191–200 of 374 posts
They aren’t starting to show ads in Google Maps because they have been doing that for a long time. They just started limiting the free service for developers a few months ago.
I stopped using Google Maps a few years back. I received a notification on my phone that a store I was near was having a sale. It was clear that something was leaking my location, and that was being used to push ads to me through Android itself. A little investigation revealed that the culprit was Google Maps. I uninstalled it at that point and never looked back.
The cookie popup for this site... Which selection means No and which means Yes? Also, after submitting my "preferences", I actually got to watch a custom progress meter creep thru the %s until I gave up around 80. What a fucking disaster our modern internet is.
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Do you mean rerouting? Google Maps is tuned differently than Waze, which caters to drivers looking to shave off minutes or even seconds. It tries to keep directions simple and easier to follow (e.g. not making a large number of turns), even if that means a slightly slower route. That was a deliberate product decision, at least until a few years ago. What kind of incomprehensible directions and business names are you…
Waze feels more like the R&D app for maps. It doesn't shave seconds or minutes off my time, but what it does do is constant A/B testing to see if another route could be faster. I know the area fairly well and I routinely ignore the route Waze wants to send me unless there is a clearly identified problem on the normal route, and when it re-routes to the path I chose, it's a minute or two shorter. Why did it try to sen…
Anecdotes != data, but I'm pretty sure I've experienced this with Google Maps as well.
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You are correct. The reverse is true too, why should contribute data to their maps service for free? I've done lot of work to add and correct roads, update business info and addresses in my area. If they want to fill the map with ads they have that right - but when they drive me (and people like me) away, their product will suffer.
I’d strongly recommended putting future efforts into Open Streetmap instead - they have a fantastic set of data and tools and are usually (in my experience) more accurate and updated more quickly than Google.
I with OSM would come out with a consumer-focused map product. I think that would go a long way towards attracting more contributors, since most people get started to scratch an itch in a product they use.
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.
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You are assuming people would pay for an ad free GMAPS. Google tried this with YouTube Red. It doesn't work. Apple users may be willing to pay for apps, Android users don't swing that way.
>Google tried this with YouTube Red. It doesn't work. I'm a Red/Premium subscriber, I love downloading my videos to my phone and, of course, no ads. What makes you say that it doesn't work?
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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.
Is that why? I thought I was buying iphones for the high quality, end-to-end user experience design, ecosystem integration, strict standards for third party apps, long-lasting hardware, and high resale value. Now I feel so silly.