The value of Maps is in user information. They know what you look for, they know where you've been. They can extrapolate what you are doing and what you will do. This all helps in fine-tuning your marketing target profile, and serving you better ads.
I am learning this as I am reading the book Stolen Focus. The author goes in-depth on how tech companies are turning us into Pavlov's proverbial Dogs. We are lab hamsters who, when taught to respond correctly to stimuli, give them money.
I dislike Google Maps ever since some redesigns in the past, that made whole countries look like rainforests, and de-emphasized everything that's not a road, etc. Honestly I barely rember the last time when Google maps were useful as maps and not just for GPS navigation. Must be > 8 years already. Looking at some historical screenshots, they still had a reasonably usable design at around the time they introduced Street View.
Kinda wonder if this is in part because of: "this way we've found we can make users use GPS more often and be more precisely tracked/monetized" by degrading uses where you can easily orient and navigate yourself without turning on GPS.
Google Maps started to devolve into a mess post-Marissa Mayer. [1] I wonder why this isn't talked about more widely. Early 2010s Google Maps were unparalleled with regards to UX - not a cluttered mess we have right now.
Google was technologically a few years ahead of everybody - they had vector map tiles in late 2010 while Mapbox released their version only in 2014. HERE also used vector tiles at best from 2013 (app release date, so a lower bound, not sure what tech they started with)
I had an office right around the corner from her two offices (one for her assistant) in GWC-1.
She had a pretty short tenure, and was mainly focused on "Google Local" (remember that? didn't think so) and not Maps. Giving her serious credit for the Maps UX is seriously wrong.
She also acquired Zagat, and in fact that was the only time I actually spoke to her.
I am learning this as I am reading the book Stolen Focus. The author goes in-depth on how tech companies are turning us into Pavlov's proverbial Dogs. We are lab hamsters who, when taught to respond correctly to stimuli, give them money.