Friday, July 18, 2014

I don't like Google Maps

The quality of Google Maps is deteriorating day by day. With their update on Android that killed the handy scale, to out of place venues, to UI irritations. Its all piling up.

Lets see the search quality. This screenshot will tell you everything. I searched for "KFC near me". It recommended me the one which is a 2 hour 25 minutes walk from my current location, despite showing up so many of them which are far closer.
 Did I search for "KFC near me" or "KFC far from me"?

Lets see some example screenshots of POIs which exist on Google Maps within 2KM radius of my home but do not exist physically on planet earth. I guess, Google has indexed POIs from one of the parallel universes.


Look at that "Grand Sweets". I followed Maps and reached there to find someone's residence. I had indications early on that Google is lying to me and just wants me to walk so as to burn some calories. Because, why will Grand Sweets open their outlet inside a residential area?
See that Domino's pizza. According to Google, it lies right there on the middle of an expressway!!!! If you can't employ human operators to fix it, then at least get it fixed using the crowd way. If n number of people, report a venue address as false/bogus please put someone to look at it and remove from maps.

One fine sunday, while returning back from a weekend getaway, I suggested my friend who was driving; to take a shortcut through a residential area to save a few kilometers. We used Google Maps to route us. It took us deep inside a colony showing us that we are inching towards our destination closer and closer. Suddenly we saw a wall in front of us. Google was telling us to take the car through that wall. Another time, I was with a friend on bike and needed to get the puncture repaired. I searched for bike repair shop. It showed us one at around 400 meters from our current location. We dragged the bike there only to find a chaiwala stall there. 

There are umpteen numbers of factual inaccuracies on Google Maps. And they are stacking up pretty quickly. Within 2KM radius of me, I showed you two of them. I don't know how many more are there. According to a random estimate, I assume there are 1000+ factual inaccuracies in Google Maps, just in Chennai.

I have decided not to believe Google Maps for address of places. The best way is the old way. Ask the local people. If more than one person who are spaced at least 300 meters apart, tell you an address; then believe it. It must be true.