This will have a detrimental effect on smaller businesses. Those with small teams of developers that have worked tirelessly to build their software around Google's maps APIs. This will damage long term relationships with Google and this mid size firms.
Google Decides to Monetize Maps
241–250 of 374 posts
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Forced to close by economic forces" is not what the other poster was saying. Competition is good. And yes, Apple and Google will put up a fight because that's how competition works. >> I put advancement of Earth and its people as my top priority. Great. Are you working on a mapping service?
If a government or government-sanctioned non-profit receives enough tax credits and funding to create a viable alternative to Google Maps which puts the service out of business, it's still just market competition. We do this all of the time with banks, large American industries, oil companies, etc. You can't have one and turn away the other. > Great. Are you working on a mapping service? That's fallacious. I don't ha…
Again, that's not what the other poster meant by "forced to close". They specifically said maps shouldn't be provided by a for-profit company. That's the opposite of competition.
I'm not sure who you're arguing with because we all want more options, and we already have several from Apple, Microsoft and others. I definitely don't want my taxes being spent on another poorly executed govt project though.
>> I don't have a giant pile of money sitting around.
Maybe you should care about profit then because that's why Google Maps exists.
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not free and installed by default on every android devices ? You mean, I can buy a subscription and not rent the service with my search history ? Where's the sign-up button ?
There are tons of viable competitors to google maps, even on Android, last time I checked. They all have different monetization strategies, and all provide good enough turn by turn directions. I regularly use Here WeGo for its offline support. Sygic is probably still fine. I think Sygic moved to a freemium model, and I get the impression Here is subsidized by luxury car manufacturers. Yelp crushes google maps on sear…
What competitor would you recommend for public transit directions?
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#244I 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…
Why should they offer a free maps service? They are a business with shareholder responsibilities, not a charity, and maps must cost them a ton of money to operate.
If you go down that road, why offer our content for free to google to index? Maps and other google services help the web grow, which helps them sell more ads. It 's a synergy until it is no longer one. I suppose they will not be dumb enough to monetize recaptcha next.
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found in my own amateur UX studies that there are drivers who hear "in a quarter mile, turn right" and don't know how far that is, even after having heard that prompt thousands of times. You'd think that after a while they'd build a mental model of the distance. Instead, they seem to just tune out the "in a quarter mile". This is one of the classes of users for which products need to be designed. (I have similar pr…
Oh yeah I love when people measure turns by the number of intersections to pass. Things like quarter mile or 1000 ft are hot garbage for me in terms of understanding how close I am to needing to turn, since it depends a lot on how fast I'm moving.
Yeah, I don't understand why mapping software doesn't just say:
* after the next 2 intersections, turn right
* after the next intersection, turn right
* turn right at the next intersection
* TURN RIGHT NOW
* you missed the turn right, ....
Other huge annoyances:
- Not telling you which lane it is optimal to stay on on multilane roads
- Not telling you which road signs to follow outside urban centers via voice
- Not telling you about speed limit changes
In general, I find the guidance to be barely usable instead of being excellent as it could be
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#246I 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.
"It was clear that something was leaking my location, and that was being used to push ads to me through Android itself." Android is leaking your location on purpose...
> Android is leaking your location on purpose...
Indeed, but it's possible to stop that. What I meant by "leaking" was that something was getting through despite my efforts to stop it.
Fortunately, the list of possible culprits was small, as I knew what I was allowing access to the internet and what I was not.
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why should they offer a free maps service? They are a business with shareholder responsibilities, not a charity, and maps must cost them a ton of money to operate.
> Why should they offer a free maps service? The shouldn't. They should be forced to close, and Maps and Search should be provided by a non-profit, internationally controlled (UN etc), organization, not a for-profit company. That's my opinion of what would be best. Some services (like "indexing the world's knowledge") are too important to be left to private interests and be monetized via ads...
That is the worst option of all, unless you want to see random buildings appear / disappear from your map.
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
What evidence is your statement based on? On iPhone Google Maps only has access to your location while the app is in use, that means either when A) the app is open or B) it's in the background and there is a blue background around the clock indicating the map is in use.
Check out https://www.google.com/maps/timeline to see what positions they have saved.
That doesn't list who you're sleeping with. Their point was that GP was exaggerating.
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
What killed GMaps for me was the dogged insistence that the correct route through the city involves making left turns onto busy multilane roads at rush hour from a side street with a stop sign, just to avoid a half-block of stopped traffic waiting for a left turn signal.
On the other hand I was on the interstate the other day and it told me to get off and take a detour, I ended up avoiding a massive backup. I don't always take the advice, but man I like having the opportunity.
Same. I ignored it once and got stuck in a traffic jam with construction that was there the week before.
Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
What killed GMaps for me was the dogged insistence that the correct route through the city involves making left turns onto busy multilane roads at rush hour from a side street with a stop sign, just to avoid a half-block of stopped traffic waiting for a left turn signal.
On the other hand I was on the interstate the other day and it told me to get off and take a detour, I ended up avoiding a massive backup. I don't always take the advice, but man I like having the opportunity.
Waze tells me that stuff too. About an hour before I would have arrived at a major accident, it had notified me about a detour onto a parallel highway I should take. As I got closer, it told me to take an earlier exit because the original one was starting to get backed up from people trying to detour. I got off the highway and got back on with only a minute delay in my ETA.
I usually switch between Google Maps and Waze depending on where I'm going and how soon I want to get there. Google Maps if I'm in no hurry and want to take the "normal" way. Waze for if I'm trying to get there sooner (speed trap alerts and shortcuts help) and I'm either somewhat familar with the route or don't care about the stupid shortcuts. Waze has had me cut through neighborhoods and drive down gravel access roads to shave minutes off the travel time. Most of the time it pays off, sometimes you just end up wasting more time at intersections