New to Google Maps - Confused

Tuvoc

Tuvoc

Tuvoc

Soldato
Joined
19 Dec 2002
Posts
3,745
Hi,

I've used Microsoft maps for years as a satnav and am very familiar with it. I save favourites by dropping a pin and then saving and naming it. Then later I bring up a single favourites list, which uses the name, and then navigate to them. Very easy. Big negative of course no real-time traffic re-direction. But at least it shows the speed limit for the road you are on.

In Google Maps, if I want to save a location, in "Your Places" I have "Labeled" and "Saved". What is the difference ? Then I see "favourites" and then "Starred Places". How much more of a mess could it be ? If I drive somewhere and want to save it to come back to at a later date, what is the best way to do that please ?

Why no speed limit in Google Maps ? I thought it was the gold standard but seems not. I may also check out Waze (although maps not so good?) and Here We Go, I think both show the speed limit, and HERE probably handles saved favourites in a similar way to Google maps.
 
So you can drop a pin and you should see a save button at the bottom of the screen. This saves the location to a list, these lists are 'favourites', 'want to go' and 'starred places'. Just a way of organising your saved locations, you can create custom lists as well, so you may want one titled 'work' for work locations, or 'holiday' for destinations you are going to on your holidays. Just a quick way to find them rather than one massive list of favourites.

Your label is just the friendly name of the place. i.e. Work, Home, Bob's House, Gym etc

To replicate your flow on MS Maps, just save it to your favourites and use the label to name it. When you go to 'Your Places' you would see everything in one list
 
I've kind of got that although the "one list" is not sorted alphabetically. Still work to do to figure out the best way.
 
Just use Waze. It's owned by google but has all the stuff you need as it is a satnav app (speed limits, real time traffic etc).
 
Yes, Waze is looking attractive - dedicated for driving and nothing else. Only negatives about it are some reviews stating that it prefers to take you onto very small roads in order to save a minute or two, instead of just sticking to the un-congested main road, which would annoy me. But it looks very good indeed, nothing is perfect but this may be the best for me.

On Google Maps - seems that the best way is to long-press and then release, that creates the pin, and then tap on the pin and it brings you up a card where you can Label it. It seems that you don't need to "save" it as such, by labelling it is stored in "your places" anyway. Big problem is that "Your Places" is not alphabetical.

Using the Lumia as a dedicated satnav with MS Maps is an option too but I'd rather use one device.
 
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Tuvoc said:
Yes, Waze is looking attractive - dedicated for driving and nothing else. Only negatives about it are some reviews stating that it prefers to take you onto very small roads in order to save a minute or two, instead of just sticking to the un-congested main road, which would annoy me.
Click to expand...

This is one flaw with Waze, it will always take the shortest route, even if it's not the most direct.

I've noticed a couple of times when driving somewhere you don't know that it'll take you off a route, and when you rejoin, you're a few cars behind the one you were originally.

It's the same for the motorway, if there's congestion ahead, it might tell you to get off, but unless diverting is saving me 10-15mins+ then i'd rather stay on.
 
I used Waze mostly, but would like it if they were to implement the google maps method of showing you the routes live on the map with estimated time if you choose the different route. Then you can use local knowledge to evaluate whether its worth following the Waze suggested route or use your preferred road.

Example being that a shortcut which is often shown as quicker on waze is down a country lane where the road surface is shocking, and would rather spend a minute more on the main road and not have to risk tyres/alloys/suspension...

If however there was a long delay on the main road route, google maps would be suggesting the shortcut and a +15min on the main road route. To get this info in Waze i would need to go into the routes menu to know the difference which when driving isnt ideal.
 
Thanks for all the input - yes the country lane thing, or a narrow residential road with cars parked both sides so it is effectively a one-way lottery are both bad things. I guess they will all do this to some extent, MS Maps does it sometimes too although with no live traffic re-routing probably it does it less than the others. I wonder if Microsoft will bring that in at some point, but irrelevant if it is Windows only. Mind you most other MS apps are now on Android so who knows, they may bring their map app there as well.
 
Wazed used to be flawless but gradually over the last 12 months its got more buggy and as said routing has gone strange. Basically I'd be happy with Google maps which had speed cameras alerts and GPS speed
 
I'd be happy with Google maps if it would give me an alphabetical list of names places I've saved and labelled, and if it showed the speed limit for the road you are on. Both pretty bad shortcomings in my view.
 
I use Google maps, I have tried Waze but always go back to Google.

I don't need speed limits as my car reads the road signs anyway, so even if I miss the sign I just look at my dash. Speed cameras would be handy, although not speeding is probably a better idea :p
 
Don't need speed cameras, but I'd like to see the speed limit to make sure I stay within it. Of course it isn't accurate 100% of the time so you have to be aware of that.
 
Meantime, it seems that the list of saved places in Google Maps is in fact alphabetical after all. So, long-press on the map and then release, that creates the pin, and then tap on the pin and it brings you up a card where I can Label it. This stores everything in "your places". But why both the Save and Label options ? That seems unnecessary and confusing. Maybe there is a subtle difference that I'm not seeing because I'm new to this.

The other issue is more related to the phone - the Lumia was 5.7" with 16:9 ratio, the Honor 5.65" with 18:9 ratio. So the Lumia wider and fatter. So when the phone is sitting horizontally in the recessed instrument binnacle there is less "height" and not much map by the time you have the top and bottom information displays. So I need to buy a windscreen mount and then mount it vertically.
 
I also came from Windows Phone and use HERE WeGo, it's basically the old HERE maps from WinPhone8. Free, shows the speed limit and I think can include live traffic information (can also be used offline), haven't used it in a while as I'm following a known commute...

EDIT: Sorry, I see from your original post you know about and have considered HERE maps...
 
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Thanks - in fact I have just downloaded HERE We Go to give that a try as well. It might end up being the best option actually.
 
Jimbeam3678 said:
Wazed used to be flawless but gradually over the last 12 months its got more buggy and as said routing has gone strange. Basically I'd be happy with Google maps which had speed cameras alerts and GPS speed
Click to expand...

Yeah I wouldnt touch Waze with a barge pole. I don't want to be used as an experiment with rerouting and crap. And I certainly don't want google to be milking money off my shortcuts/routes, their data collection money making is enough already! We need to stop feeding them.

My mate uses Waze all the time and whenever I'm a passenger with him it basically uses him to find alt routes for their data collections. Lol even when you don't need to take a shortcut it will just take you on random diversions just to test for others users. Screw that I'd rather use my own brain and self discovered shortcuts using personal experience and knowledge, rather than support Google build a database of the best shortcuts so the whole world can start using them, including idiots who could never have come up with a shortcut themselves. No thanks.
 
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