[rhizome]

This is honestly not a shitpost, I truly feel that Google isn't doing anything better than they were 10 years ago. Search has noticeably declined in the past year, and I am regularly struck by how readily they will rank matches based on removing parts of my query over results that include all of the terms. Every Google Android app I use asks for some kind of interaction every time I start one up. "Got It!"

This happens most surprisingly when navigating with Maps. I have shortcuts for destinations I regularly use, and the number of times I've tapped one of those and had Google cover 90% of the screen with restaurants nearby and the announcement of some feature and the "start" bar across the bottom...my conclusion has been that Google's Maps UX philosophy is based entirely on discouraging use while driving.

[pmiller2]

Re: Google maps, the recent change where the map orientation changes when the phone changes orientation was almost enough to get me to quit using it. I just want to lock in my preferred orientation and forget about it, not have to fiddle with my phone because it got bumped, the car hit a bump, or something.

[rhizome]

I wonder if that's related to this...bug? feature?...where at least once per minute (in Android) there's what is something like a spontaneous app swipe to itself without having touched the device. This infects other apps too, so it's been hard to figure out where it's coming from but I'm pretty sure it's caused by Maps. Like there's a hypervigilance in the attention the app pays to rotation.

[mercer]

I mostly agree, but I do quite like Google Sheets and Docs. Drive is pretty shit though.