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

I will 100% uninstall when I see this.

Their analytics need to see how little time it takes me to uninstall. I'll fucking pull over and uninstall mid trip. I am a psycho against ads. I'll call the AG and say it caused me to get in an accident.

Fuck ads. Fuck any company that forces them down your throat.

Fuck. Ads.

Fuck. I'm mad now.

My brother in arms! lol

Was just having a conversation last week when the subject of roadside billboards came up, the other guy says to me that he reads every single one of them when he’s driving. I tell him when I look at billboards the only think I think about is how much fun it would be to cut them down and set them on fire. Dude looked at me like I had a dick growing out of my forehead.
- I live in the lovely state of Vermont where billboards are fucking illegal. 😍
- I can't say that I can agree with you more.
  
  A new bright as FUCK billboard was put up on a frequent road I travel. I want it GONE and the people responsible for it to just die.
  
  It's seriously a hazard at night...
- So, when we drive up to Georgia or South Carolina from Florida, there's a point on I-75 where the Jesus billboards come out. Many of them are the usual "Babies have heartbeats" variety, but there's also the following:
  
  "Have you decided yet ... Jesus" which we always render in an exasperated voice, aka "OMG have you decided yet? Jesus!"
  
  "Go ahead, let go. I'll catch you - Jesus" which we always respond to with "WTF Jesus just reach down and grab me, you're RIGHT THERE!"
  
  "Jesus is in control" with mysterious Russian tanks and American soldiers.
  
  Zombies and Jesus for ... reasons.
Brothers from another mother.. I fight ads daily ..... Been pretty lucky I stay away from TV. They keep trying, really all it's done lately is forced me to go foss for most of my apps.
- My Brothers / Sisters from other misters, I have been successfully avoiding ads for around 2/3 years and wow, no regrets. Talk about a war worth fighting, life is better without. This new in-navigation ad felt specifically made for folk like us, who are almost unreachable for marketing. I did some FOSS car navigation today. Bye Gmaps :)
- I don't mind TV commercials. They aren't creepy and the remind me to get up.
Totally feel that. I will go to extreme lengths to avoid ads.
I'm not even against ads, because their little blurbs about a mcdonalds nearby on the map - eh. fine.

This shit though, that pops up and distracts me while I'm driving? Nah fuck that, I'll get rid of google maps over it
- Yep. I might buy a fucking beater vehicle just to insure and subsequently softly careen into a boulder as soon as that shit occurs.
  
  Make Google fucking liable for forcing content on me. Fuck them.
They most likely won't let you. Also Google android is spyware so I use Lineage OS with F-droid apps

Nice. And then soon it'll be "watch this add to take the fastest route".

Then "subscribe for an add free experience" without subscription you get the add, as well as navigation that requires you to drive to a detoured location and take a picture of said location before continuing on to your destination (or yet another detour add, if the trip is long enough).

Look at us, peak civilization here.

/s

don't forget 3 years later when the subscription isn't profitable enough, so they start injecting ads into the paid subscribers as well.
- Or when they complain that not enough people are using it so they relaunch it as “Google Roads”.
Please drink your confirmation can now
The map in my head will be deemed content theft because it cuts into Google's profits.

You want hotel? Yes. I take you. My brother hotel, very good. Very clean. No worry booking, you cancel. Brother hotel best. Good area. Lots of shops. Good for tourist.

First you need food, no? I take you restaurant. My cousin work. Very good, very cheap. No one know, can't find unless you with me, I know. Very popular. Very good, very close to hotel. Less than one hour. Few minutes only.

...

"Is this the way to your cousin's restaurant?"

Before eat must visit orphanage. Poor, starving, hungry orphans. Very sad if you not come. You come and see. Very happy children, you happy. Very poor. Think car like this rich! Haha! Think phone like you have very rich ha! But no worry, they not steal. Very good orphan. My uncle teach very good. Best behave. Very nice children, but very poor. No food every week. No parents.

