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The New Maps On The Cache Page Suck


jimmyreno

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I disagree whole heartedly that they suck. I think they're really sweet, and highly functional - a very nice improvement indeed.

 

However, would it be possible for there to be a user preference that allows old-style over new style?

 

Here's why - I use a Palm Treo 650 to look up cache pages in the field. Yes, I know that there's a WAP interface, but I prefer to use the full-out browser (for the images, and other features I get in the full-out browser). Unfortunately, once the new maps came in, every cache page I load ends up popping a javascript error saying that the Google maps aren't supported in my browser.

 

It's not a huge thing I suppose, but it would be nice if I could have a user preference to toggle to default to old-style maps.

 

Thanks for the continuous improvements to the website however. Please keep up the good work!

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I came to this forum to find out what was going on with the maps. THESE THINGS SUCK!!!! I can't make it do anything. All I see is a white square with a stupid pin in the middle. How do you get to see anything with these maps. If I leave the page and come back you can see the original map for just a second then it goes to this new map.

 

So as not to mix words. These maps Suck!!!

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I came to this forum to find out what was going on with the maps. THESE THINGS SUCK!!!! I can't make it do anything. All I see is a white square with a stupid pin in the middle. How do you get to see anything with these maps. If I leave the page and come back you can see the original map for just a second then it goes to this new map.

I'm not sure what the problem is. Have you tried zooming out? (The little '-'.) Are you running Windows? What browser are you using (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape...)?

 

Google Maps uses a technology called "Ajax" which is becoming more and more popular, but has its drawbacks. Hopefully whatever problems you have aren't permanent.

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Actually, I'm no longer getting any maps, on any GeoCaching pages. I'm using a Mac and SAfari and a few days ago, all the maps disappeared so I have to click on Google Maps, or MapQuest to get any maps.

 

I'm not sure if this is a web site thing, or a Mac and Safari thing. I have never been able to upload pics in Safari, I always have to go back to my old unsupported version of MS Internet Explorer to upload pics, but this new map situation does suck.

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I'm on a Mac also (using 10.4), and have the same problem with the maps appearing using Safari. But, Firefox 1.503 works just fine... can download it for free at www.mozilla.com. Love Google maps -

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Attention, everybody: When you click "make this page printer friendly" on a cache page, voila, the old map! wink.gif

 

THANK YOU GUNNIGIRL

 

I am using a Mac too with Firefox 1.5. This new map just does not work for me, BUT Thanks to Gunnigirl I can now see it in the printer friendly page. Whew!! Must be something with Macs. All is not lost!!!

 

I hope they don't fix this too.

Edited by George1
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I'm also on Mac OS X 10.4.5 using Safari -- a very (VERY!) quick "old" map appears, then a gray square. I flipped over to Netscape 7.2 and THAT seems to work, but I'd really like to stay in Safari. Yep, I've got Firefox, and I've got IE as well. Wish these changes worked under ALL the browsers.

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Attention, everybody: When you click "make this page printer friendly" on a cache page, voila, the old map! :anibad:

 

And congrats for being the only person on the internet to correctly spell "voila", reather than wa-la :blink:

It needs the accent, though...voilà :lol:

 

Back on topic, sort of... The new maps will be grand when all the wrinkles are ironed out, I think...but I miss several features of the old ones and have to resort to using them for some things I need to do.

I am PC at home, so they work fine here, but I tried them at work today on a Mac running OS X (I think we're up to the 10.3 version--I keep forgetting to look while I am there!) and Safari. The maps worked just fine.

Edited by Team Neos
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The only problem I have with the new maps is that I can't view them on the web browser on my phone - when I'm in the field, and I'm using the full version of the site (not the WAP version), I get an error message for the map because Blazer for the Treo 650 doesn't recognise it.

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The above post was originally started as a separate topic. I merged it into this existing topic.

 

For efficient forum management, it's useful to have one thread for constructive questions and comments on the new mapping features, and a separate thread for everything that sucks. So, welcome to the consolidated craptastic bucket of suckitude. Thanks very much.

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I love the new maps. I only wish the spy satellites would start taking pictures of my home area at a higher resolution. What do I have to do, put an aspirin factory in my basement???

 

The only concern I've had is how well they work for people still on dial-up. Are there any dial-up customers out there who can tell me?

 

Bret

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I love the new maps. I only wish the spy satellites would start taking pictures of my home area at a higher resolution. What do I have to do, put an aspirin factory in my basement???

