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Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

joemorrison.substack.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#191

Post by wpietri »

alasdair_ wrote: post #173

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…

Google's fundamental relationship with users is statistical, and I think it shows. They're very good at optimizing metrics; their search, for example has remained the leader 20+ years on. In that world, if you lose a few users or give a bad experience, well, there are plenty more where those came from, and the ones who leave will often come back.

I think they mistakenly bring that attitude to their consumer businesses, though. The stories of bad customer experiences are legion. Like you, I've learned that I can't really trust them. Which is true of all companies, of course, but it's different with Google. Amazon is even more rapacious, but I trust them to be long-term greedy, to not shoot themselves in the foot with some short-sighted action. For all their flaws, they understand that customer relationships have long-term value.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#192

Post by MichaelZuo »

maxerickson wrote: post #183
alasdair_ wrote: post #173

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…

Mapbox responded to Google raising prices by raising their prices. Is it likely that Azure and Amazon would do similar if they raised prices on GCP?

Did all of the major providers raise their prices after?

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#193

Post by otherme123 »

reportingsjr wrote: post #136
kingaillas wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google Maps just isn't very good for hiking I find openstreetmap.org to be great for showing hiking trails. At least for my local area.

I've spent a ton of time mapping out trails in my region on openstreetmap. I've found the issue now is the interface. The map data is only good if it can be easily read. I'm starting to look at workflows for taking osm trail data and trying to make nice maps, but wow it is not easy to do!

Thanks! I use mapy.cz for everything, but my main reason are the hiking routes. I've contibuted some routes also (and city data using streetComplete), but certainly not a ton.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#194

Post by snowwrestler »

gerash wrote: post #151
snowwrestler wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a joke.

Then it definitely is not that funny of a joke. He could've added "and I am 10 meters tall" without affecting how funny his joke is

A joke doesn’t have to be good... most aren’t!

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#195

Post by mongol »

kingaillas wrote: post #118
morsch wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps just isn't very good for hiking. But it's not just a map, it's got the yellow pages, Yelp, and, depending on where you are, various other things like hotel booking and public transport routing thrown in. My recent favorite feature is the live estimation of how crowded a store is, very useful during the pandemic. Much of this is stuff the software based on OSM isn't even trying, or doing so only very half…

> Google Maps just isn't very good for hiking I find openstreetmap.org to be great for showing hiking trails. At least for my local area.

Agreed. It has the potential to be best bar none for this. Where it isn't, it is probably only a matter of time.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#196

Post by porknubbins »

nr2x wrote: post #103
larrymyers wrote: post #90

I really want to use Apple Maps full time on my iPhone, just because of how much clutter Google Maps has accumulated on the screen. If anything tells me Google is losing the ability to innovate it's the newly added pill buttons for pre-set searches and branded POIs on the map. I remember when this was added to MapQuest circa 2010, and was the transition from trying to have an excellent mapping experience to just addi…

I wanted Apple Maps to succeed so I’ve been using it from day one. It’s gotten much, much better. That said, if I’m going on a long trip where a non-optimal route is a big deal, I’ll double check with google maps and often (but not always) find a better route.

On Apple maps day one I was an iPhone user living in Tokyo and Apple maps was like “what are trains? Here’s a 20 mile driving route through Tokyo”. Google maps was gone and I’m not sure whether to its on Apple or Google but my ability to get around was impaired significantly.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#197

Post by jimkleiber »

stiray wrote: post #187
alasdair_ wrote: post #173

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…

> 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 realization that we needed to remove our reliance on Google's entire stack, and quickly, or we'd be in a terrible bargaining position later. Yes. You are right. The whole cloud deal is a try to rule out on premise infrastructure an…

These two comments make me see SaaS more like paying rent for housing:

If we become fully dependent on a service (shelter) and then the provider (landlord) jacks up the price, we may be quickly forced to switch services (homes) or be out of business (homeless).

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#198

Post by MichaelZuo »

freedomben wrote: post #178
17a9f4a4f4e5b3f wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, Apple Maps still doesn't feel as good for searching obscure things as Google Maps did 5 years ago, but neither does Google Maps. An example: I recently searched for "photography repair" in my area and Apple gave me film developing places and local event photographers, Google gave me (I kid you not, first result) McDonalds and Best Buy. The latter I can understand, they sell photography equipment and they do re…

With Google Maps I will know about a Maverik gas station that is on my route that I know I want to stop at. I'll search for it "along my route" and I get a bunch of other gas stations that I don't want. I suspect they are prioritizing the other gas station brands because they paid for preference, and selected "Maverik" as one of their keywords, but the impact to me is that the exact thing I searched for doesn't come…

Perhaps one day they, or a competitor, will do a ‘Maps Premium’ that simply charges the user inserted of all the ads, targeting, etc. And maybe a ‘Maps Premium+’ that allows for customization and going back to the peak usability design of Maps.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#199

Post by tracker1 »

Related... when I'm in the car, and not, I often use the google assistant to search... for at least a couple months, it's gotten to be almost worse than useless as the bottom 1/3 is covered by google buttons over the stuff I'm searching for, and the mini map view at the top doesn't easily expand to the screen for pan/zoom.

The assistant should be much easier to use, and while not the best, I admit I have tried to use it driving, and now I pretty much have to pull over and use it, because "OK Google give me directions to X on Y st in City" no longer does what it should.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#200

Post by xeromal »

oflannabhra wrote: post #101
wayne wrote: post #84

> Meanwhile at an office down the hall, Azure Maps has been humming along quietly since 2018, beating AWS to the punch by over two years. Microsoft's actually been in the geo API game for significantly longer, pre-Google Maps. MapPoint started as a desktop GIS product in 2000 that let businesses create desktop maps, and they've had an online API since 2002... it started as a SOAP API: https://news.microsoft.com/2002/…

I also remember Microsoft being involved in TerraServer pre-2000. Loading up satellite photos of my house on dial-up is an early internet memory that will stick with me forever.

I remember being about 8-10 years old and showing my parents a pic of our house from the sky. They freaked out and thought I was "hacking". haha. I can't remember what I used but it was a little before 2000
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