By Dhruv Bhutani
Publication Date: 2026-05-02 13:30:00
I use Google Maps every single day, and most of the time I open it for the same basic reasons everyone else does.
I need to find a café to work from, a pharmacy that’s open late at night, or a gas station en route. Once in a while, I might use it to find a coffee shop around me.
It’s supposed to be the fastest way to find real-world places around you. This is why Google Maps’ biggest problems have become so frustrating for me in 2026.
Google keeps adding to the Google Maps experience, but not always in the best way. Especially now that it has Gemini-powered search that lets you ask natural-language questions instead of typing awkward keywords.
On paper, I can search for a quiet coffee shop near me with parking, and it should find intent-based results. That part is genuinely helpful. But better search doesn’t fix bad search results.
The real issue I’ve been facing is that the core experience is cluttered with low-quality business listings, sponsored placements, fake…
