Embarcadero Center - Google Maps issues and problems
20110214 at 07:00 Update: Two Embarcadero Center officially dubbed “Chevy’s Fresh Mex Center”
Update: “Reported a problem” to Google on this item and this too, first in my list.
Previously: Correcting and improving Google maps (Embarcadero, Osha Thai, Waterbar)
For the Embarcadero neighborhood in San Francisco, all “user contributed” edits need to be moderated. That is not the issue. Overall features and UI design are what is at issue here. That includes how markers, labels, and addresses are handled, and what is editable, what is not, and what can reasonably be expected of “user contribution.”
Duplicate entries abound, but aren’t easily corrected. Embarcadero One through Five are not clearly marked. Many visible businesses have the markers in the wrong place. The very definition of where the marker goes is ambiguous — “place the marker at the entrance” — does not mention automobile or pedestrian entrance. I have a big problem with the 5 Embarcadero Center marker that is five blocks North (outside this view), and the difficulty in managing duplicates. I’m certainly done trying to “edit” these issues into submission. I will however point Google at this map, reporting it as “a problem.”
Here is the map overview. I had to remove the lavender polygon on mine because it occludes mouse clicks. Here are screen captures of Google’s and my map, click to go there.
Business (postal) addresses not very useful here. Street view needs a golf-cart size vehicle for the “pedestrian view,” straght down the center pedestrian corridor from One to Four. Note that some key improvements were made, and here you can see that Commercial alley is the pedestrian route. Street view doesn’t go inside but it does let you “advance” one block at a time, sort of like a “teleport.”
View One Embarcadero Center - pedestrian and parking entrance in a larger map
Budget rent-a-car’s “address” is Five Embarcadero Center, which no-one knows is actually the Hyatt. regardless, the “entrance” to Five Embarcadero Center is… the Hyatt front door, isn’t it? That would work for both cars and pedestrians. But no, the Budget marker is on the divider at Sacramento and Drumm, looking toward Three, and no mention of the valet.
On my first visit to Budget Rent-a-car, I was at Justin Herman Plaza and was directed by Google Maps to Mission St. west, then Main to Market to Drumm. That was before “walking directions.” Here I show how walking directions have improved a lot, but the stupid 5 Embarcadero marker has the wrong location but the right zip code. You have to pick the one with the wrong zip code or you will be sorry. There are two of them, one with “5” and one with “Five.” At this point I don’t know if Google Maps searches for Marker titles or addresses, but it seems OK if you have a single “Five Embarcadero Center” marker with the correct information. It’s the bad markers and wrong zip codes and duplicate entries that conspire against finding one’s way to the Budget counter.
Apparently the Hyatt marker occludes the Five Embarcadero marker, which follows from what I’m seeing: Markers with the exact same address and location hide one another, and there’s only one winner. So, looking at the map you will never see “5 Embarcadero Center.” You have to search for it and select the marker. Side note: I will henceforth call Two Embarcadero Center “Chevy’s Fresh Mex Center” after the long-closed (and demolished) restaurant that prevents the Two Embarcadero Center label from being seen. Even more amusing, this would be fixed by moving the marker for a venue which is long gone. This is the sort of “edit” that I decline to make, since it requires the moderator understand the bigger picture.
My actual destination, the Budget counter, was in the Hyatt lobby (it is now on the street level just behind the main entrance.) I will probably notify Budget that they also need to direct first-time customers better. Either way, the only good Google Maps solution to these problems is to use the marker position I suggest, or make an exception to the description so first-time visitors don’t drive (or walk) around looking for a sign that doesn’t exist. Why is it so difficult to understand that directions to a rental car company are most useful for people who are picking up a car? In other words, how can one get to the effing COUNTER assuming one does not ALREADY HAVE A CAR, which is why ONE IS GOING TO RENT A CAR. It’s fortunate that there is a solution at all, which is the straight-line vector from the street view closest to the valet drop-off to (approximately) the counter, which passes through the Hyatt front entrance.
I defy anyone to explain to me why the definition of where a Marker goes seems to 1) assume one is driving 2) be completely useless for 99.99% of first-time visitors to the Embarcadero Center. If the definition of “Marker” is the automobile entrance, then almost all the markers will pile up around the parking garage entrances. If “Marker” is “entrance of location” then someone has a lot of ‘splainin to to. And if the address is “One Embarcadero Center” there are many entrances, some for the complex, some for access to elevators, and others are individual doors for businesses giving out onto the street, or inside the center. I don’t believe Google has a good solution for this, mostly because we Americans are car freaks and they (Googlers) are too in love with Street View.
Bing maps does do labels better: Bird’s eye view and map view all have One through Four properly labelled. Bird’s eye view can be rotated. User contributions can be enabled and even “subscribed to.”
Let’s also not forget that The Embarcadero is a divided road just to the east. “5 The Embarcadero Center” is very evil. So is “5 Embarcadero”. Did I mention that there are very few addresses on The Embarcadero? Yes, they are piers mostly, but not consecutive no no no. Odd numbers going North of the Ferry building, even numbers going south. Unfortunately, often “Pier 1, The Embarcadero” gets turned into “1 The Embarcadero” which is perhaps why I’m seeing some usage of “1 Pier.” We don’t make it easy, certainly. Pity the tourists!
View Embarcadero Center - Google Maps issues and problems in a larger map
place | tagged collaboration, google maps, place, san francisco, user maps 
