Google Maps' search nearby feature is back

[Himanshu Arora]

Google has finally returned the incredibly useful 'search nearby' feature to Google Maps. The feature disappeared with the Google Maps redesign, which the company officially rolled out to all users last month. Amidst all of yesterday's April fool jokes, the company made the announcement via a tweet.

As the name explains, the 'search nearby' feature lets you find businesses, restaurants, and other points of interest in the vicinity of an address, neighborhood, or any other location. Technically, the ability to search nearby never went away, as you could always do a follow-up search after typing in an address. But the 'search nearby' feature is better communicated, and is more user friendly, as you can control the zoom level to fetch relevant results within a particular distance.

Ever since Google redesigned Maps, the company has received a lot of flak on social networks, with users complaining about the disappearance of the feature. Although it's a small addition, users who were used to it will definitely breathe a sigh of relief.

Just a few months back, Google Maps were updated with new features like step-by-step preview, earth tours and real time traffic incident reports.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56233-google-maps-search-nearby-feature-is-back.html

 

[Guest]

I can't begin to explain the grief this small stupid change caused me.

The function absolutely did "go away", and no longer worked the same way.

On some google forums they tried to "explain the new way" to "search nearby" as if it was a simple matter of educating us morons on how to use the function. However, the way they described using the function it didn't work properly and didn't yield the results you would want.

I'm glad they changed it back.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

The feature disappeared with the Google Maps redesign.

Along with any sort of intuitive usability. Anyone else annoyed at their redesign? I was glad they let us switch to classic view for a while, but I still haven't figured out much of the basic stuff. Google's idea of 'simplify' often means getting rid of options or hiding labels.

Ever since Google redesigned Maps, the company has received a lot of flak on social networks, with users complaining about the disappearance of the feature.

I wonder how many of those people also complain about Google tracking their location.