Political correctness strikes again: Experimental Google Maps feature ditched after user backlash

User backlash has forced Google to do away with an informative test feature of iOS' Google Maps. Said feature informed to give users a general estimation of how many calories got burned during walks, which is a rather standard feature of many a fitness-oriented apps like Samsung Health, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo.Yet, what really fixated the sights straight onto Big G was its benevolent decision to compare said calorie expenditure with... mini cupcakes. By doing that, the otherwise vague and abstract calorie sum gets directly juxtaposed against something ...

User backlash has forced Google to do away with an informative test feature of iOS' Google Maps. Said feature informed to give users a general estimation of how many calories got burned during walks, which is a rather standard feature of many a fitness-oriented apps like Samsung Health, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo.

Yet, what really fixated the sights straight onto Big G was its benevolent decision to compare said calorie expenditure with... mini cupcakes. By doing that, the otherwise vague and abstract calorie sum gets directly juxtaposed against something real (and quite tasty) that almost anyone out there is personally familiar with. We are more than certain this move was implemented with the hopes of encouraging Google Maps users to get motivated to walk more instead of driving, all in the quest for a healthier lifestyle. 

This is why we can't have nice things

However, a vocal minority of users decided that this is an offensive move on Google's part as it was merely an abstract number that was specifically targeting women with eating disorders. In particular, the lack of a way to turn off this feature triggered a number of peeps, with the most vocal one being The Hill's Taylor Lorenz.

Oh my god and if you click walking directions it auto tells you how much food you'd burn off what the fuck pic.twitter.com/B5djax2Li4

It is not easy to find and download Hike spy tool which actually works. There are many apps that claim to be able to hack Hike messenger but it is not that easy to find a monitoring application that is reliable enough.

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) October 17, 2017

Of course, in this day and age it's so trendy to get triggered that God forbid anyone doing anything, especially a multi-billion tech giant experimenting with features. It's almost certain that due to the backlash Google will hardly ever think of baking that feature into a future version of Maps, even though its benevolent in its inception and aims to create useful habits. 

On that note, it's quite surprising there has been no uproar that Google's Android OS is still getting dessert-themed monikers on yearly basis. 

via: 9To5Mac