Metro station labels no longer appear on Google Maps

Except in extreme zoom-in views. This is a change from the previous set-up in Google Maps. For neighborhood views, Metro station labels were clearly visible. I believe it was a small blue square with a white “M” inside. Those labels are very helpful when looking at neighborhoods in Google Maps. You can see how close or far CaBi stations are from the nearest Metro stations, and so on.

Google Maps changed sometime over the summer. At first, the Metro station icons disappeared completely from Google Maps. Now they are visible in extreme zoom-in views, but not in the wider neighborhood views. This is a minor improvement, but I still wish they would return to the set-up they had before this summer.

I filled out a comment form on Google Maps. If other people find the change to be ill-advised, they can post a comment to Google through the Google Maps page too.

[On a different note, I’ve read that Google changed the rendering of Google Maps so that it relies more heavily on the graphics processor of the user’s computer. For those of us without high-powered gaming machines, this has resulted in hiccups and stuttering in the display of the maps, especially when zooming in and out. I guess this was done to put the burden of rendering on the local computer, instead of on Google servers. I’m not pleased about this change either. Maybe if enough people start using other mapping services, Google may reconsider this decision.]