Get Ready To Be Bombarded With Ads When Using Google Maps (news.com.au) 149
An anonymous reader writes: The chance to squeeze some extra advertising dollars is something rarely missed by Google. This week the company quietly announced changes to two of its most widely used services, offering businesses the chance to pay for featured advertisements in Google.com and Google Maps. In a blog post, Google senior ads vice president Sridhar Ramaswamy outlined the likely changes to Google Maps that will see users met with pop-up ads for local businesses when they use the GPS-based app. The announcement has been facetiously described online as "the Ad-pocalypse" but Google has shown more tact in their use of language, referring to the ads as "promoted pins".
It's already begun (Score:5, Informative)
It was a text ad and wasn't very intrusive. Still, though, unsettling.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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You can bet your bottom dollar that someone WILL come up with an app that Google can't readily block that does the same functionality (since they take lat-long and I can get that from the GPS edge...)
Way back when we used this big yellow Garmin GPS that my dad got for Gliding. Basically you put in the lat long of where you want to go and it points at it. It's up to you to figure out what roads to use. Always made trips more interesting without ever getting really lost. Good times. Bring them back.
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Ran over someone trying to find theme park at walmart.
Family will sue Google for it.
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Other Map Software (Score:5, Insightful)
So what other apps are out there worth using? Android Central - Alternatives [androidcentral.com] (Click "view all").
Re:Other Map Software (Score:5, Insightful)
If Google does an occasional text ad here and there, fine. If they are pop-up/slide up, full screen ads which wiggle when you try to close them, then take you to the web page or app store for downloading something, I'll find another map provider. MapQuest and Bing Maps are suitable alternatives, and Apple Maps has gotten past navigating people through wormholes and tessaracts.
Re:Other Map Software (Score:4, Funny)
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The best BLT I've ever had was just one minute into the s plane through a tesseract just outside of Albuquerque.
Tesseracts are so winter 2015 - I like to drive by ziggurats.
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Isn't waze just reskinned google maps?
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This is the only reason I usually use Google Maps on iOS -- working in an unfamiliar location and wanting to know what restaurants are available, and searching for "food" or something actually finds restaurants.
iOS Maps has been fine for navigation, but its search results are usually poor.
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Openstreetmap.org (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Openstreetmap.org (Score:5, Interesting)
As a general question to all commentators; if you're not using Open Street Maps, what is your reason?
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As a general question to all commentators; if you're not using Open Street Maps, what is your reason?
As a contributor to OSM, I really want to use the data more.
But my primary need is for a real-time traffic-based routing app to help me get to work in the mornings. I don't need a static route planning app, because I know how to get there. Even an ordinary map with traffic data on it is not as useful, because those take brain cells away from driving in order to interpret and replan a route.
What I use every day are the two functions of traffic-avoidance and navigation, fused into a single interface that an
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Thank you! It looks like setting up an import task is a ton of work, but possible.
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As a general question to all commentators; if you're not using Open Street Maps, what is your reason?
I'm super lazy. Last time I tried OSM there were no good free navigation apps that used it. Has that changed?
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As a general question to all commentators; if you're not using Open Street Maps, what is your reason?
OpenStreetMaps insists on displaying all place names in the local language. Well my language is English so this is completely useless to me. There should be a "display all placenames with X localization" option.
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The Doctor: You know, since we're talking with mouths, not really an opportunity that comes along very often, I just want to say, you know, you have never been very reliable.
Idris: And you have?
The Doctor: You didn't always take me where I wanted to go.
Idris: No, but I always took you where you needed to go.
The Doctor: You did!
PRECISELY!
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OsmAnd is quite usable though.
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I find that Bing maps is really snappy and has a better street view than GMaps.
I like the interface better too.
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I use OSM for sports GPS devices (Cycling, running) - It's data is accurate and up to date because it's maintained by volunteers, many of which are in the sports community.
Garmin's newer cycling devices even ship with maps pulled from OSM. It's cheaper than licensing their usual mapping data and especially in the case of cycle-paths and other non-motorway paths it's far more accurate.
When Garmin of all companies, who has a long an notorious history of wanting to charge you out the ass for mapping data, uses
Google maps had already begun to suck (Score:3)
A few months ago Google must have made some change to their maps, because Firefox on all my boxen goes crazy and chews up oodles of CPU. Here, mapquest, and openstreetmap still work well.
