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Google Decides to Monetize Maps

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Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#281

Post by kryogen1c »

rkagerer wrote: post #137
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…

Well said. Thanks Google for cluttering my life with more unwanted spam. I used to think of the Google brand very highly. Lately my subconscious associates it with the expectation of a sub-par user experience and some slightly creepy tendencies.

Couldnt agree more. In starting my quest to deGooglify my life, i switched to a new LG phone off my pixel 2 and i have to say, its worse. Am I going to switch back? Sure wont. Google has lost my business.

On an article related note, i wonder if/when this will affect waze

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#282

Post by mattkevan »

Applejinx wrote: post #224
jawilson2 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I first got my Pixel 2 a year or so ago, I was stunned when after a few weeks I started getting notifications like "Check out the McDonalds 1 Block Away!" or "Starbucks is 0.25 miles from you" (or something along those lines). I took about 20 minutes and found all of the setting related to this in Maps and Notifications, and disabled all of them. No, I'm not going to McDonald's daily during my walk to the train,…

Wonder how close they can get to deliberately routing all traffic through McDonalds and Starbucks drive-throughs, as an unskippable part of the route. Oh wait, oh wait! They do that and then you get an INSTANT E-COUPON for wherever they drove you through. You'll be driving to nowhere just for the chance to be given amazing discounts en-route! (open to placing bets on how they will inevitably, literally do this. I wan…

Just wait until Waymo’s self driving cars become a thing.

Your route home will be determined by the highest bidders, so you’ll have no choice but to go past that particular McDonald’s, the in-cabin screens displaying personalised, location-based messages all the while.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#283

Post by sockgrant »

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…

There are so many APIs that they've flipped pricing on or flat out cancelled I'm surprised anyone still uses them for absolutely any APIs.

Seriously.

I can't say this strongly enough:

Google APIs and platforms are for building toy weekend projects. DO NOT use them for your business.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#284

Post by JohnFen »

magicalhippo wrote: post #266
samirm wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes. They publish that online, too, as part of their privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#285

Post by mrep »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #46
nullc wrote: post #29

Maps has been awful and getting worse for a long time. If it's not routing me 25+ miles further to save "1 minute" (really a multi-minute slowdown in the 90th percentile) then its failing to give comprehensible directions in order to interpose business names. Maybe the monetization is finally makes competing with it attractive enough.

And the app has become absolutely atrocious performance-wise. It used to load nearly immediately, but starting ~1.5 years ago I began noticing extreme slowdowns. Now it's barely functional for me. Every part of the UI is appallingly unresponsive -- taps that take 5 seconds to register, hitches in animation, etc. From tapping on the icon to being able to get underway (including typing in an address) used to be about f…

FYI, if you are using an android, you can try google maps go which is designed to run on devices with limited memory [0].

[0]: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7566112?hl=en

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#286

Post by JohnFen »

mythz wrote: post #189
JohnFen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree (as I said) that Google offered a solution that was superior to the competition. My only point was that there was, in fact, competition.

As I'm being down voted without any discussion I'll remove why none of the existing competition did or could've done what Google Maps did and keep the insights I had at the time as a GEO developer to myself. Fly-by downvoters can continue believing the revisionist history they wish to. Feel free to believe Google Maps had competition (they didn't), nothing else at the time provided the same instant utility of Google…

> ...why none of the existing competition...

You're agreeing with me here by admitting that there was existing competition. The rest of your remarks are about how much better Google's offering was to the competition, which is a point I've already agreed with.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#287

Post by thfuran »

jjeaff wrote: post #145
dontbenebby wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why should they offer a free maps service? Have you heard of a "loss leader"[1]? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader Users are unlikely to use Google for maps and say, Bing for their searches. Maps drives traffic to search. Conversely, making maps overly commercial will drive traffic away from search.

>Users are unlikely to use Google for maps and say, Bing for their searches. I don't know, I see very little tying the two together. I currently use DDG exclusively for search except for localized searching and maps, for which I use Google. There isn't really much friction to switch between the two. Especially since most of my map usage is on mobile, where it is a separate app.

>I currently use DDG exclusively for search except for localized searching and maps

So you're way out in the long tail.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#288

Post by Vinnl »

twothamendment wrote: post #211
openbasic wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn't you contribute to OpenStreetMap?

It has been years since I gave them a try. Their interface was horrible, but this is a good reason to try them again.

Regardless of what the sibling comment says, the editing UX is really good now. Their editor has a beautiful walkthrough and easy-to-use tools, at least on desktop: https://www.openstreetmap.org/edit

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#289

Post by mythz »

JohnFen wrote: post #286
mythz wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I'm being down voted without any discussion I'll remove why none of the existing competition did or could've done what Google Maps did and keep the insights I had at the time as a GEO developer to myself. Fly-by downvoters can continue believing the revisionist history they wish to. Feel free to believe Google Maps had competition (they didn't), nothing else at the time provided the same instant utility of Google…

> ...why none of the existing competition... You're agreeing with me here by admitting that there was existing competition. The rest of your remarks are about how much better Google's offering was to the competition, which is a point I've already agreed with.

That's like saying a DB search is existing competition for a Google Search, it isn't.

There were existing GEO companies that provided Mapping Services (I was developing GEO Apps with one of them at the time), but there was nothing like the consumer focused Google's Maps preceding it, with its worldwide pre-rendered imagery at multiple zoom-levels coupled with a global search that displayed annotated Markup results delivered over an Ajax Web interface that allowed seamless panning/zooming of the Earth scaled to millions of users.

It wasn't a fluke that Google Maps gained instant popularity with mainstream Internet users over everything else, there was nothing else like it.

Re: Google Decides to Monetize Maps

#290

Post by mrep »

ebg13 wrote: post #158
jfoster wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You dodged my question, but I'm happy to answer yours. I do think that advertising has made the world better. A majority of the content on the internet is viable because of it.

> I do think that advertising has made the world better. A majority of the content on the internet is viable because of it. AKA the "harmful behavior is ok when it's profitable" theory. I don't agree.

Would you rather have every website prompt you with a paywall instead because that is the only other profitable solution I can think of.
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