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So this is how Google is going to change the world
Summary: Google is apparently extending pop-up ads on Google Maps, the same format that the company fought against at the beginning of the century, which now appear on the screen while driving and can suggest a detour to a nearby destination that corresponds to the advertiser’s location, for example, a gas station or restaurant. The format ...
Google is apparently extending pop-up ads on Google Maps, the same format that the company fought against at the beginning of the century, which now appear on the screen while driving and can suggest a detour to a nearby destination that corresponds to the advertiser’s location, for example, a gas station or restaurant.
The format is not only annoying, like every other kind of unsolicited pop-up, but also potentially dangerous, given that many users will be using Google Maps while driving. San Francisco resident Anthony Higman captured an ad while behind the wheel: a detour to a nearby gas station on his route, without having requested anything related to that destination.
Yet further proof of the steady decline of a company that set out to change the world, but instead opted for greed, turning it into a spy and serial advertiser. If you use YouTube without a good ad blocker, you’ll notice that it is infinitely worse than the commercial television it was intended to replace: a barrage of annoying ads in absurd formats. If you search on Google, you’ll find more and more screen space is dedicated to advertising its own or others’ products. And now, if you use Google Maps, once one of the company’s most revolutionary products, you’ll have to put up with ads in the most hateful format out there, distracting you from driving and trying to get you to deviate from your route.
From “don’t be evil” to filling our lives with junk. And to think what Google could have been.
see more https://medium.com/enrique-dans/so-this-is-how-google-is-going-to-change-the-world-7b641fd027a6
