Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google to push new ads on its apps

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 151 posts

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#91

Post by cstejerean »

exwiki wrote: post #89
prepend wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waze started doing this and it’s annoying, but I’m already looking at waze so it’s typically when I’m stopped or during some other period where I think it’s safe to look at my phone while driving. I feel sorry for the advertisers as it’s dumb stuff like showing me an ad for “there’s a kfc nearby would you like to eat here” when I’m driving to a business meeting at 10am.

While you are probably right that its dumb, this would have totally made me go to KFC on weekends when I half heartedly drive around to a destination.

But how likely are you to use Waze when you are half heartedly driving around to a destination? I mostly use Waze when I care about finding the fastest route somewhere (because I feel it has some of the most up to date traffic info), which is when I would least want a detour to some other business along the way.

And sometimes for driving long distances to get notifications of things along the way (like speed traps). In those cases I guess I could use ads for where to stop and eat but since Waze only shows ads when stopped (as far as I can tell) the likelihood of it showing me something relevant at the right time I’d want to grab a bite to eat while cruising down the highway seems unlikely.

The only value I see in it is reminding me that oh yeah there is a KFC around here maybe I should try it next time. And maybe they have some way to show attribution there (after all they have location info so maybe they can see how many people go to that business within a certain number of days of seeing an ad, or after a certain number of exposures to the ad).

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#92

Post by zuron7 »

p2t2p wrote: post #82
pizzazzaro wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a threadwinner. Why has nobody else mentioned this? This is how google's gonna either get slapped with lawsuits, find that folks switch and make openstreetmap.org suddenly usable, or even both. Whoa.

Aaaaand none of that matters. Not many people enjoy sitting there, mapping stuff, so openstreetmap is not going to get any better without corporations contributing to it like they do with Linux kernel. Lawsuits doesn't matter much as well - with Google's power they can either: - Afford a settlement, bunch of them - Make the litigation to take long-long-long time - Lobby for some law to protect them. Nobody ain't gonn…

OSM has better data in certain aspects. The big problem with OSM is not about the data, but that it isn't designed to be used as a map. When someone visits osm.org, it is very barebones and the search feature doesn't work very well to find places unless you know the syntax. The team working on OSM themselves say that OSM is not a map, but instead a database.

Anyway, Google would never have gotten the data that it has without the contributions of the people. And the dedicated mappers in my city have all turned to OSM now. Hence leading to better mapping in terms of road data, bicycle paths and other features that businesses do not care about mapping.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#93

Post by tjbiddle »

nsuser3 wrote: post #18
airstrike wrote: post #8

Time to install a mobile browser with ad-blocking capabilities. Suggestions? I haven't used Firefox on my phone in years, but I remember it being slower than a snail

Try Blokada ( https://blokada.org/ ), it blocks ads system-wide.

Can you vouch well for this? I'm always concerned with an app that routes all my traffic through a VPN.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#94

Post by zuron7 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #47
pxtail wrote: post #42

"In Maps, ads will now appear in recommended search queries, on routing pages and during navigation " Ugh, this is sad and clever at same time - during navigation screen is on all the time and one usually glances at route from time to time even if it is just "straight ahead" for couple of kilometers. Moreover ad will be potentially visible to all passengers as well.

My thought was always that they were going to start using businesses as landmarks, aka: "At Monument Dr. - just past the Starbucks where if you stop now you can get a piping hot Venti coffee for only $1.50 - make a right"

They already do this heavily in India. Mostly due to a lack of good road signage. Landmarks are what defined navigation. Where I live (Bangalore), we have junctions named after KFC and Sony, cos those stores have been there for so long.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#95

Post by ravenstine »

stordoff wrote: post #48

> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.

I really, really, really wish there was serious competition to Google Maps. That's the one Google product I've had to repeatedly come back to because there's nothing even close in terms of functionality available for Android. I was hoping Here WeGo would be an alternative, but it's kind of a joke. I'd install Apple Maps if I could. I'd trade in my Pixel for an iPhone if it didn't mean losing real Firefox, NewPipe, and root-level ad blocking.

