In the past i was able to write a location in google search, then search...and then clicking on the picture that was showing the google map could take me into the google map and navigate

something happened and this is not occuring now? clicking on the map from google search nothing happens now

instead i have to enter www.google.com/maps and search in there

 

I noticed the same issue. I don't know whether they were obliged by a court to unlink their Maps service from the standard web search engine to reduce the unfair advantage over other maps / navigations providers? That's the only explanation that comes to my mind.

 

Well, I guess this explains it: https://www.thelocal.com/20240307/why-google-searches-in-europe-no-longer-show-maps

That bears the interesting question: EU laws intended to enable free market competition - do they sometimes lead to negative outcomes for the user? And if so: how to balance usability vs. free market competition?

I'm glad I don't have to answer this question.

 

Ah, interesting. Wrote a quick hack to add a link to Maps. Works for me on English Google. It'll break with the next layout change. Needs ViolentMonkey, TamperMonkey or GreaseMonkey.

Code:

// ==UserScript==
// @name           Google Map Link
// @version        1.0
// @match          *://*.google.*/*
// ==/UserScript==
observer = new MutationObserver(async (mutations) => {
    mutations.every(() => {
        if (document.querySelector("div.crJ18e") && document.querySelector("textarea")) {
            observer.disconnect();

            map_node = document.createElement("div");
            map_node.innerHTML = `<a href="/maps/search/${encodeURIComponent(
                document.querySelector("textarea").value,
            )}" class="nPDzT T3FoJb" role="link"><div class="YmvwI">Maps</div></a>`;

            bar = document.querySelector("div.crJ18e");
            bar.insertAdjacentElement("afterbegin", map_node);
        }
    });
});

observer.observe(document, {
    childList: true,
    subtree: true,
});