Google Maps tests new pop-up ads that give you an unnecessary detour

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-maps-pop-up-ad-3458170/

by LordAtlas • 2 years ago

103 97 2 years ago

androidauthority.com

dotcoma3• 2 years ago

Enshittification.

orblivion4• 2 years ago

It's just funny at this point.

mxuribe• 2 years ago

Most definitely! Or, worse: detour-ification? Or, the potentially horrible: encrash-ification?

I have only played with OSM...and, honestly, I'm not going to complain if the ads are at a reasonable volume/quantity, and if they're only displayed while stationary...But, if they kick this off at a higher clip of number of ads, AND, they stat showing them while moving...Then forget that, i'd switch to OSM or other alternatives, and rather risk getting lost a little. Paper maps anyone? :-)

AlbertCory• 2 years ago

Indeed, and on Saturday I was driving in a slightly unfamiliar place and opened Maps just to find out how to get back on the freeway.

The screen was completely covered with garbage, top and bottom. It wasn't even ads, but "parks and cool stuff to do near here" which is not remotely what I wanted right then. No obvious way to get rid of it, either.

sunaookami• 2 years ago

At least you will remember [brand] while having a deadly car crash!

Xeyz0r4• 2 years ago

Would it be possible to sue?

edhelas• 2 years ago

OSM and the many wonderful apps built on it to the rescue!

popcalc2• 2 years ago

For me the major deal-breaker is the dearth of business opening times information, especially in Poland.

lode2• 2 years ago

I try to add up to date opening hours for every business I frequent in OSM. These are available in Organic Maps (successor to Maps.me), even offline.

Google does seem to have the upper hand for special cases like public holidays sometimes, but even those can be added in OSM.

Ajedi32• 2 years ago

Yeah, sadly that's a bit of a chicken-egg problem. OSM isn't popular enough to crowdsource that information as well as Google can.

Though in the spirit of "be the change you want to see", it's pretty easy to add opening hours any business you notice is missing them. Every Door and Street Complete are good, user-friendly editors on mobile.

lanza2• 2 years ago

I guess this is the new "Be maximally evil" Google. Visual ads while driving that force you to look at your phone.

0cf8612b2e1e• 2 years ago

Truly amazing that it was allowed to cover the map real estate. If it was a dedicated portion of the screen that might show ads, I guess it would be better?

mnw21cam3• 2 years ago

A few times I have been in the middle of driving, and Google has suddenly said "We have found an alternative route that is two minutes faster - if would like to keep the original route, then tap the cancel button." Which is soliciting people to break the law. And the alternative route is invariably a stupid one.

fredski42• 2 years ago

Just wait until it start autoplaying video ads..

isoprophlex• 2 years ago

That's the most brazen example of "if you're not paying for it, you are the product" I've seen in a while.

Google truly is nothing but a huge venus fly trap that kills its prey by injecting ads.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF• 2 years ago

Even if you do pay, if the market will bear ads, they show up. Like billboards and cable TV. I pay for the roads, I pay for the TV. Ads anyway.

orblivion4• 2 years ago

"I've got an idea. You know how our ad-free service is doing great? What if we took that, but then added some ads?"

vineyardmike• 2 years ago

I actually don’t think this is special at all. An ad is an ad. Interrupting driving is no different than interrupting a video or interrupting a search action (except for the danger due to driving). It’s pretty brazen, but gMaps has had ads for a while, when searching for a destination.

qwerpy• 2 years ago

Apple Maps was a punchline for a while but I’ve been steadfastly using it for the past few years. There’s only a handful of times I questioned the results and consulted Google maps, only to be bombarded with ad PoI’s and reminded of why I avoided Google. This new ad format is ridiculous and I’m glad I’ll never have to see it.

Xeyz0r4• 2 years ago

Navigation apps need to be reliable. But with these pop-ups - trust is not in the line

hatsunearu• 2 years ago

I'd say the navigation aspect of Apple Maps is far superior to that of Google Maps, but the reviews and business directories on Google Maps is much better, not to mention all my favorites and PoIs are stored in Google Maps.

ravivooda• 2 years ago

I've been using it for the past 3 years. Things I love about Apple Maps.

