# Google Maps 272 Hacker News commenters recommended Google Maps and 479 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 14 years (4 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for finding local businesses and for turn-by-turn navigation with traffic rerouting, though critics cite messy search results, odd routes and slow fixes to map errors. ## Why people recommend it - Finding restaurants and local businesses (6 comments): "Personally I love going to completely unknown restaurants that has just opened and have zero reviews yet which Google Maps helps with too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46225296)) "Google is able to have such an up to date place database because it relies on a large quantity of crowdsourced submissions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49150734)) "For a standalone shop or restaurant the opening hours situation is usually still better with Google Maps rather than OSM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48795614)) - Category-defining, hard to beat (4 comments): "If for the past ~20 years nobody has come up with something clearly better, then I would say that speaks to how outstanding the product that are being copied are to this day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48482702)) "GMail and Google Maps were revolutionary when they came out, sure, but the vast majority of Google's products now are... fine?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48482708)) "Maps & Gmail & Search all have plenty of accumulating flaws... but they also completely defined their product category" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48482572)) - Navigation, lanes and traffic rerouting (4 comments): "Google Maps has a better excuse for wanting to be an app than most since a primary use case on mobile is turn-by-turn navigation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49480622)) "Except people that have experience with Google Maps have watched it flag upcoming traffic congestion and explicitly reroute you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49344805)) "Smartphone navigation is going to be a lot better (in my experience) and Google, Apple privacy terms are greatly superior." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49955123)) - Offline maps for poor connections (2 comments): "Almost every part of the US that is East of the Mississippi is stored offline in my phone with Google Maps." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49333886)) "Google maps works okay on slow connections if you download the tiles for the city you're in beforehand" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47485575)) ## What people warn about - Search shows irrelevant or missing results (3 comments): "The most annoying thing is when you search for instance for "Chinese restaurants" and Google maps shows me Japanese restaurants while hiding actual Chinese restaurants." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46230040)) "It's actually much worse than that. I will often see the business name as I'm zooming in, but if I zoom too far, it's no longer available." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46236176)) "Google Maps is hellbent on giving you ANY results. I can't think of any recent search where it doesn't zoom out to most of Belgium" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256022)) - Questionable route choices (3 comments): "It's fine for pure walking directions, but it gets unhappy about the idea of someone using public transport walking." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49200830)) "it still happily recommends me take the "fastest" route through a street that's under construction for 2 months now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47374726)) "there's still no option to penalize intersections. I'm still getting absurd side-street routes and unprotected lefts/crossings to save 1 minute on a 20-minute trip." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563987)) - Slow to act on corrections (3 comments): "Google was the second easiest but still took me deep into the feedback menu and then a week or two of waiting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49675015)) "Seeing the total record of incorrect stuff that i had fruitlessly spent my own spare moments to fix convinced me to quit doing any free work for Google." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49630116)) "GMaps can be extremely slow when it comes to responding to user reports, or updating regional info like road networks or new subdivisions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516270)) - Distracting interface and view changes (3 comments): "Yeah go ahead and completely change the scale of what I’m looking at a night quite predictable time just as I’m about to need the map the most" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49485464)) "Lately I've been marveling at their decision on Maps to take up a third of the screen with a button to change the color of the arrow" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50141854)) "It is always showing the perspective looking straight ahead of your current direction, even when you're approaching a sharp turn." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49482952)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Apple Maps](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-maps.md): 145 recommend - [Mapy.com](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mapy-com.md): 12 recommend - [Cartes](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cartes-app.md): 8 recommend - [Magic Earth](https://hackerapproved.com/p/magic-earth.md): 7 recommend - [Maps on WatchOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/maps-on-watchos-app.md): 7 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.google.com/maps) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Google Maps", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-maps/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).