(part II)

"Please, just take me to the hotel on my booking."

Yes yes, I take you to hotel. Nice hotel. After eat.

"So we go to eat now?"

Yes yes. After see orphans. You want not make orphans sad? They sleep early. Cant visit later.

"No- Yes- I mean, we can't visit the orphans now. Maybe another day. Please take me to this hotel."

Oh, that hotel very bad. No give tips to driver. Road very bumpy. Bad for car. Must pay extra for car damage. You no worry! I take you good place! Orphan manager know very good place, very close. I ask him.

"No! Can't you take me directly where I asked you?"

Oh, you want premium subscription? Premium subscription come with less advert, and 24h access to AI powered customer help line. Monthly subscription.

Monthly subscription not available in car. Only annual subscription.

"Fine. Here. Now, will you take me to this hotel. Now. Not after food. Not after orphans."

Thank you. I give you little discount. One month free.

Now we go orphanage. Direct service only available after minimum three month of subscription.

"Enough! Stop! Let me out, I'll find another taxi."

You want stop here? Now? This field? No hotel, no shop? What, you walk ten mile back to taxi rank?

"Damn you, technical debt!"
- (part III)
  
  "Taxi!! Good morning, please take me to this school."
  
  Certainly. First we go to condom shop.
  
  "What?! No! Why would I want that!"
  
  How I know what you want? You tick, "no personalised ads." So I not personalise.
  
  "Take me to this school, directly. No detours. No adverts. And you will take Republic credits."
  
  What, you think you're some sort of Jedi?

I'd like to use this opportunity to promote Organic Maps, yet again

:)

+1, also recommend StreetComplete alongside it. Makes it easy to add data to OSM, in many cases (parks, etc) this data can be made extremely detailed.

For instance, my first use case was adding house numbers around my neighborhood to OSM, because I couldn't search for my address on Organic Maps
Does this support Android Auto? That's the only reason I use maps.
- Turn-by-turn walking, cycling, and car navigation with voice guidance and Android Auto
  
  On their "about page"
- I think it does, yes. At least it does support CarPlay on iOS, so I guess the functionality on Android is also there.
- I'm pretty sure I did see something pretty recently about Android auto support.
  
  Personally, I prefer to use it without being connected.
I do like that it's available offline, but does it have live traffic if you're online? Waze has informed me about many a traffic jam and helped me circumvent them. Plus temporary road closures in case of big accidents, etc.

Edit: Ay, it's Estonian! Always cool to see something come out of my tiny home country.
- I don't think that is something that it has yet, It's possible that they could be working on something like that though. If you don't find anything, It would be worth a suggestion for sure.
  
  github
- Live traffic would require tracking everyone like Google does.

Well, guess I need to look into more Google alternatives. OpenStreetMaps most likely.

While not FOSS, the closest thing we have to a drop-in replacement would be Magic Earth. It uses openstreetmap data, supports fully offline usage, has satellite images (only online though) and best of all, no tracking or telemetry.
- It's it better than organic maps?
People arent actually thaat tolerant to this cancer. If they arent careful people will switch.

OrganicMaps (or Osmand) is all i need usually. Search is kind of bad sometimes and obviously no live traffic data, but if you dont drive a car, the latter one at least is irrelevant.
- I've tried Osmand and my only complaint is that you need to tap and access too many menus to set up and/or exit navigation mode. Last time I tried it was last year, not sure if that's changed
Organic maps and Street complete

Profit-seeking has ruined innovation and killed us all.

What do you mean? Can't you see all those innovations in the ads and tracking industry?
- Yes! Dozens of new surveillance techniques have been invented, and new content formats have been created to make people even more stupid. Moreover, efforts to add advertisements to artificial intelligence are still ongoing, stay tuned!

Dear Google glitterati,

Are you actually wanting us to touch our phone while the car is on? This is a huge penalty in some regions, after all.

Tell me more about how smart you all are.

