July 2021 Google Earth (Desktop) Updates

Info on gear, conditioning, and preparation for hiking/climbing.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
zephyr_pelicante
Posts: 136
Joined: 5/20/2012
14ers: 57  3 
13ers: 26
Trip Reports (34)
 

July 2021 Google Earth (Desktop) Updates

Post by zephyr_pelicante »

Posting this under "Climbing Prep" - hopefully the right place!

Does anyone else use Google Earth for Desktop (where you can import gpx/kml) for route-finding and such and have you noticed the chronic neglect that our CO peaks have gotten over the years? For instance, mislabeled mountains (it thinks North Eolus is Peak 12) swapped peak names, unlabeled peaks (Rio Grande Pyramid) etc. and sometimes when you zoom in, the peak icon on the summit will glitch below the actual topography and then you can't click on it. It's annoyed me because it's been basically the same errant database for over a decade despite the rest of the application features getting facelifted & updated HD satellite imaging.

A couple days ago I got a "we need to update google earth" notification. An update?! For GE desktop?! I couldn't be more excited!

Unfortunately, it looks like they somehow made things worse. You can still get to old functionality by selecting:
"Borders and Labels (outdated)"
and de-selecting
"Borders and Labels"

But the new system is so bad - it has even fewer peaks (primarily in the San Juans & Sangres it has a bunch of messed up names) and the ones it does have labeled correctly as you zoom in they glitch and jitter and it's such an obnoxious eye sore. There's also a new "roads and transportation" (that deprecates the outdated one that you can also toggle) that seems crazy promising - it even has things like an off trail route from johnson creek to hazel lake to Chicago basin (not over columbine pass) but it also obnoxiously glitches and stutters when you zoom in and out.

Anyone else notice this and do you think since Google clearly has a team still working to improve this product (GE Desktop) that we'll get actual working versions of these new features? Even despite all it's flaws GE is still the #1 tool I use to evaluate the viability of off-trail routes.

Google seems to like to deprecate or neglect their only products I got functional utility out of (hangouts, GE Desktop). Guess it's not worth investing in technology they can't profit off the ad revenue for. I'd pay big $$$ for a non-crap version of GE desktop though if they just tweaked a few things.
User avatar
nyker
Posts: 3231
Joined: 12/5/2007
14ers: 58 
13ers: 25
Trip Reports (69)
 

Re: July 2021 Google Earth (Desktop) Updates

Post by nyker »

I haven't looked at it in a while, but NO surprise that in it's quest to "improve" or 'update" things, big tech screws up its once leading or successful products.
User avatar
9patrickmurphy
Posts: 295
Joined: 7/16/2018
14ers: 50  1  2 
13ers: 318 23 2
Trip Reports (1)
 
Contact:

Re: July 2021 Google Earth (Desktop) Updates

Post by 9patrickmurphy »

Google seems kind of notorious for making a bunch of great software that everybody uses, but they never update anything. It's like they task a team with making a great product, said team knocks it out of the park, and then said team is tasked with a new project nobody so nobody is left to take care of the first project. That's my theory, at least. They make a bunch of great stuff and then leave it alone for years on end.
User avatar
climbingcue
Posts: 991
Joined: 10/11/2011
14ers: 58  8  27 
13ers: 317 21 11
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: July 2021 Google Earth (Desktop) Updates

Post by climbingcue »

If you looked at Google for the point where the summit says it is, you would never get to check anything off the 13er list. A couple that I can think of off the top of my head are North Star Mountain and Mt White. Thank goodness 14ers.com is better than Google. Thank you Bill :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Consecutive months with at least one 13er or 14er, 72 months
User avatar
zephyr_pelicante
Posts: 136
Joined: 5/20/2012
14ers: 57  3 
13ers: 26
Trip Reports (34)
 

Re: July 2021 Google Earth (Desktop) Updates

Post by zephyr_pelicante »

nyker wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:41 am I haven't looked at it in a while, but NO surprise that in it's quest to "improve" or 'update" things, big tech screws up its once leading or successful products.
9patrickmurphy wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:25 am they task a team with making a great product, said team knocks it out of the park, and then said team is tasked with a new project nobody so nobody is left to take care of the first project
This has been a big criticism of their technology strategy since ~2014. They have a product like Hangouts that's streamlined text/voice/video/voicemail between desktop and mobile which worked like a charm. They then deprecate it, force everyone off 1 solid app into a painful transition to multiple inferior apps that aren't streamlined between desktop and mobile, while the user base is kicking and screaming. Now it's back to 2009 era tech where all my SMS's are prefixed w/ [1/2] if they exceed a certain length (otherwise you cannot sync between mobile & desktop). No wonder folks are lining up for miles to pay 2x to switch to the Apple ecosystem. Ditto google maps which seems 1 step forward 2 steps back w/ each release, I cringe every time my phone suggests I restart to install updates.

Google Earth is an amazing product but they focused so much on their web app (which has mandatory inverted scroll) that they have completely neglected the desktop version (where you can import GPX's / KML's & plan a backpacking route, for instance). They have a culture of focusing on the novelty of some intern or NCG whiz kid's great technical idea over actual user experience and chalk it up to "innovation" - sorry but no thanks.
climbingcue wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:59 am Thank goodness 14ers.com is better than Google.
No kidding! 14ers.com may not use the latest and greatest web stack, but Bill M has been rock solid at making sure the user experience is maintained whenever there are changes to the site. I'll take last gen front end w/ a seamless quality of service and I think Bill M "gets it" in that regard. I still have 14ers.com swag from before the exclusively cotton line, wish he'd bring it back would love to support him more than just clicking on affiliate links. Patagonia, if you're listening, hook it up!
Post Reply