1. Limited distractions. 2. Traffic Lights, Stop signs are so easy to follow! 3. Lanes are rendered very clearly.

Of course, once in every other blue moon I have to open Google Maps when I find myself in an alley with no outlet, while Apple Maps is telling me to drive through the building.

syntaxing• 2 years ago

Apple Maps navigation instructions is definitely superior to Google's. I've gotten "lost" a couple times using Google Maps recently because sometimes it'll be like bear left even though I'm suppose to go straight. I think the biggest con of Apple Maps is the UX. Searching for a store or place that's in a specific area not where you are currently geographically is way harder than it should be.

mnw21cam3• 2 years ago

I have definitely had Google be rather confused about its directions, telling me to take the first exit on a roundabout when it meant the second exit, on more than one roundabout that has been there unchanged for decades. Then there'll be the times when I get to a T-junction and it's completely silent, or when it tells me to go straight ahead, then makes that annoyed "you went the wrong way" sound when I do because it actually meant "turn right", and the times it takes me on a "shortcut" that takes twice as long. The directions suck probably about 20% of the time, but I have certainly seen no shenanigans like the ones described in the article.

ruszki• 2 years ago

Maybe for the US. For Europe, it’s basically no option. It has problems even with basic trips. At least in Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Belgium, where I tried in the past year.

The interface is really the best, but the route finding is the worst of any apps which I used. I had to go back and find a different route many times. And the speed limit was completely useless everywhere, random guess is better. Not that any option would be perfect, Waze and Google Maps have their own problems.

atonse• 2 years ago

It’s worked perfectly for us in Spain for walking, driving, and transit directions (including train timings) in multiple cities, including directions of which exits to take in subway stations.

Also worked flawlessly in London across multiple transit modes (tube to thameslink, etc).

Driving directions have also been far superior at least in the way us Americans give directions (including quirks like “take a left at the second light” as opposed to just robotically naming streets)

LegitShady• 2 years ago

I would stop using Google maps for live directions if this becomes the norm.

lanza2• 2 years ago

If I see a single ad I'm uninstalling it and switching to Apple maps.

jurassicfoxy• 2 years ago

I've driven to the wrong location twice because the top search result was an ad. e.g. I searched for "Home Depot" and immediately clicked on the top link (there's only one Home Depot nearby) and after a few mins realized I was headed somewhere else entirely, because they'd injected a tiny subtle ad above their search results.

Xeyz0r4• 2 years ago

And it would be a good decision

beretguy• 2 years ago

Just do it now.

ChrisArchitect2• 2 years ago

Google seems to have borrowed this format from Waze, which has displayed similar pop-up ads for several years.

Take your complaints years ago to Waze.

popcalc2• 2 years ago

Which has been owned by Google since 2013?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-brings-waze-and-maps-te...

ChrisArchitect2• 2 years ago

no kidding, so this isn't something G just came up with but another one of the features of Waze they're porting over.

kaibee• 2 years ago

Google bought Waze in 2013.

fortyseven• 2 years ago

That's great, but someone had to decide to bring that shit to Google Maps. The ghost of Waze didn't force itself upon a helpless Google developer.

rvba• 2 years ago

The people who ruined search now ruin maps.

I wonder why the shareholders allow this.

Google losing market share will be a big problem for the company.

But hey, some fractions of a cent earned now.

nick238• 2 years ago

They already get so much information from maps running on your phone, why do they need to shove ads onto driving directions?

Add a few pins when browsing or searching to related things. If they're similarly relevant (i.e. I search for "Chick-fil-a" Sunday, show me other chicken shops), the conversion rate could be pretty solid.

orblivion4• 2 years ago

They already get so much information from maps running on your phone, why do they need to shove ads onto driving directions?

I mean, what are they doing with that information ultimately? Probably serving you ads somewhere, right?

supportengineer• 2 years ago

Is there any car sold in the US that still has a built-in map? For example my Honda from the early 2000's has it stored on a DVD player under the driver's seat.

jazzyjackson• 2 years ago

I don't intend to let go of my 2020 Prius for as long as I can help it, largely for this reason. I was able to purchase a microSD card with updated maps to catch it up to 2022 but had to ask a couple of dealerships before someone knew how to look up the part number for it, not sure if they'll continue to publish updates, but the Toyotas that came after this one expect you to have cell signal to determine a route which is ridiculous IMO, I don't even live in the boonies but between towns I have 0 cell signal.