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oodles of CPU
I am not familiar with this unit of measurement. Is it derived or a base unit?
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oodles of CPU
I am not familiar with this unit of measurement. Is it derived or a base unit?
There are 1000 oodles in a googolplex. Duh
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I am constantly surprised by how good it is. It has paths in there that Google has never heard of, ones up mountains that might not even be 1ft wide, new and old. It doesn't look quite as polished and smartphone-oriented as the Almighty GOOG's version but the maps themselves are more detailed and more accurate
And when it gives up to date traffic predictions with auto-rerouting around obstacles I may consider using it.
Well that's not fair, I actually already use it, but not for anything requiring getting somewhere by road or public transport. Having a good accurate and complete map is really only a very tiny part of what a modern mapping system needs to offer.
Two words: uBlock Origin (Score:1)
Why would "ads" be a problem for ANYONE in this day and age? Block'em. All of them. My computer, my rules. No pop-ups, pop-ins, pop-unders allowed. No banners. No Flash. No Javascript. Just what I choose and allow to be downloaded and displayed.
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You block individual HTML elements. So no problem. They can't style the ads differently to disclose that they are ads, and work in a web browser without a special plugin (like flash), and still stop ad blocking. They can have two of those at a time, but that's not good enough.
On a mobile device using an app, they're winning the arms race.
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1: uBlock Origin doesn't work on iOS. Hell, the "blockers" on iOS are completely worthless anyway. /. a few weeks ago.
2: You can block ads on Android, but you need to root and drop in a host file, or modify the iptables entries to block outgoing traffic.
3: Sites are starting to use EME or big Flash/HTML5 blobs with the ads built in them.
4: Sites like Forbes just give you the middle finger, and if you allow ads, you might get stung by malvertising, as reported by
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I've even seen pages that use the data URI scheme for ad images (try the Daily Caller [dailycaller.com] as an example). This enables them to evade most ad blockers. If they were injected server-side, they would be practically unblockable; you'd need a block rule for each one, and I could see the server-side code tacking on some random garbage at the end to effectively make each image unique.. So far, however, they're still using client-side
Distracted Driving? (Score:5, Insightful)
I use the Google Maps on my iPhone for navigating when I'm driving someplace unfamiliar. Does this mean that I'll have to be dismissing ads in order to see continue to have a useable navigation tool? I'm also not wild about the idea of pop up ads drawing my attention away from the road. Time will tell.
Re:Distracted Driving? (Score:5, Informative)
No, the summary is bullshit. There are no pop-up ads here. All that is happening is that when you search for something the search results can contain promoted items. So if you search for "restaurant" the local branch of McBurger can pay to be listed above the real results, just like they can when you do a web search for the same.
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Thanks for that, AmiMoJo. Once again /. and their now owners create shit news like the gutter press as they scrape the gutter for clicks.
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Thanks for that, AmiMoJo. Once again /. and their now owners create shit news like the gutter press as they scrape the gutter for clicks.
To be fair, it isn't "shit news" it is "gossip and lies" that aren't news.
It isn't news if it isn't believed to have actually happened or be happening.
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I use the Google Maps on my iPhone for navigating when I'm driving someplace unfamiliar. Does this mean that I'll have to be dismissing ads in order to see continue to have a useable navigation tool? I'm also not wild about the idea of pop up ads drawing my attention away from the road. Time will tell.
I usually use [the Google-owned] Waze app, which started doing pop-up ads a while back. It's annoying, but they typically only pop-up when stopped, and disappear once you start driving again. They also do sponsored "pins" for stores and restaurants, which aren't intrusive. It's not enough to get me to stop using the app (yet), but i will start to feel a bit more annoyed if I start getting the same stuff in Google Maps as well.
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Seriously? Thank you Waze for encouraging people to look at the map when they're moving instead of being able to study it when they are stopped. Advertising is a cancer on our society.
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Waze (also owned by Google) has transparent popups, but they only popup when you're stopped and disappear as soon as you move. I never had a problem with them.
Use OpenStreetMap - problem solved. (Score:5, Informative)
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I never even knew that existed before. Will check it out. But does OpenStreetMap have an iOS app like Google Maps does? That's kind of important, IMO -- as I"m usually out and about already when I need to look up a location.
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But does OpenStreetMap have an iOS app like Google Maps does?
