[aix1]

I agree that Google Maps does work as a navigation aid in certain environments (e.g. dense urban) and certain transportation modalities (definitely cars, to a lesser extent public transport, bike and pedestrian).

In my experience it's also useable as a general street/road map. It's clearly not a topographical map; I think it would be foolish and potentially dangerous to rely on Google Maps to, say, hike in the Alps. A standard topographical map would fit that use case much better.

P.S. I don't quite follow some of the complaints on this thread about the UX. For example, I always see the map scale in the bottom-right corner of the app. It is true that street names are not always written onto the map; however, clicking on a street gives me a popup with the name (not the most ergonomic UX, but it's not like the app is trying to hide the info, as some commenters are claiming).

[pepa65]

Another gem I never knew about: "clicking on a street gives me a popup with the name". You have to really click precisely, but that worked..!