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Google is Killing Off the Messaging Service Inside Google Maps (arstechnica.com) 19

An anonymous reader shares a report: Google is killing off a messaging service! This one is the odd "Google Business Messaging" service -- basically an instant messaging client that is built into Google Maps. If you looked up a participating business in Google Maps or Google Search on a phone, the main row of buttons in the place card would read something like "Call," "Chat," "Directions," and "Website." That "Chat" button is the service we're talking about. It would launch a full messaging interface inside the Google Maps app, and businesses were expected to use it for customer service purposes. Google's deeply dysfunctional messaging strategy might lead people to joke about a theoretical "Google Maps Messaging" service, but it already exists and has existed for years, and now it's being shut down.
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Google is Killing Off the Messaging Service Inside Google Maps

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  • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Wednesday May 29, 2024 @03:50PM (#64508565)

    My spouse runs a business that is listed on Google Maps, and we get business from the listing.

    This is the first I've ever heard of a messaging system built into maps.

    No wonder it failed.

    • Been using it for years and get a handful of chats each month asking about products. Was a great tool for our small business
      • by Bradac_55 ( 729235 ) on Wednesday May 29, 2024 @04:53PM (#64508701) Journal

        Sergey is that you?

      • Imagine how many chats you'd get if we all knew about this product. This one is news to me as well.

      • by j-beda ( 85386 )

        Been using it for years and get a handful of chats each month asking about products. Was a great tool for our small business

        I got a few each year that were mostly a pest - needing to juggle yet-another-text-platform is a pain. I suppose it added value to Google, keeping the communications within their platform but for me, having customers contact me using email or real SMS is probably more useful.

    • I find it somewhat mind-blowing when we see these stories about some well known tech giant shutting down some non-niche service which it turns out was unknown to most Slashdotters. Even if it wasn't something we ourselves would use... how could their marketing / PR fail to the extent that people like us wouldn't even be aware of it?

      • by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Wednesday May 29, 2024 @04:44PM (#64508687) Homepage Journal

        > how could their marketing / PR fail to the extent that people like us wouldn't even be aware of it?

        Oh, I gotchu on this:

        Some exec comes up with a hairbrained idea that everybody on the team thinks is peak retardation but they have to implement it to make him happy.

        It goes it, gets hidden behind a shit UI, and nobody ever talks about it again.

        Marketing is warned on the D/L that they will look stupid if they promote it.

        As soon as he gets promoted the feature is deprecated.

        The Dilbert Filter is in operation on this one.

      • Here's a link to the Google Graveyard website, where 295 products and services killed by Google are listed. They're notorious for not caring about what the public wants to use, or has been using. https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]
  • I kind of want to work at Google. Any secondary product/service/feature you make won't be around long enough to find the bugs and/or flaws.
    • More like, you make V0 which you know has flaws, but a higher priority project comes along before you get to V1. Your thing churns along for a few years, until something you depend on gets deprecated. Without active ownership your thing is now doomed.
  • Yet another poorly advertised and little used service... no wonder it's being shutdown.

  • Just like the late, great Panoramio Google Earth layer.

    And, the murdered Google Earth Keyhole forums that were quietly terminated for literally no reason.

  • I just went to google maps, and clicked on about 2 dozen business in my area. None of them have this chat thing. Is this an North american thing or just nobody gaf in my area?
  • by Thumper_SVX ( 239525 ) on Thursday May 30, 2024 @07:29AM (#64509959) Homepage

    Seriously, as a business owner... good. We had a few customers use it to try to contact us but it was a pain in the ass. I am a business owner... that particular business I'm not engaged in day-to-day (it's a cafe) and unlike Facebook (for all THEIR warts) they didn't have the option to "deputize" your staff to manage the messaging for you. That meant that any time someone messaged me on the page I had to drop what I was doing and act on the message even though I was busy with my OTHER business to respond or enact something like creating a reservation.

    Unfortunately, just saying "Sorry, you can't do that from here please call us at xxxx" seemed like shitty customer service. It was one more contact method we didn't need and didn't use.

    Google's problem with these sorts of things is that they throw them out there half-assed and never develop them further. Just the ability to create deputies and set up permissions alone would've been nice but if there's a system that allows me to do that I never did find it. You can either deputize someone to manage the entire listing or none of it... no granular permissions that I can find.

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