Google Maps has switched over to its new improved version, and you can't go back. For a while you could return to Classic Maps, and they'd ask why you didn't want the spiffy all-new maps they'd spent so much time creating. One of the choices was "Too Many Boxes." If you have to include one of your new features as a pre-loaded option in your complaint form, maybe you should do something about Too Many Boxes. The new maps has a row of pictures at the bottom if you're in Full Mode - photos of local landmarks and popular locations. There's "Getting Around" on the left, with options like "Bicycling" and "Terrain." There's a drop-down menu of previous searches, which requires a click on the magnifying glass to dismiss. Some cities look like the old version, and the difference seems confined to the interface, but the new Street View for other places - most, as far as I can tell - is just awful.
The old version made you stagger along one frame at a time; you got straight-on shots of city streets, like this.
Now you get this.
(Different location, but you get the idea.)
So many locations look like bad panorama shots, with hideous distortion:
Hey wow the peyote kicked in faster than usual. I fear it's only a matter of time before everything looks like this. For people who like to stroll around places they'll never visit and look at the buildings, it's a great loss. Yes, it's better than some of the pictures of small towns, where everything looks like it was shot on corroded daguerrotype plates and filmed with a VHS camera, but - well, there's no but. The new pictures are better than the ones they took in 2007, and yes, this is all complaining about an incredible thing that's free. It's still a a step back. At least for armchair travellers.
