Most of the changes discussed below aren't that recent, but I'm personally starting to feel them a lot at this time as I finally need them. Let's talk about the old maps (classic) mode.

Currently the old maps layers available to me are:

- traffic

- photos

- bicycling

And contextual layers based on map display type and location:

- labels

- transit

- terrain

- 45'

I find all three primary layers to be useless to me personally with the occasional exception of Photos. Now, I wasn't a huge user of the Wikipedia layer myself, but not only do I see the appeal of having such a thing on top of maps, it just plain makes sense to have the best supplied and verified source of contextual information help the user figure out what they're looking at.

What really got me going though (and what prompted me to start this thread) is the apparent removal/hiding of the Weather layer. What. The. Hell. I mean, the layer is there (and can apparently be accessed via the GM API) - I can google for it and browse a map widget on a third party site that shows weather information, but the fact that I can't access it directly from Google Maps' own site raises serious questions about the sanity of the people who are responsible for maintaining the service.

Now - as for the new Google Maps. Who ever came up with that should be shot on sight, period. It's a piece of crap aimed at smart phone users who need to navigate to an address they already know. I use it for this purpose myself and it gets me by. For all other intents and purposes, the new maps are useless. On a side note - I'm not a My Places user, but apparently people are very pissed over something this basic missing from the new maps. And I empathize.

This doesn't, however, explain the completely irresponsible way they're treating the classic mode.

What happened there? Did some beat Google with a dumb stick or steal their candy bar to make them all bitter? Why are they screwing around with a proven and popular service that they've already monetized? Can someone shed some light on this?

Not just you, I too have been having usability problems using Google products.

Google Maps

In the old layout (which is still enabled when you use Linux btw), I can search for a location, it shows the pin, and enable the Traffic layer. This allows me to assess which routes to take to get there. In the new layout, I can't turn on the Traffic layer unless I am in Direction mode. If I search for a location, and Google shows the pin, the Traffic layer is just...gone, replaced by more hipster options like "Explore this area" to maximize their click rates.

On Android, I complained about this, wrote a long rant on the Google Maps reviews on the Play store: they removed the zoom buttons. Apparently, some dumb product managers think that using both of your hands to zoom in/out with pinch gestures is better than a single tap using one hand on +/- buttons. This bewilders me as I used that app a lot while travelling on foot. If I am carrying a bag on one hand, I want to be able to operate my map with the other hand. I don't want to stop, drop the bag, and pinch to zoom. In certain countries, stopping and looking at maps is asking to get robbed, especially when you drop your bags. Not to mention they hide offline maps options. It's still there, just hard to find.

Google+

These recent push to force people use Google+ is just ridiculous. Track everyone, personalize everything. One time, a colleague and I were stuck on Google+ sign up screen while configuring a corporate account. A corporate account does not need a Google+ account. No way out of that screen unless we clicked Sign Up, and we were forced to pick a name, and they enforce an algorithm to detect bogus names. So we had to come up with some fake-believable name just to pass through all that crap.

I can no longer leave reviews on Google Play market unless I signed up on Google+. This is their marketing ploy: "Sign up so you can see reviews from the people you care about" People I care about? I talk to them in person if I care about what they think, not from some online services.

I think people in Mountain View are so enclosed within this hipster, modernized, all-connected world that they think everyone else in the world think and operate like them. To think that Google Glass is a good idea is just...really? Not everyone wants to share. Not everyone wants to record videos.

Not just you, I too have been having usability problems using Google products.

Google Maps

In the old layout (which is still enabled when you use Linux btw), I can search for a location, it shows the pin, and enable the Traffic layer. This allows me to assess which routes to take to get there. In the new layout, I can't turn on the Traffic layer unless I am in Direction mode. If I search for a location, and Google shows the pin, the Traffic layer is just...gone, replaced by more hipster options like "Explore this area" to maximize their click rates.

On Android, I complained about this, wrote a long rant on the Google Maps reviews on the Play store: they removed the zoom buttons. Apparently, some dumb product managers think that using both of your hands to zoom in/out with pinch gestures is better than a single tap using one hand on +/- buttons. This bewilders me as I used that app a lot while travelling on foot. If I am carrying a bag on one hand, I want to be able to operate my map with the other hand. I don't want to stop, drop the bag, and pinch to zoom. In certain countries, stopping and looking at maps is asking to get robbed, especially when you drop your bags. Not to mention they hide offline maps options. It's still there, just hard to find.

Google+

These recent push to force people use Google+ is just ridiculous. Track everyone, personalize everything. One time, a colleague and I were stuck on Google+ sign up screen while configuring a corporate account. A corporate account does not need a Google+ account. No way out of that screen unless we clicked Sign Up, and we were forced to pick a name, and they enforce an algorithm to detect bogus names. So we had to come up with some fake-believable name just to pass through all that crap.

