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Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

joemorrison.substack.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#261

Post by baskire »

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…

That’s one of the arguments for multi vendor sourcing. The same price negotiation tactic occurs in other industries.

It’s why google buys non intel chips. Come negotiation time there’s a serious threat they can leave. And there’s a serious rfp out to other vendors for pricing. Bringing their intel chip costs down.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#262

Post by spideymans »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #252
spideymans wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. Apple Maps UI: A big map, with a search bar at the bottom. Simple and nothing but the essentials. Google Maps UI: A page full of ads, a map full of ads and ads masquerading as recommendations. Plus five tab bar buttons at the bottom to not accomplish very much. I've switched to Apple Ma…

Apple Maps navigation used to do things like take me to vacant lots in major midwestern cities instead of the correct property which was several blocks away. Sounds like it works reliably well outside of California now?

I'd say it's very reliable. I'll still cross reference Waze and Google Maps, if I absolutely need to arrive at somewhere on time, but over the past year or so there's only been a very small number of instances where I thought that Apple's navigation directions were inferior to the competition (and even then, we're talking a few minutes)

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#263

Post by unethical_ban »

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…

GMaps changes their UI constantly, with what I perceive to be inconsistencies in what is one-tap accessible vs. hidden in the hamburger menu.

I, too, noticed the new branding which must be for-pay. Looking for something unrelated to food or auto over a dozen city blocks showed me where the McDonalds and the Firestone were, with logos.

I use maps for more than just directions: I use it as a defacto search engine for finding local businesses, phone numbers and websites. It is a GUI for geo-search. I wish another search engine could recreate it effectively.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#264

Post by cldellow »

arafsheikh wrote: post #227
maxerickson wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Curious to know if AWS has ever hiked the price of any of its services.

In 11 years of using it, I've never seen AWS increase the price for a service whose cost inputs they controlled entirely. It can happen, though. They increased AWS Pinpoint costs because their cost to send SMSes in India increased by 25% due to a regulatory action that increased the price for all SMS traffic in India.

Often, AWS's prices are _really_ high for new services. I think this is useful for two reasons: it ensures your early adopters are those who get the most value, and it gives you a big buffer when discovering how much it actually costs to operate. This usually guarantees that prices have only one way to go. For example, AWS IoT Device Management had a 90% price cut after it was introduced.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#265

Post by happymellon »

arafsheikh wrote: post #227
maxerickson wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Curious to know if AWS has ever hiked the price of any of its services.

No, they have stopped reducing the prices of existing services once they become depricated, so they effectively become more expensive compared to other services but never increased.

Although reselling other products, such as RDS Oracle or MSSQL could potentially have increased if the licences fees went up.

But I don't think that is what you are referring to.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#266

Post by brendoelfrendo »

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…

Adding to the anecdata, this was actually infuriating recently while I was on a road trip. I was searching along my route for gas stations and it seemed to be prioritizing Chevron stations. I ended up at a sketchy gas station in the middle of nowhere where half the pumps didn't work and the other half had broken card readers. Come to find out there was a Love's less than 5 miles up the road, right off the highway, with clean restrooms and working amenities.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#267

Post by soperj »

spideymans wrote: post #262
throwaway201103 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps navigation used to do things like take me to vacant lots in major midwestern cities instead of the correct property which was several blocks away. Sounds like it works reliably well outside of California now?

I'd say it's very reliable. I'll still cross reference Waze and Google Maps, if I absolutely need to arrive at somewhere on time, but over the past year or so there's only been a very small number of instances where I thought that Apple's navigation directions were inferior to the competition (and even then, we're talking a few minutes)

It's not reliable if you're cross referencing constantly.

I live outside of the USA, and Apple maps consistently screwed up to the point that I've deleted it.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#268

Post by on_and_off »

grishka wrote: post #251
on_and_off wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or just paying for youtube premium ...

With uBO on desktop and YouTube Vanced on mobile, you get the exact same experience AND save $12/month.

and you also don't contribute to the creators incomes.

I can understand people vouching for using youtube premium or nebula instead, but not this.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#269

Post by Lio »

madeofpalk wrote: post #243
Lio wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be their approach to a lot of things. Often though this “curation” is never rolled out to a wider audience. Take for example on site servicing. Apple have never offered that and instead you’re encouraged to visit your local Apple Store. Except that Apple Stores are still not present out side of certain blessed locations. If you don’t live somewhere Apple thinks is trendy enough for an Apple Store you’re…

> Take for example on site servicing. Apple have never offered that Apple has offered on-site servicing as standard under AppleCare for many many years.

You’re quite right and I’m wrong!

Excellent, I’m sure that wasn’t the case here last time I checked and gives me hope. Thanks for pointing that out.

Re: Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating

#270

Post by tybit »

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…

AWS is already incredibly profitable while continuing to lower prices over time. What makes you think they would choose to run this scheme and forever ruin their reputation?
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