I worked at a mapping sw company (not Google Maps, but a 3p competitor) and the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography. Every time there was a conflict between a street label and say a POI icon, they wanted the algorithm to choose the icon. The PM also favored POIs, especially if the icon was $ponsored and brought in revenue.
All the map apps seem to be bad this way. Use Apple Maps and pick a spot with a lot of businesses like the Las Vegas strip. You’re not going to see too many street names winning the algorithmic decision of what to display.
> the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography.
This is the part where they should be reminded they're designing a product that should be useful, not a work of art. Label-less street names are fine on posters or those metal-engraving sheets you can hang in your living room and marvel at the grid structure.
> The PM also favored POIs, especially if the icon was $ponsored and brought in revenue.
Oh I see why the designers aren't reminded of the above.
Maps has been pretty transparent over the years of transforming Maps into a destionation for Places, not just to browse, or look around, or sightsee. You open maps, find a Place, and go to it.
Funnily enough you inspired me to try Apple Maps and it did a better job. The last time I ran into this issue I didn‘t even think about Apple Maps since it’s much worse in the things I use Google Maps for in my location. But now I know where to look up street and river names.
> I worked at a mapping sw company (not Google Maps, but a 3p competitor) and the designers hated street name labels. I think they thought street names uglied up their carefully beautified cartography.
Why the hell don’t they just expose an option “show as many street names as possible”?
All the map apps seem to be bad this way. Use Apple Maps and pick a spot with a lot of businesses like the Las Vegas strip. You’re not going to see too many street names winning the algorithmic decision of what to display.