I can no longer leave reviews on Google Play market unless I signed up on Google+. This is their marketing ploy: "Sign up so you can see reviews from the people you care about" People I care about? I talk to them in person if I care about what they think, not from some online services.

I think people in Mountain View are so enclosed within this hipster, modernized, all-connected world that they think everyone else in the world think and operate like them. To think that Google Glass is a good idea is just...really? Not everyone wants to share. Not everyone wants to record videos.

Also you can't leave comments on Youtube without a Google+ account either (and I haven't checked but I'm pretty sure I cannot even comment on my own videos - hang on - yep, I can't). Makes me feel like I'm a second-class citizen there with my standard Youtube account. They should either cut the Google+ crap out or just flat out make Youtube Google+ only. Of course neither is acceptable to them so they are just going to slowly pick away at features until people give up. Vultures. And, no, I don't want a Google+ account. I've already been roped into creating a Twitter account I never use, a Facebook account I never use, a "medium" account that I don't even know the password to anymore, I don't need yet another online identity that is just going to be used to track my every move.

"We have a functional interface people are used to, better change it because it's been an arbitrary amount of time." is definitely what it feels like sometimes as the end user.

you can't even upload videos without a google plus account anymore.

Most Google products either started out shitty, or have degraded badly as time has gone on. They've broken YouTube quite badly too, a lot of the site functions continue to be extremely glitchy. Google hires some of the most brilliant backend and hardware engineers in the world, but apparently their web programmers are incompetent buffoons. Or they don't care, or they have org problems. I don't know. But for how much use they see, Google writes shockingly poor web apps.

It's aggravating to be watching a video series on YouTube, then while transitioning to the next video, a Google window appears that asks me if I want to change my username of the YouTube channel to match my Google account. When try to resume watching, not only the next video in the series but anything on YouTube, it forces me to answer the question or sign out - the only two options. Google has made me or asked me to do other things with pop-up windows, for example, sign in to my gmail account.

Google organization seems to be losing their minds!

I find the complaints about requiring google+ hilarious. nearly every other website requires there or a shared service(such as google+, facebook, twitter, etc) account to use their features (including gamedev!). but when google starts requiring it for their own services(and a single account rather than 1 for each service), everyone freaks the hell out. seriously 2 seconds to create an account and never bother with google+ is all you have to do, yet all i see is people complaining about the fact that they need to have google+ to use google products.

now then, i can understand complaints about when youtube first switched to google+, and alot of accounts got video's lost, or improper linking between the two, yes that was bad. the fact that you need an account that might potentially leave some people accountable for what they comment on a video is good, have we all forgotten that youtube comment's are/were on many video's worse than stuff you find in 4chan?

as for their actual services getting worse, i do agree on that. i haven't actually used google maps in awhile so i can't comment on that, but the constant changes to the youtube layout is annoying, and they force "most popular" feeds to stay on your homepage, no matter how many times you click the "remove from feed" button.

...nearly every other website requires there or a shared service(such as google+, facebook, twitter, etc) account to use their features (including gamedev!)

Is there any feature in GameDev that specifically needs those accounts (other than the share to Facebook/Twitter/etc. function)?

On the topic, I'm one of those who's not really bothered by Google requiring G+ account. It's more convenient that way, though I must admit, once you get your password compromised, your entire Google-based accounts are compromised. It's the same with Microsoft, but it's really the only concern I have in this regard. That being said, I don't log in to my Google account that often, so there might be details that I missed.

EDIT: Btw, in case you think I was being sarcastic with my question, that was a genuine question. No sarcasm there.

I find the complaints about requiring google+ hilarious. nearly every other website requires there or a shared service(such as google+, facebook, twitter, etc) account to use their features (including gamedev!). but when google starts requiring it for their own services(and a single account rather than 1 for each service), everyone freaks the hell out. seriously 2 seconds to create an account and never bother with google+ is all you have to do, yet all i see is people complaining about the fact that they need to have google+ to use google products.

It's people's paranoia on the whole NSA and the Internet privacy issues. Google is probably that one company who can capture all of your online and offline activities. Are you using Gmail? G+? Android phone? Chrome? Google Maps? The only thing that's preventing Google from inserting tracking in all of those is one regulation away. They have an army of lawyers who could make it happen. I wouldn't be surprised if they have done it already in some countries.

What I have found myself doing is that I am starting to keep two Google accounts. Since Google now forces people to sign up, so..I just make a fake G+ account, with no friends. It doesn't benefit me, and it doesn't benefit Google either because it's a fake account with fake data.

It's an easy system to circumvent, but it freaks some people out that Google wants us to sign up on things we didn't want to sign up before, and use our real name to be posted everywhere. I can see people's names and their G+ accounts when they "thumbs up" on my comments on YouTube. I don't even know them, nor do I care about them. And what's preventing me, a creepy Internet person, from stalking them now that I know their names, G+ activities, locations, and whatever they choose to share (or neglected to not share) to the public? None. I don't even have to search for them. Google literally handed out their info to me.