Changes in Google Maps [not a puzzle]

Can people here confirm these findings?

The ‘general’ GM site, maps google com , includes (working) blue and orange dots now.

The ‘national’ urls, like google nl / maps, google fr / maps, etc. no longer show the Settings icon (the little cogwheel).

maps google com does show the Settings icon, but the Hide labels option has disappeared. I couldn't find a way to hide labels in GM today. Any solutions?

May 24, 2015 23:57:56 GMT bridgeplayer said:

Can people here confirm these findings?

The ‘general’ GM site, maps google com , includes (working) blue and orange dots now.

The ‘national’ urls, like google nl / maps, google fr / maps, etc. no longer show the Settings icon (the little cogwheel).

maps google com does show the Settings icon, but the Hide labels option has disappeared. I couldn't find a way to hide labels in GM today. Any solutions?

I have been unable to use maps.google.com. on any of four browsers that I have tried, and each time I am redirected to the .AU site.
The .AU site does not have any way (that I can find), to switch off labels.
The .AU site does have the Settings icon.

Just checked the The Netherlands GM and it's the same for me. There's no cog at the bottom right side (next to Pegman) with GM or Earth view.



On the UK site, I get the cogwheel where I can turn off/on labels on Earth view...




But not on maps, probably because labels are there by default. This is how the Aussie GM works for me too.



Interesting...

Here's a link to a bookmarklet to toggle labels on and off. A lot of people on the Maps Help Forum like it.

alexwlchan.net/2013/08/google-maps/

It works.  I checked it out.

Excuse me, it turns the white boxes on and off, not the city names.

google.co.th/maps (Thailand) shows the cog and the labels check on/off works.




The slowness of the app, switching to/from Satellite/Maps, is horrendous, and this is on a new computer. That drop-down mess under the search bar makes the app difficult to use...maybe great if I'm walking down the street and want to find the nearest Starbucks, but......

It's rather complicated  

Groovy, your first image is a new version that Google seem to be testing, I haven't seen it myself. The three lines to the left of the search box are a menu icon. If you click that do you see an option to turn off the labels? If you clear cookies you may get rid of it and get back to the version with the gear icon at the bottom right.

When you are in map view, if you see "Earth" on the box at the bottom left, you should be able to turn off the labels either via the gear icon if it's there, or via the menu at the top left.

When you are in map view and you see "Satellite" on the box at the bottom left you are in a lite mode and won't be able to turn off labels. Google puts you in lite mode if it thinks your computer can't handle the full version.  More about lite mode here.  If you see a lightning flash at the bottom right, you can try clicking that to return to full mode.

Thank you Groovy for the google.co.uk/maps tip and alchemist for the toggle bookmark!

Everything works in the *.hu domain

Thanks Noisette, it seems things have changed overnight! The Dutch GM now has the gear icon just like the UK version! I can't find the Netherlands one I posted yesterday.




Also, the lite mode lightning icon has magically appeared on my UK maps! When I switched to lite mode, I got the horizontal bars and got this when I clicked them: