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

131–140 of 151 posts

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#131

Post by JohnFen »

mc32 wrote: post #35
tyingq wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have had many years of revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth. They did that by slowly pushing organic results down the fold in favor of ads. That trick is played out now...there's little real estate above the fold left to cede to ads now. So, to maintain revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth, they need new tricks. Basically, they set the bar very high.

My wish is that adds fill the first SERP so that I can just go to page 2 and be done. Damn you, Overture, why did you have to do that!

In my experience with Google search, it rarely gives me useful results on the first page. So much so that I've developed a bit of muscle memory. When I have to resort to doing a Google search, I have to consciously stop myself from immediately clicking to get the next page of results.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#132

Post by JohnFen »

bsamuels wrote: post #49
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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; it's roughly in the form of: "take a left at sunset boulevard, right past the jack in the box". I suspected it was a paid ad, but never knew for sure

That's a terrible practice for me. The way my brain works, street names are far more useful than landmarks, particularly if those landmarks are businesses.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#133

Post by JohnFen »

hcnews wrote: post #63

As an investor this makes me wary. How much short term value are they gaining by sacrificing user satisfaction? Google's UX is pretty top notch today and they don't really have any relevant competitors. With this move, they are creating space for differentiation along better UX and potentially losing out a share of users over time.

> Google's UX is pretty top notch today

I very much disagree, but I also think that's a subjective thing.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#134

Post by JohnFen »

tjbiddle wrote: post #93
nsuser3 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I'm always concerned with an app that routes all my traffic through a VPN.

Many of these use the VPN subsystem of Android, but are not actually VPNs -- that is, they aren't routing anything off of your device. Using the VPN subsystem is just a way to be able to filter network traffic without having to have rooted your device.

The only downside is that you can't use such an app and a real VPN at the same time.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#136

Post by asdff »

Marsymars wrote: post #76
ape4 wrote: post #46

Now Google maps will use more bandwidth, yipee.

This is actually the reason I stopped using Google Maps for most of my navigation. It used up most of my 5 gb monthly allotment over the timespan of a week of travel/driving. I typically only use ~500 mb of data per month otherwise.

You can download a local cache of the map data. I have my whole city saved and I think the app is around 500mb in size now.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#138

Post by asdff »

djanogo wrote: post #84

I get down voted often for saying iPhone is cheaper, like the old man said, price is what you pay and value is what you buy. Android and Google are expensive.

I got a 128gb SE for less than $250 shipped on ebay, graded at B condition but I couldn't find a scratch on it, not even by the ports (yes, plural :^) and the battery is at 95% health. Just as quick as an x in real world use, the screen repair is way cheaper, and I could stretch the battery life two days.

I love the size too, the last one handed iPhone and I forget it's in my pocket.

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#139

Post by abqader »

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 features on Google Maps that you like are not on other map platforms?

Re: Google to push new ads on its apps

#140

Post by sidcool »

I am from India and sometimes jealous of China and Russia for having good local Google alternatives, Baidu and Yandex respectively. Google has more than 95% search market share in India and there is no competitive product even close.
Post reply on HN