Yes, see for example http://osmand.net/ [osmand.net]
Re:Use OpenStreetMap - problem solved. (Score:5, Informative)
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Paying to Opt Out? (Score:5, Interesting)
Please, please, please, Google, allow me to pay you the revenues you generate from advertisers directly in the form of a subscription fee, and then DO NOT SERVE ME ADS, DO NOT TRACK ME, AND STOP BEING EVIL.
Re:Paying to Opt Out? (Score:5, Informative)
That's what we thought we were getting with cable TV subscriptions, and then we started getting ads there too. Even companies from whom I purchase products (like Amazon) still can't seem to stop themselves from *also* putting ads on their sites, which irritates me to no end. The temptation for just a bit of extra revenue from ads is apparently irresistible.
It would be nice to have that choice, but the cynic in me says that what you'll probably see is *fewer* ads, or perhaps *less intrusive* ads, rather than no ads.
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Possibly - but Google already has a way to pay to opt-out of ads across the internet: https://www.google.com/contrib... [google.com]
I suspect that Contributor will also disable ads on Google Maps... we'll have to wait and see.
BTW: I've been using Contributor for over a year now... it's a great way to support the sites I hit often (like Slashdot) while removing ads. It currently shows that I've contributed nearly $30 to Slashdot over the last year... which sounds just about right for what I would want to pay for Slashdo
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Please, please, please, Google, allow me to pay you the revenues you generate from advertisers directly in the form of a subscription fee, and then DO NOT SERVE ME ADS, DO NOT TRACK ME, AND STOP BEING EVIL.
https://www.google.com/contributor
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From the Contributor page ---
"With Contributor you'll see fewer ads on millions of sites and on all of your devices."
Fewer, not none, and they still gather all of the same information about you. From the example, it looks like it works much like an ad blocker.
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It may say "fewer" because not all ads are served by Google and they can't promise that you'll see no ads. It works like an ad blocker except that you must be logged into Google and tracked in order for it to work. That's way too intrusive for my tastes, even if I had logged into Google in the last few years.
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It may say "fewer" because not all ads are served by Google and they can't promise that you'll see no ads. It works like an ad blocker except that you must be logged into Google and tracked in order for it to work. That's way too intrusive for my tastes, even if I had logged into Google in the last few years.
"Logged in" does not necessarily imply "tracked". The login can be taken as an explicit signal not to record any information about the request. I don't know if Contributor does that but if it were clear that there were sufficient demand for it, it could.
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True, but it's a matter of "leaving money on the table" (from the company's perspective) and trust (from the users'). In the absence of an airtight, unqualified (eg, no "to improve user experience" type language), and legally binding statement that users will not be tracked, it's naïve to assume that any situation that makes it easy to track users will not be used to track users. I know that you have a strong allegiance to Google, but this applies doubly in their case since user profiling is such a cor
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Do you really believe that if Google accepts your money in exchange for not tracking you, that it will violate that contract? Of course, "not tracking" would have to be spelled out precisely, but I think it's reasonable to expect that any major corporation will abide by the terms it signs up to, even those that aren't as high-minded as Google. The consequences of violating contracts are too severe.
this applies doubly in their case since user profiling is such a core part of the business model.
It's actually not. It's a core part of the business model for some services, and those are Google's largest ser
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Do you really believe that if Google accepts your money in exchange for not tracking you, that it will violate that contract?
No, which is why I specifically stated that you'd be naïve to assume that you'd not be tracked if the terms of use allowed in any way for you being tracked.
I'm not invited to tea with the Google leadership as you appear to be, so my impressions are colored more by their actions, public statements, and financial filings than their personal convictions, at odds as those may be with all of the available evidence. You can probably rest assured that they've made note of your loyalty, though.
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Please, please, please, pz, read the article before posting. There's nothing new here except that companies can pay to top the search results of generic terms. Calling this evil is just completely ignorant of what the term evil actually means.
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That includes Windows 10. Hey Microsoft! I'll pay good money if you give me Windows 7 with the internals of 10. Of course all data-gathering and promoting of Ms services must be removed
It's about time! (Score:5, Funny)
I was using Google Maps a few days ago and came to the startling realization that the information was presented too clearly, the results were simply too useful, and my satisfaction with the product was simply too high. Thank goodness Google is listening to their customers and doing something to reverse this worrying trend!
