
Google to push new ads on its apps - jmsflknr
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-advertising-idUSKCN1SK1YK
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stordoff
> In Maps, ads will now appear [...] during navigation.

Unless I'm missing something, distractions whilst navigating (and thus
possibly driving) seems like it could be dangerous.

~~~
ravenstine
I really, really, _really_ wish there was serious competition to Google Maps.
That's the one Google product I've had to repeatedly come back to because
there's nothing even close in terms of functionality available for Android. I
was hoping Here WeGo would be an alternative, but it's kind of a joke. I'd
install Apple Maps if I could. I'd trade in my Pixel for an iPhone if it
didn't mean losing real Firefox, NewPipe, and root-level ad blocking.

The world of mobile computing is so confining!

~~~
simongr3dal
What about having "real" Firefox is the important part?

Is it supporting Mozilla, or supporting browser engine diversity, or is
because real Firefox has more checkmarks on caniuse.com?

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bubblethink
Extensions like ublock origin.

~~~
panpanna
This is a huge thing for me.

The ability to have the same setup on desktop, tablet and phone is just
unbeatable.

(Yes, I know you can do this with Safari on Apple-things and chrome on the
rest too)

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ryanwhitney
> The gallery ads are part of an effort to make search results more visual.

By distracting from legitimate results?

Like others will say here, I finally switched to DDG earlier this week. It’s
good enough and you get accustomed to doing a !g pretty quickly when needed.

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hellcow
Adding !s for startpage is a good option too. Google results without the
tracking.

~~~
ryanwhitney
That's great, thanks. Didn't know about Startpage.

~~~
snazz
They often lag behind the Google and even DDG results by a while, so search
anything time-sensitive first with DDG then with Google if you still can’t
find it.

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Despegar
This is "break glass in case of emergency" levels of desperation.

~~~
i_am_nomad
Why would Google be desperate, though? They are hugely cash positive, have
enormous cash reserves, and essentially no competition outside of China.

~~~
tyingq
They have had many years of revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth. They
did that by slowly pushing organic results down the fold in favor of ads. That
trick is played out now...there's little real estate above the fold left to
cede to ads now.

So, to maintain revenue growth that exceeds eyeball growth, they need new
tricks.

Basically, they set the bar very high.

~~~
mc32
My wish is that adds fill the first SERP so that I can just go to page 2 and
be done.

Damn you, Overture, why did you have to do that!

~~~
JohnFen
In my experience with Google search, it rarely gives me useful results on the
first page. So much so that I've developed a bit of muscle memory. When I have
to resort to doing a Google search, I have to consciously stop myself from
immediately clicking to get the next page of results.

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pxtail
"In Maps, ads will now appear in recommended search queries, on routing pages
_and during navigation_ "

Ugh, this is sad and clever at same time - during navigation screen is on all
the time and one usually glances at route from time to time even if it is just
"straight ahead" for couple of kilometers. Moreover ad will be potentially
visible to all passengers as well.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
My thought was always that they were going to start using businesses as
landmarks, aka:

"At Monument Dr. - just past the Starbucks where if you stop now you can get a
piping hot Venti coffee for only $1.50 - make a right"

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bsamuels
They already do this; it's roughly in the form of: "take a left at sunset
boulevard, right past the jack in the box".

I suspected it was a paid ad, but never knew for sure

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foota
I believe they've stated these are not ads, but are strictly for navigation.

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fjsolwmv
That makes it an unpaid ad.

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cameronbrown
Cynically, yes, but this is how humans follow directions anyway. Are your
friends giving you an unpaid ad when they say "head down main st, past the
Burger King"?

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whenchamenia
Plausable deniability is the name of the game. If an unusually well informed
group has trouble telling, are they free to do either?

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hcnews
As an investor this makes me wary. How much short term value are they gaining
by sacrificing user satisfaction? Google's UX is pretty top notch today and
they don't really have any relevant competitors. With this move, they are
creating space for differentiation along better UX and potentially losing out
a share of users over time.

~~~
JohnFen
> Google's UX is pretty top notch today

I very much disagree, but I also think that's a subjective thing.

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koyote
I'm already considering ditching the Gmail app as it displays ads at the top
that look just like new e-mails (I was an Inbox user before); although I am
not quite sure what app to switch to.

Sadly there isn't really an alternative that even approaches Maps. There are a
lot of 'ok' alternatives but Maps is just in an other league in terms of POI,
Navigation and UI.

~~~
LordHeini
For mails i would highly recommend K-9 Mail. Using it for years now works
really well. Has a bunch of Features like dark mode and what not.

As for maps tough...

~~~
29083011397778
As someone who disabled GApps on my phone and uses only OSMAnd, I've found it
acceptable for me, but know others would not be satisfied.

At least if/when I search and fail to find, I remember and add it later when I
get to a desktop. Slowly, OSM should end up being able to serve my uses well
enough, and hopefully others too.

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dmix
What would the default ads be on a search homepage considering there are no
"keywords" to scope it to? I'd imagine non-targeted billboard-style ads by
default with some targeting at the account level? Would it include retargeted
ads?

