I don't disagree with you, but I agree with Ms. Zerwas coming from a slightly different angle. I go to Google Maps to get directions. It's phenomenally good it. And I want it to communicate direction-related information to me in the cleanest, simplest way possible. Having extra numbers on the screen that are totally unrelated to me understanding where I am and where I want to go is bad. They're a distraction.

Google has nice APIs for 3rd-party integration. If some business or organization wants to use Google Maps to integrate a calorie counting deal, then great. Do that.

But don't force me to participate in some calorie-counting crusade by including it in the base app.

Seems like a simple disable option would have made everyone happy.

The sad thing about this (although I could be presuming too much) is instead of taking the "Mom, my coach said x at practice today" and turning it into an important conversation about the interplay of nutrition and sports performance, body image, and self worth, she went ahead and decided to yell at someone instead.

Agreed. Simple show/hide toggle would've done it imo, maybe if you toggle to show it'd default to the walking directions.

It wouldn't have taken much to have given the calorie count a chance but instead Google just backed off it. It's just a wimpy 'don't offend anyone' type of move.