I should have known that Waze was too good to be true. Today I noticed, for the first time, that Waze has sold out to advertisers.
I wouldn’t mind so much if what was being advertized was something other than poison to me (they’re advertizing a doughnut chain), or if only the actual stores were listed. Instead a little icon pops up for every gas station that might possibly sell their doughnuts.
It is a sad day for me.
Samuel
PS. Am I wrong in assuming there is no way to opt out of this advertising?
I’m sorry, I don’t know how to do screenshots. And I probably won’t take a screenshot since I’m driving.
The desecration is a little icon about the same size as a traffic warning. Four of these annoyances on the screen at the same time because four gas stations might sell doughnuts is neither discrete nor low in number.
Samuel
Waze has always stated that their app would be free. How else do you suppose a company can do that sam-notsowise? Your statements show a lack of understanding as to how the real world of business works.
Now, if Waze sold an advertising-free version for say the equivalent of a $1-$2, I can see that as a future option.
Gee, Alan of the bong… They could lease the data they receive from us to other mapping companies. They could sell our driving habits to billboard companies to see what billboards are best situated. They could sell our real time data to radio and tv stations to improve the traffic reports. These are 3 ways to raise money I came up with in less than 5 minutes of thinking about it. I’m sure someone wizened in the ways of business could come up with more. Advertising is not the only way to raise revenue.
By the way… I understand how business works. I’m just disappointed how prolific the advertizing is going to be. As I said before; four ads on the screen at the same time is neither discrete nor low in number.
As long as they stay as discrete as that yet giving you the ability to expand them (perhaps for a discount) it’s great that Waze is finding a way to monetize the app. They put a ton of man hours into the development and maintenance of Waze, map data alone probably isn’t valuable enough. And they know they only exist due to their user base and will be very careful to not alienate us, but if they don’t make enough money then they either go away or sell out to the first big bucks company that will make an offer. But that firm may not care nearly as much about the user base.
They could, based on the user IDs of those who have made the contribution of over 100K edits, for example, remove these ads from the client as a way of truly saying thank you for making Waze better. I’m sure this could be done, if they really did appreciate it.
