giant doesn’t undo the change.
Given the whole thing happened without an announcement, it was unclear whether Google introduced the change on purpose. Earlier this week, a forum moderator shared a message from the Google Maps team, confirming that the new way of displaying search places was intentional. However, the company says the dots are supports to help save space and "streamline the map," and anyone who wants to see the pin just needs to zoom in.
Indeed, zooming in reveals the pins, but as someone says on the forums, this isn’t by any means the right way to go. If you want to zoom in using a poor cellular connection, the process isn't only slow but also very frustrating, as it can take a while and fail to load all the data.
It's pretty clear that Google won't backtrack on this change, so it's up to users to decide whether they want to continue using this feature. Most likely, it's just a matter of time until everybody gets used to the dots, so eventually, we'll all forget the pins that once made perfect sense.
The Mountain View-based search giant tweaked the way the saved places appear on the map, clearly in an attempt to make the interface less cluttered.
As you probably know already, if you have a handful of saved places in Google Maps, the application displayed them using the familiar pin. As such, when you launched Google Maps and explored a specific region, you could see all the saved places around you.
As someone who travels to the same location almost every year for vacation, I can confirm that this feature is incredibly useful. I can save all my favorite places, such as restaurants, bars, and so on, on Google Maps, create lists, and then see all their locations on the map in just a second. Choosing the next thing to do is much easier, as I only have to tap a pin and start the navigation to the location.
Not long ago, however, Google changed how the saved places are displayed on the map. Instead of pins, Google Maps now shows dots, and I'm almost certain the idea was to make the map overall cleaner.
While the dots indeed serve this purpose just right, they are also much harder to see than the traditional pin. The change started an unexpected revolution on Google's forums, where users warn they'll jump ship and switch to other apps if the search giant doesn’t undo the change.
Given the whole thing happened without an announcement, it was unclear whether Google introduced the change on purpose. Earlier this week, a forum moderator shared a message from the Google Maps team, confirming that the new way of displaying search places was intentional. However, the company says the dots are supports to help save space and "streamline the map," and anyone who wants to see the pin just needs to zoom in.
Indeed, zooming in reveals the pins, but as someone says on the forums, this isn’t by any means the right way to go. If you want to zoom in using a poor cellular connection, the process isn't only slow but also very frustrating, as it can take a while and fail to load all the data.
It's pretty clear that Google won't backtrack on this change, so it's up to users to decide whether they want to continue using this feature. Most likely, it's just a matter of time until everybody gets used to the dots, so eventually, we'll all forget the pins that once made perfect sense.
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