 

The only concern I've had is how well they work for people still on dial-up. Are there any dial-up customers out there who can tell me?

 

Bret

The new maps are painfully slow on dial-up :laughing:

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The new google maps suck. No useful information and all you get is an empty box at the bottom when you print the page. Any way to get the old maps back?

The above post was originally started as a separate topic. I merged it into this existing topic.

 

For efficient forum management, it's useful to have one thread for constructive questions and comments on the new mapping features, and a separate thread for everything that sucks. So, welcome to the consolidated craptastic bucket of suckitude. Thanks very much.

 

Instead of jumping on the guy for not posting to existing sucking thread you could've answered his question or pointed to one of the many times it's already been answered - for example right here in the New Maps on The Cache Page Suck discussion

Attention, everybody: When you click "make this page printer friendly" on a cache page, voila, the old map! :laughing:

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Attention, everybody: When you click "make this page printer friendly" on a cache page, voila, the old map! :laughing:

 

And congrats for being the only person on the internet to correctly spell "voila", reather than wa-la :wub:

Well, actually, as it is a french word, it spells "voilà", with an accent (accent grave in french) on the "a" :wub::wub: But as you probably don't have it on your keyboard, you're forgiven :laughing::lol:

 

Edit: Sorry didn't see the same remark in Team Neos' post :laughing: . And yes, I LOVE the new maps. Certainly now that Google maps are available for Europe ;)

Edited by Jiheffe
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Mapquest maps are now gone from the print freindly version - at least as of yesterday and this morning they were. Got a brief flash of mapquest at the top of print friendly and then poof - gone. Do not like the new maps at all. :laughing: And we rely heavily on the maps. The google maps are not detailed enough for open spaces and all the pins are driving me crazy. Despite instructions listed on the forums I cannot figure out how to get rid of the pins of those we have done. Ah well. Life goes on.

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Mapquest maps are now gone from the print freindly version - at least as of yesterday and this morning they were. Got a brief flash of mapquest at the top of print friendly and then poof - gone. Do not like the new maps at all. :laughing: And we rely heavily on the maps. The google maps are not detailed enough for open spaces and all the pins are driving me crazy. Despite instructions listed on the forums I cannot figure out how to get rid of the pins of those we have done. Ah well. Life goes on.

 

Man that does suck. After all the people who have posted that

1) they have problems seeing the new maps

2) they have problems printing the new maps

3) asking to leave the old maps on the print friendly page

4) did not see anyone ask to have the new maps on the print friendly page

 

to see that they went and change the print friendly page to use the new maps. Thank you GC.com for considering your customers wishes. :laughing:

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Hated the old maps. Love the new ones but then again I switched from mapquest to google maps along time ago so they were what I was already familiar with. I completey ignored the old maps and would just have another window open with google maps to look at. It didn't show me other caches in the area like the new interactive maps do so I'm in heaven.

 

Not that I've paid much attention to these forums but in reponse to the question about getting the old maps back or being optional which style, it might have to do with license agreements. They may only have a choice of one or the other or couldn't come to an agreement with the old map company.

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Hated the old maps. Love the new ones but then again I switched from mapquest to google maps along time ago so they were what I was already familiar with. I completey ignored the old maps and would just have another window open with google maps to look at. It didn't show me other caches in the area like the new interactive maps do so I'm in heaven.

 

Not that I've paid much attention to these forums but in reponse to the question about getting the old maps back or being optional which style, it might have to do with license agreements. They may only have a choice of one or the other or couldn't come to an agreement with the old map company.

 

Yeah, hear you on the licensing thing. Is there a way to go to Mapquest itself and figure out where a cache is? Is there a better way to use google maps than what is on the site? You say you have been using google maps already. I am guessing not off the gc.com site. I f any one can share the abcs of google maps we would be so grateful. Or a better way to interact with them. Thanks. :laughing:

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Yes they suck... same problem here, MAC OSX and Safari... I asked in the other thread if they were working on the problem and got no answer.. so probably not. Oh well except for having to click off the error message every time I open a new page it isn't much of a problem, but since I use only maps, it would have been nice if it had been done right.

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Just checked out the "make print friendly" trick and it is still OK there. Hope that loophole does not get screwed up too. As a side bar I did look at Google maps as an alternative to Topozone some time ago for finding caches and found it to be very unreliable. Will be fine for finding parking areas and getting to the cache area, but what I saw was not precise enough to actually find the box. Maybe that has changed. My last tests were in early March.

