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Google Decides to Monetize Maps

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Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#161

Post by JohnFen »

mythz wrote: post #140
bhhaskin wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They ran all of their competition out of business.

Google Maps was a revolutionary product that popularized the category, they had no competition when it was released, at least now there's Apple Maps, Open Street Map, Bing Maps, Tencent Maps. I was developing with ESRI ArcGIS at the time, ESRI was a multi-billion dollar GEO company who had no product that even came close to the instant utility Google Maps launched with. The only other product that had a similar "Wow"…

> they had no competition when it was released

There were multiple competing products when Google Maps was released, so they had competition. Google's product was simply better at than most alternatives at the time.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#162

Post by samirm »

hi5eyes wrote: post #139
gowld wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple gets the wealthy high margin market, Google gets the mass market. People buy iPhones to keep up with fashion, but most of them won't pay for maps because they can't show that off to their acquaintances.

>People buy iPhones to keep up with fashion, but most of them won't pay for maps because they can't show that off to their acquaintances. juvenile take, didnt realize people still went with the apple logo meme argument

Just because it's a meme, doesn't mean it isn't at least somewhat true.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#163

Post by newsoul2019 »

gowld wrote: post #77
stunt wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that period was part of their investment and also helped them to improve the product. And like any other investment, they need to make money as well. I can imagine Maps is an expensive product to operate. I also hate ads and I hope they find a different way to make it reasonably profitable.

There is a fine line between "investment to build a product" and "dumping below cost to win consumers over via low prices, then raising prices"

Just charge me already, Google! Present me with a screen that says "Would you like Google Maps ad-free for XX.99 per year?"

Sure, of course. GIVE ME THE OPTION!!

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#164

Post by ergothus »

shostack wrote: post #96
dininski wrote: post #4

I can't stress enough how much of a bad idea this is. I was stunned when a few days ago I was looking up something on Google Maps and started seeing advertised locations/suggestions. Even though I love the product and have been a fan of Google products for the longest time, their current strategy of monetizing everything they can is very off putting. The direction Chrome is taking is also concerning. Don't know what…

There are two main ways an ad business grows. Create more inventory to sell, and increase the value of that inventory. Maps data had presumably been doing the latter behind the scenes. Now it appears to also be doing the former. Would you be ok with them using the data to improve their targeting models as long as they didn't include the placements in the Maps experience itself?

i'd be okay if they charged me to get rid of the ads (though that brings in all sorts of privacy issues for that to work across the many places I encounter Maps)...but ads are a serious detriment to life.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#165

Post by gibspaulding »

js2 wrote: post #32
cageface wrote: post #17

Google is really leaving the door open here for Apple to step in and offer a services bundle with a monthly fee that doesn’t involve stuffing advertising into every nook and cranny of the user experience. I generally prefer Google’s services to Apple’s but there might be a tipping point soon where I’m willing to sacrifice some features in exchange for a generally less creepy product.

Apple maps still has a ways to go. I say this as someone who tries to use it frequently because I much prefer its UI, especially with Carplay. But it still has much worse traffic data, still sometimes sends me on weird routes through neighborhoods that don't save any time nor distance, and lately has a fun glitch where it sometimes instructs me turn left instead of right or vice/versa because it apparently thinks my…

I've never used Apple maps, so I can't compare the two, but I can say that Google also really likes routing me through random twisty neighborhoods for no good reason.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#166

Post by JohnFen »

samirm wrote: post #157
joshfraser wrote: post #107

Google tracks your exact location every few seconds. They know which stores you visit, which restaurants you frequent, which friends you spend the most time with, how often you go to the gym, who you're sleeping with and much more. The targeted advertising and surveillance capabilities that are possible as a result of this level of data collection are absolutely terrifying.

Is this assuming you have GPS on all the time or are you saying they're actively tracking everyone's locations using other means as well?

Google does not rely solely (or even primarily) on GPS for its location tracking. It also uses methods like triangulating based on what WiFi APs your device can see.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#167

Post by hacker_123 »

wool_gather wrote: post #148
mythz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps was a revolutionary product that popularized the category, they had no competition when it was released, at least now there's Apple Maps, Open Street Map, Bing Maps, Tencent Maps. I was developing with ESRI ArcGIS at the time, ESRI was a multi-billion dollar GEO company who had no product that even came close to the instant utility Google Maps launched with. The only other product that had a similar "Wow"…

While I agree about the utility, MapQuest pre-dated Google Maps by a fair bit.

It's kind of amazing how well Google did without a first mover advantage here. MapQuest launched in 1996. Google Maps launched in 2005.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#168

Post by mythz »

wool_gather wrote: post #148
mythz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps was a revolutionary product that popularized the category, they had no competition when it was released, at least now there's Apple Maps, Open Street Map, Bing Maps, Tencent Maps. I was developing with ESRI ArcGIS at the time, ESRI was a multi-billion dollar GEO company who had no product that even came close to the instant utility Google Maps launched with. The only other product that had a similar "Wow"…

While I agree about the utility, MapQuest pre-dated Google Maps by a fair bit.

The instant utility was essential to its massive popularity, it basically ushered in the new era for real-time Consumer mapping. Everything preceding it was clunky, slow and "turn based". I can't recall what the state of MapQuest was at the time, but it's unlikely it had the real-time UX or utility of Google Maps.

Was a real eye-opener of "so that's how you make Maps fast" at the time, just pre-render the entire world at multiple static zoom levels. Which wasn't an option (disk cost) for anyone developing their own in-house mapping Services at the time. For my next GEO project I did the next best thing and used their Google Maps API to change it to make map tile requests to our ArcGIS App which dynamically cached map tiles on the fly, so whilst it didn't pre-render all tiles, it provided a nice "Google Maps"-like UX for popular areas of our region.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#169

Post by microtherion »

kmonsen wrote: post #132
est31 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory Peter Thiel statement on this (2012): https://youtu.be/2Q26XIKtwXQ?t=195 > Google is no longer a technology company, and [...] it's basically [...] a search engine. The search technology was developed a decade ago, it's a bet that [...] no one else will come up with a better search technology so you invest in Google because you're betting against technological innovation in search, and it's like [...] a ba…

It's also not true, Apple is paying dividends and still valued as a technology company (and both Google and Apple clearly are in tech, dividends or not).

As Marc Andreessen memorably put it, Apple is valued "like a steel mill going out of business", with a PE massively lower than Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#170

Post by mythz »

JohnFen wrote: post #161
mythz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps was a revolutionary product that popularized the category, they had no competition when it was released, at least now there's Apple Maps, Open Street Map, Bing Maps, Tencent Maps. I was developing with ESRI ArcGIS at the time, ESRI was a multi-billion dollar GEO company who had no product that even came close to the instant utility Google Maps launched with. The only other product that had a similar "Wow"…

> they had no competition when it was released There were multiple competing products when Google Maps was released, so they had competition. Google's product was simply better at than most alternatives at the time.

There was no real-time Consumer Maps App that came close to competing with Google Maps UX. Now there are multiple Consumer Mapping Services that replicate the instant utility of Google Maps, but it was revolutionary with no equal at the time.
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