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Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

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Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#21
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would need to be a subscription service - unlike a game or a disk partitioning tool, they can't support it for four years, then stop supporting it after without taking negative PR. Realistically, an ad-free program subscription would usually be marked up from what they can make per-user per-month off of ad revenue - so maybe take ad revenue, add $5 and round to the nearest ten?

I really doubt their yearly revenue for user with ads would be more than 5 dollars a year. So, 10 dollars a year. Add some nice corner-case features, maybe some gamefication bonus, and it could work. As a sidenote, "add $5 and round to the nearest ten" is equivalent to "round to the next ten" everytime.

[deleted]

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#22
Does anyone else open Waze only momentarily to make sure their primary route does not have significant traffic? I don't need it to direct me the entire drive, so I just quickly check to make sure there isn't some catastrophic accident that will block my path. After that I shut it down, put on a podcast, and go on my merry way.

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#23

I'd prefer if drivers watched the road and not pop up ads on Waze.

I thought the ads only pop up when the car is stopped?

and the one time I feel comfortable looking at Waze to scan the route ahead is when I'm stopped, and an annoying ad is in the way. It's utterly obnoxious and given Google's warchest is unnecessary.

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#24

Does anyone else open Waze only momentarily to make sure their primary route does not have significant traffic? I don't need it to direct me the entire drive, so I just quickly check to make sure there isn't some catastrophic accident that will block my path. After that I shut it down, put on a podcast, and go on my merry way.

The optimal route will often change during my commute. Your commute may be significantly shorter than mine.

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#26

I'd prefer if drivers watched the road and not pop up ads on Waze.

But who is preventing them from watching the road? If a driver is so confused by notifications or popups on a tiny screen occupying probably < 5% of their field of view, I think they should put the phone upside down and rely on audio.

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would need to be a subscription service - unlike a game or a disk partitioning tool, they can't support it for four years, then stop supporting it after without taking negative PR. Realistically, an ad-free program subscription would usually be marked up from what they can make per-user per-month off of ad revenue - so maybe take ad revenue, add $5 and round to the nearest ten?

I really doubt their yearly revenue for user with ads would be more than 5 dollars a year. So, 10 dollars a year. Add some nice corner-case features, maybe some gamefication bonus, and it could work. As a sidenote, "add $5 and round to the nearest ten" is equivalent to "round to the next ten" everytime.

Just to nitpick, if they earn $6, you add $5 then it'll be $11, rouding to next ten will make it $20, not $10...

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#28
post #25

I would pay a reasonable fee to not have ads on Waze.

Use an ad blocker and they will rarely show up. When I stop, Waze shows me what people reported on the road ahead. "Car stopped in 3 miles."

Ad blocker on a mobile device?

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#29
post #28
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use an ad blocker and they will rarely show up. When I stop, Waze shows me what people reported on the road ahead. "Car stopped in 3 miles."

Ad blocker on a mobile device?

I use AdAway - https://f-droid.org/packages/org.adaway/ on my Android phone. Downloads lists of advertising hostnames and blocks them via /etc/hosts. It's licensed under GPL-3.0. Requires you to have rooted your phone.

Re: Waze officially launches its ad program for small businesses

#30
post #13

I'd prefer if drivers watched the road and not pop up ads on Waze.

The ads only show up when the car isn't moving, such as when it's stopped at an intersection.

Now Waze has an incentive to choose the route with the most red lights. The driving version of the "slideshow" listicle.

'You can skip this intersection in 15, 14, 13...'

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