i_am_proteus• 2 years ago

You can still get standalone GPS map units - connectivity only required for traffic and similar features. Map updates are paid.

aaomidi• 2 years ago

Tesla. Traffic is "paid" but map updates are free.

whamlastxmas2• 2 years ago

Tesla works offline but doesn’t store points of interest or have search functionality. You can type in a specific address and it will navigate there though

Xeyz0r4• 2 years ago

A really controversial move that could have significant repercussions for user experience and trust. Cannot understand why the problem is not seen

greyface-3• 2 years ago

It seems unwise for a NHTSA-regulated entity to accept payment to promote distracted driving.

gruez10• 2 years ago

Source that google maps is "NHTSA-regulated"? Or are you talking about Waymo, which has the same parent company as Google?

greyface-3• 2 years ago

Yes, I'm talking about Waymo.

gpvos• 2 years ago

At least they still highlight the cancel button, if I interpret the image correctly. I wonder how long that will last.

mnw21cam3• 2 years ago

And why exactly are you looking at your phone and touching it while driving?

pfdietz• 2 years ago

Enshitification, is there anything it can't spoil?

lkramer• 2 years ago

I use Waze a lot, but have not encountered (noticed) anything like this. Is it only a US thing?

frozenlettuce2• 2 years ago

Here in Brazil, it is not uncommon to hear about people being kidnapped/shot/killed because Google Maps decided to direct them into a zone controlled by organized crime.

When news came out that those routes were being chosen to make the app more "inclusive", I found it amusing how someone in Palo Alto presenting a PowerPoint with a couple of ESG slides could lead to someone else being shot with an AK-47.

If the above sounds unreal: https://www.reddit.com/r/brasilivre/comments/mtfwfq/carro_do...

gruez10• 2 years ago

When news came out that those routes were being chosen to make the app more "inclusive", I found it amusing how someone in Palo Alto presenting a PowerPoint with a couple of ESG slides could lead to someone else being shot with an AK-47.

source? The above link only seems to support the claim there's armed people on streetview, not that google is directing people to crime ridden areas for "ESG" purposes.

whamlastxmas2• 2 years ago

Probably info wars dot com

frozenlettuce2• 2 years ago

I guess that you missed this from some weeks ago? https://www.yahoo.com/tech/google-maps-may-not-offer-1124362...

The link in the OP is an example of what people may encounter if they follow said routes https://www.euronews.com/2016/12/10/italian-tourist-killed-a...

dotcoma3• 2 years ago

more "inclusive" roads = idiotic 'woke' culture gone batshit crazy

refulgentis8• 2 years ago

They are making it up

There was a viral thread a month or two ago from an ex-Google Maps employee talking about how that'd never be considered, because tl;dr, doing that would be a great example of steering at scale leading to unintended consequences.

Not sure if they misunderstood that thread, or they're just wholesale riffing.

refulgentis8• 2 years ago

Those are street view photos, they don't have anything about Google Maps steering, stories about people being shot on a Google Maps route, or someone getting killed, or someone getting shot with an AK-47.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with Google Maps deciding to direct people through low-income areas.

There was a recent thread, maybe a month ago, about how they don't do that, only do the most straightforward route, because redirecting traffic would cause as much bad as good. Unintended consequences and all that.

For what it's worth, a few more straightforward things:

- Google HQ is in Mountain View, not Palo Alto

- Google uses Google Slides, not PowerPoint

- ESG stands for "environmental, social, and governance" and refers to investors allocating money based on longer-term criteria beyond next quarter's results.

ultimoo• 2 years ago

ESG stands for "environmental, social, and gas" and refers to investors allocating money based on longer-term criteria beyond next quarter's results.

Gas?! ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance.

gruez10• 2 years ago

[...] and refers to investors allocating money based on longer-term criteria beyond next quarter's results.

