181–190 of 442 posts
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> My recent favorite feature is the live estimation of how crowded a store is, very useful during the pandemic. Unfortunately it's been completely useless in my area. I wish stores just allowed access to the cctv cameras on their parking lots so I could estimate for myself.
That’s valuable data for sale by other vendors.
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Is Google Maps an example of this? I think it's very clearly an app which dominated the market by offering best-in-class service for untenable prices (Maps API used to be free for developers up to an absurd amount) and is adding monetization elements now that it dominates the market. That's every VC's dream isn't it?
Yes, of course, except that the decision-making has shifted towards priorities that do not benefit the customer, though they used to. I have no interest in seeing where the nearest McDonalds is, unless I search for it. POI markers for places I need to go (via bookings/appointments) are good, but POIs for places I have never been are bad. For whatever reason I can never see the street name I want to see anymore. Betwe…
I worked at a company that heavily used the maps API in 2018. The 1,400% price hike really was an eye opener. It wasn't just the money involved, which was large, but the fact that it came so suddenly and with so much magnitude. Google's choice to bump these prices made me realize that they could do the same thing with their compute cloud pricing or other APIs, again with little notice. That, in turn, led to the reali…
Is it likely that Azure and Amazon would do similar if they raised prices on GCP?
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GMail and whatever their chat is called this week (social), Daydream (VR/AR).
Gmail isn’t there because they want to search your email. It’s there because they want you to sign in.
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GMail and whatever their chat is called this week (social), Daydream (VR/AR).
Gmail isn’t there because they want to search your email. It’s there because they want you to sign in.
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Google wants to control all the ways people search the web so that they don't have to share profits and so that a competitor can't emerge. That's why we have Maps (location), Android (mobile), Home & Assistant (voice), and Chrome (URL bar).
GMail and whatever their chat is called this week (social), Daydream (VR/AR).
I worked at a company that heavily used the maps API in 2018. The 1,400% price hike really was an eye opener. It wasn't just the money involved, which was large, but the fact that it came so suddenly and with so much magnitude. Google's choice to bump these prices made me realize that they could do the same thing with their compute cloud pricing or other APIs, again with little notice. That, in turn, led to the reali…
Yes. You are right. The whole cloud deal is a try to rule out on premise infrastructure and once it is gone and everyone is dependent on it (due to lost of knowledge, and for cloud providers ideally when hardware vendors are no longer selling hardware to non cloud entities) harvest the dependent businesses left at their mercy and charge dearly (including for all the years before that). It is actually not even a complicated plan but it is staggering how many people are putting cloth over their eyes.
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Apple’s approach to cycling directions is second rate IMHO. It’s only available in certain media city locations. If you stray out of those areas you’re out of luck. Basically Apple seem more interested in rolling this out as a tick box item for journalists than helping me get to work. This tells me that Apple is not serious about its Maps app.
I see it as then wanting to do it right through curation. Contrast that with Google where they just throw ML at everything.
Often though this “curation” is never rolled out to a wider audience.
Take for example on site servicing. Apple have never offered that and instead you’re encouraged to visit your local Apple Store.
Except that Apple Stores are still not present out side of certain blessed locations.
If you don’t live somewhere Apple thinks is trendy enough for an Apple Store you’re out of luck.
I’m not expecting a wider roll out of routing for cyclists anytime soon.
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Gmail isn’t there because they want to search your email. It’s there because they want you to sign in.
GMail is there mostly as a legacy of a time when Google had legit competition from portal sites like Yahoo and MSN. E-mail was an important part of that portal and GMail was a way to siphon some users.
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It is a joke.
An simple outlandish claim doesn't make constitute a joke unless it's referencing something. I think that reference is what GP is asking about.
Anyway, I think that is a lot more likely than some obscure cultural reference that we’re expected to parse in the middle of musing about digital mapping.