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OP is not saying they cannot monetise their product as they see fit (it's their product). No one is saying that. But when you have been offering something for
by Svip 8y ago
OP is not saying they cannot monetise their product as they see fit (it's their product). No one is saying that.
But when you have been offering something for free for years, people get used to that being the way of things, users are not going to respond well to the increase in advertisement.
Had Google done this from the beginning, people would have been more accepting of it. Generally speaking, if you change a service for the worse, people are generally going to view it less favourably than had it started out how it will now become.
- stunt 8y agoI think that period was part of their investment and also helped them to improve the product. And like any other investment, they need to make money as well. I can imagine Maps is an expensive product to operate. I also hate ads and I hope they find a different way to make it reasonably profitable.
- gowld 8y agoThere is a fine line between "investment to build a product" and "dumping below cost to win consumers over via low prices, then raising prices"
- newsoul2019 8y agoJust charge me already, Google! Present me with a screen that says "Would you like Google Maps ad-free for XX.99 per year?" Sure, of course. GIVE ME THE OPTION!!
- reciprocity 8y agoGoogle already makes money hand over fist. I am not sure if what you posit holds water.
- Tsubasachan 8y agoThere aren't a lot of good alternatives to Maps though. I do find that the service is becoming more and more unusable with all the shitty product placements.
- frosted-flakes 8y agoDepends what you use it for. For driving directions, there are plenty of alternatives. An excellent one is a standalone GPS device like a Garmin nüvi or a TomTom, which works entirely offline (except traffic reports, which are received over FM radio or Bluetooth). The only time I actually use Google Maps is when I'm at my PC, and Bing maps works just as well.
- jedberg 8y agoI 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.
- JohnFen 8y agoHonestly, I don't think I'd call that ability "far superior". If it came without cost, it would have some value, but it's not a game-changer or anything.
- jedberg 8y agoIt was a game changer for me. I would have completely missed the driveway if not for it telling me to look past the Vitamin Shop. Would have taken me five minutes to circle back around again. That seems like a big deal to me.
- JohnFen 8y agoFair enough. Different people have different needs.
- newsoul2019 8y agoI noticed yesterday while driving in San Francisco it told me to turn left onto xxx street "at the Starbucks"
- 8y ago
- robocat 8y agoYouTube adverts: I have been very impressed with Google's slow frog-cooking growth of ads on YouTube. I was also impressed with the decades long growth of advertising on TV.