On: Google to push new ads on its apps

[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"

[bsamuels → michaelbuckbee]

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

[foota → bsamuels]

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

[fjsolwmv → foota]

That makes it an unpaid ad.

[cameronbrown → fjsolwmv]

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"?

[whenchamenia → cameronbrown]

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

[asdff → cameronbrown]

That's how you navigate if you had absolutely nothing to follow but word of mouth and need to remember every step, vs. a highlighted line on a map you just chug along without having to think more than a turn ahead, which you are reminded of anyway.

[JohnFen → bsamuels]

That's a terrible practice for me. The way my brain works, street names are far more useful than landmarks, particularly if those landmarks are businesses.

[zuron7 → michaelbuckbee]

They already do this heavily in India. Mostly due to a lack of good road signage. Landmarks are what defined navigation. Where I live (Bangalore), we have junctions named after KFC and Sony, cos those stores have been there for so long.