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Just checked out the "make print friendly" trick and it is still OK there. Hope that loophole does not get screwed up too. As a side bar I did look at Google maps as an alternative to Topozone some time ago for finding caches and found it to be very unreliable. Will be fine for finding parking areas and getting to the cache area, but what I saw was not precise enough to actually find the box. Maybe that has changed. My last tests were in early March.

 

Can some other people please check on the print friendly to see is mapquest is still there, because on mine it is the google maps only. Well, Waymarking.com is not working for me either so who knows. :D

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I've been having a lot of problems with them as well. When I click on a cache on the map, the map just freezes up and I end up having to close it out. Or I will click on a map from a cache page, and it sends me to a map that doesn't include that cache at all.

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The only concern I've had is how well they work for people still on dial-up. Are there any dial-up customers out there who can tell me?

 

Bret

I agree with the others who responded to say ... p a i n f u l l y s l o w

 

I just looked at a new cache near me. After the cache page loaded (1 minute and 15 seconds to fully load the map on the page after rest of the page loaded), I clicked on the icon for the cache, and waited 2 minutes and 15 seconds for the "random" caches near the cache to show up and the list caches to be generated.

 

And speaking of the random caches...if I am trying to see what caches are near a cache I am interested in, the random caches are not "fun", they are annoying. I can go the cache page and select "nearest caches" to get a list, or use the old map, but that really takes away from using the new maps, now doesn't it?

 

I could deal with the slowness, if the nearby caches weren't random. Why are they random, anyway?

Edited by Team Neos
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Concerning the available maps: From the cache page, you can still click on quite a selection of maps if you want a larger map with the cache centered on it.

 

Map.jpg

 

As to the 'randomness' of the cache selection, try zooming in. ;) <---(note the smiley, people!) Really, though, there is only so much 'real estate' on the maps when they are zoomed out, so the selection is random.

 

Working with dial-up, the pages are terribly slow to load and don't always fill in completely when using Google maps. Personally, I tend to run a PQ of the area and then fire up Mapsend and/or Streets & Trips. If I'm gonna have to wait for something to download, I might as well have all the caches on one map.

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Yeah, hear you on the licensing thing. Is there a way to go to Mapquest itself and figure out where a cache is? Is there a better way to use google maps than what is on the site? You say you have been using google maps already. I am guessing not off the gc.com site. I f any one can share the abcs of google maps we would be so grateful. Or a better way to interact with them. Thanks. ;)

 

Well what is it you want to know? I saw a poster also commented about google maps only being good for finding the parking lot not the cache. Somehow it never occured to me to try and use any mapping program for more then driving directions to close to the cache and using the satallite to get an idea of the area.

 

One of the things I like most is being able to click on the map with your mouse pointer and pan around with your mouse. Much easier/faster then trying to use those directional area icons. As for zooming, evening though it just has a single +/- (vs the slider on maps.goggle.com) you can click multiple times quickly and don't have to wait for each redraw (at least this is my experience with it but I am on high bandwidth at work and home. Haven't used dialup in years).

 

I originally switched to google maps from mapquest/yahoo yellow pages cause I could go to maps.google.com and put in the name of a place and a zip code to search on. It would zoom the map in to the general area and show me pinpoints of anything close to the name I put in. I found that much more useful then a list of names with a distance counter cause sometimes the one that is technically further away is easier to get too streetwise. I also loved being able to see the satallite photos. When I was searching for a new apartment in a town I'd never visited, I used the sat maps to give me an idea of parks in the area as required for my large dog and then again when we upgraded to a house.

 

If you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to try and help. Can post them here or PM me.

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In response to mac users. i'm a mac user running 10.4.6 and Safari 2.0.3

 

when the maps were first changed id only et a grey square with a pin on it. now they work fine. im not sure if anything has changed, or if one of the recent updates mae changes to safari. but they work great now...

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I love the new maps. I only wish the spy satellites would start taking pictures of my home area at a higher resolution. What do I have to do, put an aspirin factory in my basement???

No problem. The next time you're on the phone, work in the following phrase: 'Allah Ackbar!'.

