this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025

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108

Google Maps is over! The tech giant complies with EU orders to remove navigation services from search results (jasondeegan.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

113 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For years, Google Maps has been a go-to tool for millions worldwide, seamlessly integrated into search results for instant access to directions, locations, and more. But if you’ve noticed something missing recently, you’re not imagining things. Due to European Union regulations, Google has been forced to remove its Maps functionality from its search results, marking a significant shift in how we interact with the tech giant’s ecosystem.

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago

I was worried that this would be like those cookies pop-ups, but the functionality is still present here in the land of the free...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Still showing up in Australia right now.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is this news? The "Maps" tab has been missing from my search results for a while here in Germany.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm ok with this, I can live and love in my peasant existence without their hovering, seemingly inescapable help. If I have to do without Waze someday, that's a different story.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I give waze less than a year.

They've been putting the features into parity with maps They will eventually shut it down.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

For users, this tight integration was incredibly convenient.

In Firefox, I have had any search starting with "gm" set up to do a Google Maps search. So "gm Omaha" will go to Omaha.

That is, I create a bookmark that's aimed at:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=%25s

and then in the Bookmark Manager, set the keyword to "gm".

Kagi -- which uses bang prefixes to do searches on external sites -- appears to have done the same thing on the service side with "!gm". So "!gm Omaha". (They normally have their own, OpenStreetMap-based map thing, but if you want to do Google Maps, that'll do it.)

EDIT: For some reason, the Lemmy Web UI seems determined to convert "%s" to "%25s" in the URL above, and I can't seem to find an escape sequence that avoids that. It's intended to just be "%s".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

I use DuckDuckGo so I use !m.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

%25 is the URL encoding for 0x25 (or 37 decimal), the ASCII code for the percent sign. Basically it seems to recognize that it is a URL and then URL-encode characters that are not allowed in URLs

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I understand the why of this but this is not an improvement. I suppose search engines should ask you which maps provider you want and then show results based on that.

[+] [email protected] -28 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Like... and hear me out.... save the preference with some sort of Cookie technology? Do you think the EU would be up for that?

[–] [email protected] 76 points 3 months ago (16 children)

I can't tell whether you're being intentionally ironic. Yes the EU would be up for it. The EU didn't ban cookies. Putting it simply, you do not need a cookie banner if you aren't tracking people.

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you want to store your map preferences, save the preferences to your account and make sure you're logged in.

I'm not saying anything like this is preferable or whatever but there's also little sense in removing all semblance of user experience in favour of removing power from tech giants.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (10 children)

I suppose search engines should ask you which maps provider you want and then show results based on that.

Why would they ever enable choice. That's not very capitalism

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