Sorry can't hear you over all this money money money

Apple Maps is great now. Fuck google maps I never use it anymore.

i have noticed too, apple maps is absolutely superior to google. when we are navigating somewhere with gf, she uses apple maps with no issues while i can't find shit with google maps...can't remember this being a problem in the past.
Ehhhhh I think Apple Maps is hit or miss depending on your area. In urban centers? I think Apple Maps gives superior directions.

In more rural areas? I think Google wins.

I haven’t tested out incident avoidance with Apple Maps as I haven’t used it since it guided me to the wrong address three years ago..

Maybe it’s worth a second try
- I live in as rural as it gets FL and it’s yet to wrong me in the last fee years.

Reminder that you can turn off auto updates in the play store settings.

Also Magic Earth and Here We Go are decent alternatives.

Both of the alternatives you listed are spyware. Stick with Organic maps ideally from F-droid

This is the worst example of enshittification I've seen from Google. I think it's time to start considering iPhone.

That's where you went?

There's Google maps on the cryphone as well.

Just go get openstreetmaps.
- We actually have our own map system, although of course you can use Google Maps too.
Or better yet fossdroid. Iphones are just as bad

Google ruined their search and is now onwards to the other remaining working products. They are so dumb.

No.

I'd really hate if they fuck up Maps since there are no alternatives on the same level but since it's the last of their services I depend on, I could degoogle for good.

I have been using OsmAnd today to get ready to leave Gmaps because of this news. It was better then I remembered and my number 1 peeve was no lane preference display (for highway driving specifically), but that works now too!

I'll miss traffic predictions and live traffic rerouting :-( Sigh, guess I'll pay that price. I #&@$ing hate distractions during driving, and now they think I'll allow my own phone to do that? Google is rotten to the core and the road way from them is annoying and boring. Buckle up y'all. Bring magazines.
- I'll miss traffic predictions and live traffic rerouting
  
  That's the only feature I'm using it for. The car's built-in navigation is sufficient for "dumb" routing.
- You can use Magic Earth for those.
- OsmAnd is pretty good. It's not as easy as GMaps, but that's understandable. If we all use and support alternatives more, we'll likely spur their development.
Organic maps works pretty well. You just need to actually contribute to OSM

Weirdly The Most Infuriating Part Of This Story For Me Was The Twitter Post Someone Wrote Entirely Like This

There should be an nonprofit organization that specifically posts ads for a service that helps eradicate ads and connects with legal services to sue over billboards it whatever you can do to purge them. IDK pass ordinances or something. Just an organized crusade against ads and its own ads purely telling people how to find the resources to help purge ads.

It's not meant to be a sustainable business, but since it's basically whack-a-mole, it paradoxically would be.

Alright, what's the next best navigation app to switch to if they actually pull this shit?

I've been playing with Organic Maps. It's not... perfect. But it's a contender I'd say
- Ok, I should clarify, unfortunately I am someone who needs a navigation app that is able to know public transit schedules and routes. Offline is generally not gonna work as it's vital to have up to date info on rescheduling and rerouting.
- It is as good as OSM. If you look at just the app it is excellent
Google Maps is good for finding businesses and their opening hours. That's it. Personally I then copy the address and then use one of several apps, depending on my mode of transportation. For car either Waze or Magic Earth.
- You can add hours to OSM. Just don't get your data from google as that's a copyright violation. You install Street Complete and then walk around and complete quests.

Promoted pins in navigation are not new – they let people see relevant ads for businesses like gas stations, restaurants, and stores along their route. To avoid driver distraction, these ads do not pop up, expand only if they’re tapped on, and disappear quickly after a short time.

from the correction in the article

That's not really better. This kind of behavior is why I left Google maps years ago

Glad my Garmin doesn't do that... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oop, you dropped this ༼⁠ ⁠つ⁠ ⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠ ⁠༽⁠つ\
- Weird... it rendered fine on initial post... same issue as reddit I guess.