Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Decides to Monetize Maps

adage.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 374 posts

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#261

Post by neuralRiot »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #210
jedberg wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you tried using gmaps for navigation you’d find it to be a far superior to those devices. Does your TomTom tell you “turn into the driveway after the Vitamin Shop”? Because gmaps does.

I have used google Maps for navigation. It's not all that much better than my Garmin, at least not in my area. Even in downtown Manhattan the Garmin worked flawlessly. And Garmin units have had natural directions like that for four or five years. But I find it more of a hindrance than anything. I would rather hear "Turn right onto Wellington St" than "Turn right at the Starbucks", especially because the Starbucks is…

I too have a garmin based navigation radio and I won't be ver trade it over Gmaps, as you said it's always there just touch the icon and it's up and running, i can speak directions just like in the phone it will lower the music or phone volume to tell directions, i can sync search adresses from my phone or can search on it if i want to, it's faster.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#262

Post by Jerry2 »

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.

>surveillance capabilities that are possible as a result of this level of data collection are absolutely terrifying.

... and they share this data with the police and then some innocent people get entangled in this mess.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/13/us/google-loc...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/technology/google-sensorv...

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#263

Post by CameronBanga »

bduerst wrote: post #248
sorenjan wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If two people have their phones in the same room every night, I think Google can make presumptions on the situation.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#264

Post by chias »

xemoka wrote: post #131
sabareesh wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what do you use now

Check out maps.me for iOS and Android -> Open source, uses OpenStreetMap data (you can fix it!), offline maps with regular updates.

I've tried maps.me, but the one thing I was never able to figure out is my primary use case: how do I search for an address?

I can navigate to nearby bars or shops that it knows about, but if I want to navigate home, what do I do? Searching for an address just returns "no results found" instantly.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#265

Post by PerfectElement »

blueski wrote: post #222

Our Google Maps bill went from ~$100k per year to $380k per year as a result of these changes. Needless to say, we're moving over to Mapbox. What Google seems to miss is how this will affect customers' receptiveness to other Google products in the long-term. Having pulled the rug from under us once, there's no way we could consider e.g. a migration to Cloud in case the same happened again (where moving to a different…

I'm using their search with autocomplete as a convenience feature in our app. My bill will go from $0 to $3,000 per month.

I'd be happy to pay them a reasonable price, but this costs more than our whole infrastructure, so we are moving to a vendor who offers a more realistic pricing for us.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#266

Post by magicalhippo »

samirm wrote: post #252
JohnFen wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

source please?

Any Android phone with semi-recent Android version.

Here's the disclaimer from my phone: "Location may use sources like GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and sensors to help estimate your device's location. Google may collection location data periodically and use this data in an anonymous way to improve location accuracy and location-based services."

They have had similar-worded ones for a while now.

IIRC basically if the phone has GPS enabled it'll upload the list of visible APs from that location, so they can use that as an estimate for when a phone without GPS is nearby.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#267

Post by CamperBob2 »

UncleMeat wrote: post #196
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.

"Pay for no ads" has failed with almost every attempt. Even Google has made products to do this that haven't succeeded.

It sure works well with YouTube.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#268

Post by JohnFen »

samirm wrote: post #252
JohnFen wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

source please?

All of this has been well-known for years, and Google doesn't hide it (quite the opposite, this is a feature). Location tracking is done through three primary methods: GPS, triangulation from nearby WiFI APs, and triangulation based on what cell towers the device can see.

I recommend spending a little time searching the web and Google's Android developer pages for more, but here's a Quartz article that gives a decent overview: https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locatio...

If you're interested in being able to find your location under the most possible circumstances, you can't rely just on GPS because there are so many situations where GPS won't work.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#269

Post by 52-6F-62 »

pault wrote: post #174
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.

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.

You're not alone! I even bought an Apple Watch 4 once they were available here in Canada in order for to monitor my exercise, the high performance, and inter-connectivity with my other devices while maintaining privacy of my health data. Must be doing it wrong.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#270

Post by bduerst »

CameronBanga wrote: post #263
bduerst wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't list who you're sleeping with. Their point was that GP was exaggerating.

If two people have their phones in the same room every night, I think Google can make presumptions on the situation.

That they live in the same high rise? That they're roommates? Again, this is further to GP's point about exaggeration.
Post reply on HN