That's a slightly misleading way of characterizing ESG. "allocating money based on longer-term criteria beyond next quarter's results" is just "investing", or "long-term investing". ESG refers specifically to considering or changing company's environmental (eg. pollution) and social impact (eg. workforce diversity), as well as improving its governance practices. Sure, its proponents think doing the aforementioned things will improve the company's financial performance as well, but your characterization deliberately obfuscates what ESG actually involves.

renewiltord• 2 years ago

The weirdest thing was that in the resulting conservative backlash many of them switched to Apple Maps which resulted in a bunch of people all getting stuck in the same cul-de-sac and having a road-rage induced shootout. It killed this poor teenager.

https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/18ieg6d/17yearold_te...

hombre_fatal• 2 years ago

What? The article says she unintentionally cut off another driver who then shot her.

kgeist• 2 years ago

Same here in Siberia. A man froze to death after Google recommended a wrong turn via an abandoned road because it was a shorter path:

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/man-fr...

ddulaney• 2 years ago

Same here in Utah. No actual deaths I’m aware of, but lots of damaged vehicles that needed to get towed out of 4x4 tracks in the desert after Google sent them there.

rurp2• 2 years ago

Google Search gets most of the attention for being ruined by Google, but I think the Maps trajectory is just as bad. It has shown remarkable consistency in getting worse year after year, for a long time now. Basic functionality is regularly broken or degraded, and the UI is increasingly covered in ads of various types.

Maps is a prime example of the costs from not enforcing antitrust laws. Google spent billions of dollars from its ad monopoly to control this market and is now squeezing it for all it can. This product is only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.

gruez10• 2 years ago

Maps is a prime example of the costs from not enforcing antitrust laws. Google spent billions of dollars from its ad monopoly to control this market and is now squeezing it for all it can.

The alternative to "Google spent billions of dollars from its ad monopoly to control this market" (ie. a non-subsidized maps app) is you paying $100 for a dedicated GPS device, paying $30/year for tomtom[1], or using a free app like organic maps. All of those are still options today. What exactly is "the cost" from letting google subsidize its maps app? Do you think that if such anti-trust laws were enforced, maps would still be free and ad-free?

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tomtom-go-navigation/id8849633...

rurp2• 2 years ago

Are we really arguing about whether a massively advertised "free" product will distort a market? If a heavily subsidized Google Maps hadn't been dominating the ecosystem for the past decade and a half many more companies would have competed with various approaches to features, UX, and monetization. You seem to be assuming that all of that competition would have resulted in no improvements over the early 2000s. I guess that's possible, but I expect it would have gone more like nearly every other part of the tech landscape and some actual innovation would have happened.

No I'm not expecting that there would be a perpetually free and ad-free option, that wouldn't make any sense. But the space of possibility is vastly more broad than totally free or the dreck that Google Maps has turned into.

bradley13• 2 years ago

Out Hyundai has maps that are at least as good as Google. For example, we live on a rural road, at least 10 years old, and Google doesn't know about it. Yes, I've submitted an update, multiple times.

Unfortunately, the Hyindai routing is not as good, and does sometimes make odd mistakes.

We use the Hyundai navigation 99% of the time.

_puk• 2 years ago

Submitting an update is infuriating with Google maps.

Submit an update, accepted, and now working as expected. Three weeks later and it's back to broken again. It's like every update just wipes the corrections that have been submitted.

ScoutOrgo• 2 years ago

At what point is google liable for the increased rate of accidents from features like this? Surely they have some data that can estimate users getting in accidents while using gmaps.

boramalper• 2 years ago

It’s lacking in POI but I find Organic Maps great otherwise (if what you are looking for is there).

https://organicmaps.app/

Havoc• 2 years ago

That’s basically google lately -trying to figure out which square inch of their real estate they haven’t drowned in ads yet.

1vuio0pswjnm7• 2 years ago

"For the past two years, Google has provided information to over 1 billion users to help them make more sustainable choices annually through our products. We achieved this by offering sustainability features like fuel-efficient routing in Google Maps and more transportation options in Search, such as train routes."

"Fuel-efficient routing

By building AI models on the emissions profile of different vehicle types, fuel-efficient routing in Google Maps analyzes traffic, terrain, and the vehicles engine (gas/petrol, diesel, hybrid, or electric) to find the most efficient route. This may mean fewer stops for gas engines, routes favoring highway speeds for diesel vehicles, and maximizing downhill stretches for electric cars to boost regenerative braking all while providing the same or similar ETA."

https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2024-e...

mensetmanusman• 2 years ago

Google maps peaked a few years ago. The constant recommendations of hour detours along a drive are annoying, can they be disabled?

Google Maps tests new pop-up ads that give you an unnecessary detour

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