The world of mobile computing is so confining!

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#96

Post by flukus »

zuron7 wrote: post #92
p2t2p wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aaaaand none of that matters. Not many people enjoy sitting there, mapping stuff, so openstreetmap is not going to get any better without corporations contributing to it like they do with Linux kernel. Lawsuits doesn't matter much as well - with Google's power they can either: - Afford a settlement, bunch of them - Make the litigation to take long-long-long time - Lobby for some law to protect them. Nobody ain't gonn…

OSM has better data in certain aspects. The big problem with OSM is not about the data, but that it isn't designed to be used as a map. When someone visits osm.org, it is very barebones and the search feature doesn't work very well to find places unless you know the syntax. The team working on OSM themselves say that OSM is not a map, but instead a database. Anyway, Google would never have gotten the data that it has…

I agree with the search, but being a map is where OSM shines.

When I visit google maps a see a bunch of colorful boxes and notable locations, I have no idea why it chooses the notable locations it does but it appears to be either paid or some sort of SEO shenanigans, a local curry place is list but one of the biggest train stations in the country isn't (Southern Cross in Melbourne), recently they've also tried to cover the map with the "explore" panel.

When I look at the same area with OSM it shows the train station and shows me the street names with the street names all those colored boxes (buildings) are information, without them they're just noise.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#97

Post by simongr3dal »

ravenstine wrote: post #95
stordoff wrote: post #48

> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.

I really, really, really wish there was serious competition to Google Maps. That's the one Google product I've had to repeatedly come back to because there's nothing even close in terms of functionality available for Android. I was hoping Here WeGo would be an alternative, but it's kind of a joke. I'd install Apple Maps if I could. I'd trade in my Pixel for an iPhone if it didn't mean losing real Firefox, NewPipe, an…

What about having "real" Firefox is the important part?

Is it supporting Mozilla, or supporting browser engine diversity, or is because real Firefox has more checkmarks on caniuse.com?

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#98

Post by bubblethink »

simongr3dal wrote: post #97
ravenstine wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really, really, really wish there was serious competition to Google Maps. That's the one Google product I've had to repeatedly come back to because there's nothing even close in terms of functionality available for Android. I was hoping Here WeGo would be an alternative, but it's kind of a joke. I'd install Apple Maps if I could. I'd trade in my Pixel for an iPhone if it didn't mean losing real Firefox, NewPipe, an…

What about having "real" Firefox is the important part? Is it supporting Mozilla, or supporting browser engine diversity, or is because real Firefox has more checkmarks on caniuse.com?

Extensions like ublock origin.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#99

Post by ravenstine »

simongr3dal wrote: post #97
ravenstine wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really, really, really wish there was serious competition to Google Maps. That's the one Google product I've had to repeatedly come back to because there's nothing even close in terms of functionality available for Android. I was hoping Here WeGo would be an alternative, but it's kind of a joke. I'd install Apple Maps if I could. I'd trade in my Pixel for an iPhone if it didn't mean losing real Firefox, NewPipe, an…

What about having "real" Firefox is the important part? Is it supporting Mozilla, or supporting browser engine diversity, or is because real Firefox has more checkmarks on caniuse.com?

I could agree with all 3 of those points, but I'm mostly thinking of the latter. The iOS browser engine isn't bad, but it has security quirks with things like iframe navigation and it still somewhat lags behind with PWA features. As a web developer who likes to tinker, I just don't find it ideal to be saddled with the browser engine that comes with iOS.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#100

Post by afniljl »

stordoff wrote: post #48

> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation. Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.

if Google Maps becomes too difficult or terrible to use, and there's a better competitor, users will naturally switch to the alternative. Unless you guys can start something better, you'll just have to use Google Maps? I don't think Apple Maps or any other service has a good enough data or feature set right now or forseeable future, outside of the California or US geographic area.

Either Google Maps raise it's developer API pricing to support all their investment into the service, and I'm sure it's not cheap to support, especially with their streetview efforts, or else ads go into the consumer side. For a long time we enjoyed the free ride from Google Search's desktop revenue.

Post reply on HN