Slippery (Score:2, Insightful)
The first time I see an ad obstructing the view of my map, or my GPS says "In 500 feet, turn left for Nissan's Memorial Day Sales Event at Bob's Auto" I'm done. Full stop. I have never been disappointed enough with Google Maps to seek out alternatives, but there's a map in the glove box that is a pretty low bar to beat regarding convenience. If Google can't keep above that bar, I'm sure someone else does.
Gave up on Maps years ago (Score:2, Informative)
I gave up on Google Maps years ago. I've been using OpenStreetMap for a long time, with better results.
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I gave up on Google Maps years ago. I've been using OpenStreetMap for a long time, with better results.
The only time I use maps is on my phone. What are you using to actually navigate on your phone?
If you say OSMAnd, then I know you're lying, because it likes to drive me in circles and randomly just gets lost.
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I'm not the grandparent, but OsmAnd's navigation has drastically improved for me since maybe 2 years ago. It used to be annoyingly awful (wanted me to go in circles or take very suboptimal roads like exit the highway, go out of my way, then get back on the same highway when it would have been much faster and a shorter distance to just stay on in the first place--wtf?) but for me I haven't had bad routing in over a year.
Some tips:
- Use OsmAnd (offline) -- obviously useful if your data connection goes out but
Waze already has this (Score:4, Informative)
Waze, now owned by Google, has already had popup ads and promoted pins for awhile.
While the ads are a bit annoying, they only show when you are stopped.
The pins really do not make much of a difference.
Considering it's accuracy has dropped.... (Score:2)
The LAST 5 times I tried to use google maps for routing it was wrong. I gave up using them and switched to tomtom GO.
Just yesterday went to drop off a package at the DHL hub. Google maps had me go one more street past and told me the empty field was my destination.
Okay I'm ready (Score:3)
Adblock on, sunglasses set to "Max", cynicism set to "11"....and I'm ready.
How dare they... (Score:1)
How dare Google try and make a profit off this product that they provide to the public without charge. The nerve!
You didn't pay for Maps (Score:2)
You didn't pay for Google Maps (either on a one-time basis or an ongoing charge.) Yep, you bought an Android phone, but navigation is hardly a core part of Android.
False. Google loses money on lots of services. (Score:2)
Google has a great number of money-losing products and services. Google Maps is one of them (especially without these ads.) Compared with how much it costs to collect and maintain the mapping data (not to mention the development and infrastructure cost for the application), they most certainly lose money on it. (Google tracks and uses your location to serve you search ads with or without the use of Google Maps if you have an Android phone or use any Google product or browse to any site serving Google ads
Suggested alternatives, please? (Score:2)
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Google Maps has become increasingly bloated nonsense and this is the last straw. Please suggest alternatives? Not Microsoft!
On the phone: HERE maps.
On the desktop: Openstreetmaps usually works if you live a place a lot of other people using openstreetmaps live.
No Problem With This (Score:5, Interesting)
Been using Google Maps since the beginning... it's an awesome product that I've never paid a dime for (other than having Google scrape my geo-search related data). I don't mind seeing a few "sponsored pins" here and there.
Google has always done a good job with unintrusive ads... and I will give them the benefit of the doubt here.
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Google does have a way to to pay to circumvent ads: http://contributor.google.com/ [google.com]
It remains to be seen whether or not it will remove adds from Google Maps...
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I've been using it for about a year and I really like it.
But I'm one of those weirdos that _likes_ targeted advertising... if I'm going to see ads all over my internet I want them to be about stuff I want to buy!
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Pretty funny considering most people would call me an "Apple Fanboy"...
For the record I have an Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad Pro, Mac Pro and Macbook Pro...
No: I just recognize that services cost money... and they are either going to get that money through advertising or subscriptions and its up to the company to decide which way they're going to go (and then, it's up to the consumers to decide if the service is still worth it).
man causes chain reaction accident (Score:2)
You're only getting it now? (Score:2)
My Google Map on iOS has been doing ads on and off for at least 18 months now. Usually it's a slightly larger dot that you think it's a search result but it's a sponsored location. One time I searched for a donut shop and selected the first result without looking. It routed me to a hotel. When I looked more carefully it was a sponsored result. Sometimes when I search for a business and I know the exact name, the first few results aren't that business it's a competitor. I think a couple months ago it routed
Not in a million years (Score:2)
I don't Google, just like I was never a Yahooligan. Problem solved.