Edit: nevermind, it's not on a blank search page, it's embedded within some
news-feed style UI, so it's probably just straightforward google mobile ads

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fjsolwmv
Remember that on mobile by default google pushes the feed on the search page
instead of leaving it blank. Desktop is spared the indignity, for now.

~~~
millstone
What is "the feed?" Feed of what?

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airstrike
Time to install a mobile browser with ad-blocking capabilities. Suggestions? I
haven't used Firefox on my phone in years, but I remember it being slower than
a snail

~~~
nsuser3
Try Blokada ([https://blokada.org/](https://blokada.org/)), it blocks ads
system-wide.

~~~
tjbiddle
Can you vouch well for this? I'm always concerned with an app that routes all
my traffic through a VPN.

~~~
JohnFen
> I'm always concerned with an app that routes all my traffic through a VPN.

Many of these use the VPN subsystem of Android, but are not actually VPNs --
that is, they aren't routing anything off of your device. Using the VPN
subsystem is just a way to be able to filter network traffic without having to
have rooted your device.

The only downside is that you can't use such an app and a real VPN at the same
time.

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WalderFrey
To be honest I’m surprised it took them this long.

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ape4
Now Google maps will use more bandwidth, yipee.

~~~
Marsymars
This is actually the reason I stopped using Google Maps for most of my
navigation. It used up most of my 5 gb monthly allotment over the timespan of
a week of travel/driving.

I typically only use ~500 mb of data per month otherwise.

~~~
asdff
You can download a local cache of the map data. I have my whole city saved and
I think the app is around 500mb in size now.

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Marsymars
Yes, that's what I've done for my home city, but it's not especially practical
when travelling, when compared to other mapping apps that let you download
entire countries' map data at once.

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drenvuk
Not gonna lie, I would rather just pay for google maps.

~~~
asdff
I would pay $1 a month, which would be exponentially more money google
extracts from me than with ads I'll never engage with.

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29083011397778
You're here; therefore, we can assume you're a high-value consumer to
advertise to. When enough people take the $1/month option, advertisers will be
primarily advertising to consumers with low purchasing power. As that happens,
the cost of advertising on Google AdWords nosedives, and Google is left making
substantially less money.

Maybe most people aren't like you and I. But I don't think anyone at Alphabet
is willing to risk adding complexity to potentially earn less.

This ignores the potential fallout as the message can be distorted from
"Optional payment for Google Maps" to "Google starts collecting money for
Maps", and finally to "Google Maps costs $X".

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yumraj
Apple pretty please launch a slightly cheaper phone for us tightwads so that
we can ditch Android and Google, once and forever.

Already using DDG. Been trying to run my own mailserver.

~~~
lotu
The cheapest iPhone (iPhone7) is selling for $449 new in the US. I'm not sure
how cheap you are but this is reasonable compared to Android phones

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yumraj
That is definitely a good price point, and works for me, and I'm genuinely
tempted.

I'm waiting for the fall update to see if we're going to finally see the SE2.

~~~
snazz
You can get an iPhone 7 for a lot less than that too if you wait for a sale
from a retailer like Best Buy or a cell carrier and not from Apple directly.

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djanogo
I get down voted often for saying iPhone is cheaper, like the old man said,
price is what you pay and value is what you buy. Android and Google are
expensive.

~~~
asdff
I got a 128gb SE for less than $250 shipped on ebay, graded at B condition but
I couldn't find a scratch on it, not even by the ports (yes, plural :^) and
the battery is at 95% health. Just as quick as an x in real world use, the
screen repair is way cheaper, and I could stretch the battery life two days.

I love the size too, the last one handed iPhone and I forget it's in my
pocket.

~~~
droidist2
I love the SE too, I really hope they release another small phone within the
next year.

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JasonCEC
Does anyone have suggestions for an Android based alternative to Google Maps?
(preferably open source, etc)

~~~
petschge
I would suggest osmand.

The basic version is free, you can download data state by state (country by
country when you are traveling) so it doesn't need a data connection on the
road (but online search is available if you do have a data connection). It
does routing for cars / bikes / pedestrian and has decent turn-by-turn
instructions that you can configure to your liking. The underlying data comes
from OpenStreetMap (hence the name of OSM + and(roid)), so if the data is
wrong you can fit it yourself.

~~~
snazz
You can get the paid version for free if you download it from F-Droid.

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sidcool
I am from India and sometimes jealous of China and Russia for having good
local Google alternatives, Baidu and Yandex respectively. Google has more than
95% search market share in India and there is no competitive product even
close.

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lalos
Probably AMP sites? I wonder what will be the carrot and stick in this
scenario for ad buyers.

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vulptx
Simply avoid using google services. They are pathetic. Let's see what the
European Union says about this aggressive advertisement. Especially the Google
Maps thing will obviously trigger our consumer care responsibles.

~~~
ahje
Seeing as there are other options freely available, I doubt there will be any
action because ads are annoying.

The safety aspect of displaying ads in a navigator on the other hand...

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JohnFen
I'm so glad that I gave up using Google's apps and services.

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propogandist
Google had a massive multi-quarter campaign to get people to install their
Google App recently across all possible mediums...now it's clear it was tied
to this ad-push.

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s17n
"Sun to rise, set"

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gchokov
Pathetic.

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giggles_giggles
duck.com has really gotten good recently.

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yesplorer
The article has been corrected to reflect the fact that it doesn't include
mobile site, only the app.

Perhaps OP could edit their headline as well?

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sctb
Thanks! We've updated the headline from “Google to show ads on homepage of
mobile site, app”.

