In general, the Google Maps redesign of last year is quite nice. I have to admit that I don’t notice a great improvement in the quality of the maps, but I’m pretty limited to simple maps in big cities in the US.

What happened with the ability to share maps? This is one of the things I do the most, and I wish more people did it — I’m not skilled at intuitive navigating, and need to review directions before traveling and then while en route. I’m surprised that the new maps takes more clicks to share a short URL (generated by Google’s own goo.gl). Google always talks about being a data-driven company, and I’m even more surprised if the the data doesn’t show that users are frequently clicking to share the maps, following the new multi-click path to the URL that should only be a single click.

The detail-obsessed list of steps to share in Google Maps right now

Here’s what it takes to share a short URL (one that looks really nice pasted into an email):

1. Click the tiny and illogical “settings” icon (a gear, standard for settings, not standard for sharing!).
2. Click “Share and Embed Map.”
3. Check the box for “Short URL.”
4. Select (manually, no “select” button included in other sharing apps) the URL.
5. Click command-C to copy.

It’s important to note here that you can copy the URL from the browser window and share that link directly to the map. This is pretty good, especially since it’s pretty common to use a hyperlink in an email rather than pasting the entire URL in. As nice as that looks, there are plenty of advantages to sharing the full link, such as making it uber-clear that this is a link and improving clickability on mobile devices that don’t always render links in email as expected. And when I share the full link, I don’t want a link that looks like this (real link for a few block walk from 1871 to Google Chicago).

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/222+W+Merchandise+Mart+Plaza,+Chicago,+IL+60654/Google,+20+W+Kinzie+St,+Chicago,+IL+60654/@41.8877575,-87.6350201,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x880e2cb6fcdf1ead:0x4807aae2cdb41234!2m2!1d-87.6365131!2d41.8883776!1m5!1m1!1s0x880e2cb1e430fff5:0x331f5d11923d1273!2m2!1d-87.628908!2d41.889497

The fact that you can copy the URL in the browser demonstrates the problem with the built-in sharing capabilities: If you can copy the long URL from the browser, why would you ever want the long URL from the sharing interface? If I’m in here, just show me the short link. Perhaps there is a reason why Google is encouraging the use of long links that I’m not aware of? That would impact how this might be improved.

Let’s make this better

This should be one-click directly to a short link. Here’s my humble proposal to redesign sharing on Google Maps. First principle: It should be faster. Second principle: It should be more logical. Sharing and embedding are similar, but sharing is something you do often; quickly drafting multiple emails to folks for different events at various locations, while embedding is something most people do rarely to add a map to a website. Also, sharing should simply show you a short URL, and embedding should include a few more customization options.

First step, add a share button directly to the directions element:

Here’s a close up of the share button:

Next, here’s the pop-up when you click the share button:

This pop-up immediately displays the short goo.gl short URL along with a one-click button to copy the link (or you can always select it yourself).

We’ll leave embedding options for another day. There are certainly other ways, and probably better ways made by creative designers, to improve the sharing experience of maps. What’s clear here is that it’s bad right now, and there is a really simple and really standard way of making it better. I would hope Google would go beyond simple and standard, but this would be a huge improvement for everyone who shares maps.