Junkies (Score:2)
Google and their like sound more and more like addicts. They keep escalating the intensity and obnoxiousness of adverts but getting less and less satisfaction from them. And unable to even conceive that the problem might be their own behaviour.
Just download it (Score:2)
There's a program called Missionplanner for autonomous drone waypoint planning. It uses google maps, and can precache the maps (aka download google maps). Just select your area, select prefetch, and you'll have the maps at whatever zoom level you choose to go to.
Google already does this (Score:2)
Google owns Waze, which does these sponsored pop-up ads. I tried using Waze as an in-vehicle navigator, but it constantly pops-up nearly-full-screen ads for every imaginable thing along the route. They totally obscure the map and are very difficult to dismiss (must pick up the phone and carefully click just-so to get rid of the ad; basically impossible to do safely while driving). This is why I don't use Waze, and have stuck with Google Maps.
1. Looks like it's time to buy (a) Garmin device that might not
Re:My ass is ready (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd take the incorporated-ads if they'd undo the long span of terrible changes they've made to the service (particularly web, but also mobile) over the years. How is it that one of the most popular products of one of the world's largest corporations has such a mishmash / poorly thought-out interface, a low detail-level which can't be altered by the user, and terribly drawn graphics (their terrain in particular is an embarrassment)? If they'll fix the interface and our penalty as users is to suffer through ads... then bring on the ads.
Honestly, "promoted pins" could be done in a non-intrusive manner.
1) Only show things relative to the layers that the user has enabled. If they don't have restaurants on, don't insert pins for promoted restaurants.
2) Handle them via the culling algorithm. Map details must inherently be culled when zoomed out so that the screen isn't just a giant jumbled mess; as you zoom in and objects on the map move further apart, you have more room to insert more objects, so you cull less. When it comes to "promoted pins", a fair way to deal with them would be to give them a higher priority than unpromoted pins in the culling algorithm, so that they're more likely to show up when zoomed further out.
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Won't work. He'll propose stuff in the interview that's totally antithetical to their crappy new UX philosophy and won't get hired. They're only going to hire people who've drunk the same Kool-Aid as themselves.
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They also change flavors too frequently to follow through on any plans to fix things within the current flavor's ideology. You have to have drank the stuff, and also be ready to switch to the new flavor.
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I think you might be pointing out a part of the problem and not the solution - I'd rather have Google fire all their so-called designers and let the coders build the interfaces...
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Did the job openings begin with an internal conversation including the phrase "well, if you won't do this ..."? Just wondering. Few recent changes to Google Maps these days arrive with the new car smell of employee self-esteem.
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I'd take the incorporated-ads if they'd undo the long span of terrible changes they've made to the service (particularly web, but also mobile) over the years. How is it that one of the most popular products of one of the world's largest corporations has such a mishmash
Once upon a time, I could map out routes in Google maps that wre not quicktaketheinterstate two choices.
Then this year I tried again. Holy hell - it simply does not work at all, unless you walk it through by splitting your trip into 5 or more trips.
The feedback has been universally and emphatically negative, as in "this friggin thing doesn't work any more". Almost worthless now. And now- just serving ads.
AdChoices H^H^H^H^H^H^H Google - bite me.
Re:My ass is ready (Score:5, Insightful)
How is it that one of the most popular products of one of the world's largest corporations has such a mishmash / poorly thought-out interface, a low detail-level which can't be altered by the user, and terribly drawn graphics (their terrain in particular is an embarrassment)? If they'll fix the interface and our penalty as users is to suffer through ads... then bring on the ads.
You're totally forgetting about the speed.
On my Galaxy S4, Google Maps still seems to be OK, but for the web version, it's ridiculously slow these days. I don't know WTF happened, but Google Maps used to be snappy on a decent computer, but now it's the slowest web page I use. Panning around, zooming, everything is horribly, horribly slow. It's almost unusable. I'm probably have to start looking more seriously at Bing Maps when I'm on a PC (and I'm a huge MS hater).
As for this "promoted pins" crap, it's all a bad idea. donowant. I don't care if I'm looking at restaurants; I don't want to see whatever shitty greasy spoons have paid to have themselves promoted. And I really don't want my screen filled with a bunch of stupid icons for shitty businesses I'm not interested in. If Google resorts to this crap, it's going to be time to look at competing mapping apps such as Bing.
It's pretty sad that I'm having to serious consider Microsoft products because Google is going down the drain so fast. There's a few other navigation apps out there too; I'll have to look at those.