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What’s up HN?! Always fun to find an article of mine on here. What I’ve learned so far: I’ve underestimated the important of their place data to the rest of th

What’s up HN?! Always fun to find an article of mine on here. What I’ve learned so far: I’ve underestimated the important of their place data to the rest of the search apparatus, and likely underestimated the relevance of Maps to their autonomous vehicle strategy. What I remain curious about that I’d love your speculation on: why do they bother with the Google Maps Platform at all? They have plenty of ways to monetize with ad targeting, so why go through the headache of opening it up to other businesses?

runako 6y ago
> why go through the headache of opening it up to other businesses? Such a platform is obviously necessary for the Internet; Google exposing Maps (& related APIs) makes it less likely that another company will build the default platform for map APIs on the Internet.
- awinter-py 6y ago
  commoditize your complement
gr__or 6y ago
I so so much appreciate this article. Google's maps dominance has been frustrating me, both as a user who wants innovation, and as a developer who wants affordable access. Very excited to read about these combined efforts (and, like you said, anti-tragedies-of-the-commons) Thank you!
treis 6y ago
Google wants to control all the ways people search the web so that they don't have to share profits and so that a competitor can't emerge. That's why we have Maps (location), Android (mobile), Home & Assistant (voice), and Chrome (URL bar).
- dleslie 6y ago
  GMail and whatever their chat is called this week (social), Daydream (VR/AR).
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    Gmail isn’t there because they want to search your email. It’s there because they want you to sign in.
    - craftinator 6y ago
      Or it's there for both of those reasons... Not an either or situation
    - treis 6y ago
      GMail is there mostly as a legacy of a time when Google had legit competition from portal sites like Yahoo and MSN. E-mail was an important part of that portal and GMail was a way to siphon some users.
      - jeffbee 6y ago
        You can make up as many fictional backstories as you want, but gmail was launched because signed-in users enjoy vastly better search quality and prior to gmail there was no reason to associate your identity with Google.
        hundchenkatze 6y ago
        You don't need to be signed-in to track someone with a cookie and provide targeted search results.
        throwaway201103 6y ago
        You do to be tracked consistently across different devices and browsers.
        6y ago
juliansimioni 6y ago
my guess/understanding is that every team at Google is under significant pressure to monetize. Unlike the old days where there was more of a strategy of "build anything that brings people in, search/ads will monetize those eyeballs". The 2018 google maps price increase could have given some execs HUGE bonuses under that new model, even if it isn't ideal from a Google-wide standpoint Before the 2018 price increase I was convinced Google didn't care to have lots of little customers paying for Google Maps. It was all peanuts compared to their main income
cma 6y ago
Without opening a platform, competitors and would be service providers have a clear investor story. By opening a platform, Google undermine their story to investors, making it look like a commodity. Then, each time a competitor is diffused, Google can cripple the service or raise the price so much as to make it useless.
sparrc 6y ago
Just wanted to say thanks for the entertaining article, I learned a lot and especially enjoyed the FAAMm acronym XD.
matkoniecz 6y ago
For me, as an OSM contributorm it was incredibly sad to read > the incredible year OpenStreetMap is having, largely because of enormous investment from Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Mapbox (FAAMm) Their contributions were (as far as I know) not really important compared to what was contributed by hobbyists, and overall their activities likely caused more damage than benefit. Mostly due to associating OSM with toxic brands such as Facebook or Amazon and discouraging new contributors. Note that linked article seems to be not supporting this claim that 2020 is successful for OSM mostly due to corporations.

runako 6y ago

> why go through the headache of opening it up to other businesses? Such a platform is obviously necessary for the Internet; Google exposing Maps (& related APIs) makes it less likely that another company will build the default platform for map APIs on the Internet.

awinter-py 6y ago
commoditize your complement

gr__or 6y ago

I so so much appreciate this article. Google's maps dominance has been frustrating me, both as a user who wants innovation, and as a developer who wants affordable access. Very excited to read about these combined efforts (and, like you said, anti-tragedies-of-the-commons) Thank you!

treis 6y ago

Google wants to control all the ways people search the web so that they don't have to share profits and so that a competitor can't emerge. That's why we have Maps (location), Android (mobile), Home & Assistant (voice), and Chrome (URL bar).

dleslie 6y ago
GMail and whatever their chat is called this week (social), Daydream (VR/AR).
- jeffbee 6y ago
  Gmail isn’t there because they want to search your email. It’s there because they want you to sign in.
  - craftinator 6y ago
    Or it's there for both of those reasons... Not an either or situation
  - treis 6y ago
    GMail is there mostly as a legacy of a time when Google had legit competition from portal sites like Yahoo and MSN. E-mail was an important part of that portal and GMail was a way to siphon some users.
    - jeffbee 6y ago
      You can make up as many fictional backstories as you want, but gmail was launched because signed-in users enjoy vastly better search quality and prior to gmail there was no reason to associate your identity with Google.
      - hundchenkatze 6y ago
        You don't need to be signed-in to track someone with a cookie and provide targeted search results.
        throwaway201103 6y ago
        You do to be tracked consistently across different devices and browsers.
      - 6y ago

juliansimioni 6y ago

my guess/understanding is that every team at Google is under significant pressure to monetize. Unlike the old days where there was more of a strategy of "build anything that brings people in, search/ads will monetize those eyeballs". The 2018 google maps price increase could have given some execs HUGE bonuses under that new model, even if it isn't ideal from a Google-wide standpoint Before the 2018 price increase I was convinced Google didn't care to have lots of little customers paying for Google Maps. It was all peanuts compared to their main income

cma 6y ago

Without opening a platform, competitors and would be service providers have a clear investor story. By opening a platform, Google undermine their story to investors, making it look like a commodity. Then, each time a competitor is diffused, Google can cripple the service or raise the price so much as to make it useless.

sparrc 6y ago

Just wanted to say thanks for the entertaining article, I learned a lot and especially enjoyed the FAAMm acronym XD.

matkoniecz 6y ago

For me, as an OSM contributorm it was incredibly sad to read > the incredible year OpenStreetMap is having, largely because of enormous investment from Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Mapbox (FAAMm) Their contributions were (as far as I know) not really important compared to what was contributed by hobbyists, and overall their activities likely caused more damage than benefit. Mostly due to associating OSM with toxic brands such as Facebook or Amazon and discouraging new contributors. Note that linked article seems to be not supporting this claim that 2020 is successful for OSM mostly due to corporations.