Turn Right at the Burger King: Google Maps Begins Using Landmarks To Help With Guidance (techcrunch.com)

Most navigation apps give you instructions based on streets or distance. But it's arguably in contrast to how people usually provide directions -- some usually point to landmarks that are easier to spot. Google sees some merit in that. The idea is that Google Maps is highlighting some landmarks and other points of interest (fast food restaurants) to help with guidance. TechCrunch reports that some users are already seeing this on Google Maps. And maybe to Google, this opens door for some business opportunities as well. Only time will tell.

Comments

Your mama is so fat,

[Spy Handler]

Google Maps use her as landmark!

Maybe?

[tomhath]

And maybe to Google, this opens door for some business opportunities

Seriously? Of course that's the plan. Google is an advertising platform.

Re:Maybe?

[swillden]

And maybe to Google, this opens door for some business opportunities

Seriously? Of course that's the plan. Google is an advertising platform.

This Maps feature actually came out of work to make directions useful in countries and regions where street addresses don't really exist, notably much of India. Apparently someone thought that now that Maps supports navigation by landmarks, maybe it could be applied to make directions easier to follow even in areas that do have street addresses.

I doubt that anyone has given serious thought to how landmark navigation could be used for advertising purposes. Not saying it couldn't happen, but it seems unlikely to me.

Re:Maybe?

[swillden]

I doubt that anyone has given serious thought to how landmark navigation could be used for advertising purposes.

Seriously?

Seriously. Most of the teams in Google basically never think about advertising... or even about monetization. It's all about user impact and engagement. Monetization is the Ads team's problem. I was in the industry for 20+ years before joining Google, so it struck me as very odd when I was hired at Google, because drawing a straight line from your work to the bottom line is a big part of life in most software shops. Most of Google seriously never thinks about it; we know that ads fund 90% of our paychecks, but our focus is on the users of whatever product we're building. Further, development of everything is rather bottom-up, not top-down. Features almost never start with some executive directing that something be built, they start with engineers convincing their own managers that something would have strong user impact (which is needed for good performance reviews, promotion, etc.). Direction of one organization to do something to help another is fairly rare; cross-organization cooperation is common, but it's driven by the interested organization reaching out to the other organization and asking for help (which is usually given quite freely).

In a case like this, if there were some initiative to use advertising to monetize landmark navigation, it would come from the Ads team, not the Maps team. And it's likely that the Ads team knows nothing about landmark navigation. Until they read about it on slashdot or similar.

Turn right at the Burger King

[olsmeister]

But first, wouldn't you like to stop for a tasty Whopper? Mention ad code 3XCDF8578S and receive a $1 discount at this Burger King, valid for the next 20 minutes only.

So let me guess...

[Oswald McWeany]

For a fee, your business can be a landmark used to help give directions on Google Maps.

Re:More like landfills

[Richard Stalin]

I wonder how much Booger King and Diarrhea Queen are going to pay for brand placement now.

(*ducks*)

Burger King signs are larger than street signs

[linuxguy]

I was using Google Maps yesterday to navigate and when it said I should go past Taco Bell, I was surprised. I hadn't heard that before. But overall I was pleased. Signs for Taco Bell and Burger King are much larger than road signs. It is a good move.

Turn Right where the Andersons used to live

[goombah99]

It's just past the intersection where the old blinking light used to be.
When you get to the bottom of the hill it's the one that's falling apart next door to the hideous purple painted house.
You should see the crack dealer lookouts hanging out on the corner.
You have arrived at your destination.