I was the Ads rep to the Maps Monetization team at Google in 2010, and then I actually worked in Maps. Back then, Maps was a huge money loser. Placing ads outsi

I was the Ads rep to the Maps Monetization team at Google in 2010, and then I actually worked in Maps. Back then, Maps was a huge money loser. Placing ads outside the map data was a dismal failure financially, and they weren't yet selling "ads" inside the map (where you pay to have your business shown). API access was charged for, but as people have pointed out, it was a bargain compared to now. In any large company, sooner or later the CFO and minions will notice that you're losing money and demand you fix it. Thus, YouTube has all these ads that interrupt your viewing, besides coming up before you start. And Maps is raising API prices. If you read these articles, you see that ArcGIS has a fairly massive footprint in the geo space. Google is not the only game in town for geo information. I haven't done much with Apple Maps, but that seems to be improving, too. You can find details of what I did, including how to use a feature I did that's still there, at: https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/working-at-google-maps https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/working-at-google-maps and https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/working-at-google-maps-continued https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/working-at-google-maps-c...