Edited by sbell111
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Found the new maps to be quite user friendly. When it takes a while to load I just figure I have a bad connection. Reconnect and it solves my problems. I love the satelite pics as far as access points. Too many times driving around the block looking for access when I'm 100' from GZ and in front of a row of 5 or 10 homes. " Excuse me can I just cut through here? I'm on a high tech scavenger hunt" usually won't win any converts. LOL. :ninja:

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As to the 'randomness' of the cache selection, try zooming in. :ninja: <---(note the smiley, people!) Really, though, there is only so much 'real estate' on the maps when they are zoomed out, so the selection is random.

 

Working with dial-up, the pages are terribly slow to load and don't always fill in completely when using Google maps. Personally, I tend to run a PQ of the area and then fire up Mapsend and/or Streets & Trips. If I'm gonna have to wait for something to download, I might as well have all the caches on one map.

 

Once I have decided to cache in an area, I also run a PQ and go ahead and load the caches into my City Navigator or Topo maps. But I am more concerned with the times I am trying to glance around an area to see what kinds of caches are available, and in what amounts. If the google maps showed the nearest caches to an area, I could see what caches are near an area that I am interested in visiting and take advantage of the google map features too.

 

I like that I can use the hybrid to see street names and landforms. I like the color coding to see what type of caches are there at a glance. I love the drag feature for scanning the area and the ability to make PQs from the page.

 

I live in the greater Louisville metropolitan area. There are over 500 caches within 2 miles of my home. On a view set at say four miles, if a random set of caches keeps coming up, you never can really tell where dense caching area are located. I guess I just don't understand the appeal of random caches.

 

Can anyone explain why showing random caches might be preferrable to showing the nearest caches to a certain point?

 

A few minutes ago, I chose a local zipcode (47130) and let it load up. The first cache on the page is Spruce-N2-Cache. If I choose "map it" the map that loads is the old one, and it shows 11 caches, on a "1 mile" view. If I then go to the google map, I get a 2000 feet view that shows 3 caches, and Spruce-N2-cache is still there. Going out one click, I get 20 caches on a 1 mile map, and some of the closest caches to it are not shown. At two clicks out, I get completely random caches, and Spruce-N2-cache doesn't even appear on the list. If I refresh the page, it eventually shows up in the list of random caches.

 

Maybe I feel the way I do because I live in a cache dense area and like to go caching in clusters. I will usually choose and area of town, look over all the caches I want in that area, and make a list of potential caches for the day that are near each other--or at least along a practical route. I realize that you can go to another one of the maps, but why would we want to? As I said, I like the google maps and if they weren't set to random they would be ideal for scanning for a good location to go caching for an afternoon and setting up PQs.

 

As it is now, if I tried to use just the google map, I might miss caches in the area if they didn't 'happen' to show up in the drag and drop views I choose. Not having all of the nearest caches in an area show up defeats one of the neat features of the new maps--the ability to make PQs from the maps. If I can make my PQ from the maps, I won't be setting up another one for all the caches in the area. If I can't be sure that I have gotten all the caches I want to do in an area, there isn't really any point in being able to make PQs from the maps.

Edited by Team Neos
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My laptop with IE 6 I get the google map with both the normal and print friendly cache listing.

 

My desktop with Netscape 7.0 I get NO map with either normal or print friendly cache listing.

 

I use my desktop for all my listings so must say just give a choice or give back the old maps.

 

Seems to be a lot of bugs in many functions of google I have tried to use.

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Can anyone explain why showing random caches might be preferrable to showing the nearest caches to a certain point?

 

This is such a debated topic it seems.

 

For me, I bring back a random set of caches if the results are more then 150 caches for the viewable area. 150 is all you're going to get per view as it will bog down the server and cause issues with to many markers on the Google map.

 

If I was to follow some peoples suggestions and show "cache density" you would only see 150 caches right around the center of the arrow.

 

Also, do most people notice the page numbering located right below the list of caches?

Edited by raine
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Can anyone explain why showing random caches might be preferrable to showing the nearest caches to a certain point?

 

If I was to follow some peoples suggestions and show "cache density" you would only see 150 caches right around the center of the arrow.

 

But I think that is exactly what some (most?) of us want.

 

If we don't see all in some obvious area, we are missing caches that we may want to see.

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I don't like the new maps either. I click on the map and get every cache but the one I'm looking for. I guess I'm doing something wrong :) Plus I don't need to see a bunch of caches on the map that I have already found. Also, the map detail sucks. Half the cross roads aren't even listed on these maps. The old map had much better detail in my opinion.

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