Waze forum

In the latest version of WAZE I noticed that I'm seeing icons on the screen for "Vons" and certain other firms. This is not equal opportunity (for example, showing all markets along my route), so I'm guessing it's paid advertising, and there's no obvious way to disable it. This is just screen clutter.

Today for the first time, while driving home, WAZE did something much MORE disturbing, which was to display a giant red popup covering half the screen for "ABC Toy Pickup" in a town (Woodland Hills) about 20 miles from me and on the other side of the Santa Monica mountains (and probably 2 hours away in the evening traffic). Since this is outside the radius I've configured in settings and has nothing whatsoever to do with navigation or traffic, and in fact is a distraction while driving (anything big and red appearing on the screen immediately draws your attention from the roadway), I don't understand why WAZE thinks this is a good idea. The app will quickly become unusable if WAZE goes further down this path.

dirgela wrote:The business model is that you make the map, provide traffic data and then get ads if you want to use it On the other side google maps don't have traffic data in many countries and waze has no competition. Funnily in these countries waze has no advertisement as well

The model of providing traffic data is not enough to sustain. There is so much traffic data available now, Waze cannot survive on this alone. It may be different country-by-country as you note.

I've escalated the "not fixing bad ad locations" issue to Jonypony.

imajica12345 wrote:Very annoying that they come up to begin with.

Don't just complain you don't like it. Please directly offer Waze your advice for how to make money, without having to charge for the app, which is a revenue stream which dries up.

I've never encountered a pop-up ad while I was moving either, only while idle.

I totally understand the need for these ads to keep the app free and infrastructure running. Over here they have been ads for Standard Chartered, HSBC and Tesco, so the ad inventory in Malaysia seems to be selling well, but it remains to be seen if the revenue will be sustainable.

This topic is almost two years old (and refers to a much older version of the app). In accordance with the Forum Rules please do not reopen topics that are more than six months old.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:

imajica12345 wrote:Very annoying that they come up to begin with.

Don't just complain you don't like it. Please directly offer Waze your advice for how to make money, without having to charge for the app, which is a revenue stream which dries up.

Actually, there's nothing wrong with AlanOfTheBerg complaining about what he doesn't like about Waze, even if he doesn't offer a better suggestion.

On another note, I find it odd that I used Waze three times before I saw an ad. I passed several CVSs, Dunkin Donuts (they're like weeds here), and even a few Taco Bells... No ads until last night.

I hate ads. I like (at least the idea of) the community aspect of Waze. I'd be willing to pay a nominal fee for an ad-free version.

saguaro7 wrote:But I'm sick of seeing Dunkin Donuts and Taco Bell everywhere I go. I never go to either place, and actively dislike both.

This applies to me as well. I don't mind ads so much given that Waze is free but I am disgusted by Taco Bell and would never eat there. Dunkin Donuts, not as bad but I haven't been to one in years. If we had options for ads it might be more palatable.


There's also the reality that I know a lot of these ads aren't in the right place. I know where Taco Bell and Dunkin Donuts are around me and there are about 4x as many little things for them in the area than there actually are, often quite close to each other and in neighborhoods. It doesn't make sense.

j-lamar wrote:How's this for a monetization strategy:

Charge $0.99 per year (or something like that) for a "Waze Pro" subscription that will automatically hide all advertising. If you're looking for something beyond a one-time app purchase, the subscription model would work.

I'm guessing a vast majority of Waze's current users would be willing to pay a nominal annual subscription fee to get rid of the fast-food and hotel chain ads. Voila! Ongoing revenue!

And if they don't want to pony up the subscription fee, then just live with the ads. Win-win.

Yea, I'd pay for an ad free version of waze. I can't stand taco hell.

I don't mind pushpin ads but the popups will get annoying if they get common.

And look on the bright side — at least Waze works for you. With my particular phone, and particular OS version, ads, coupons and popups crash Waze for me. So every time I should see a popup, a coupon or manually tap on an ad icon, Waze will quit on me.

I can't use it at all anymore anywhere because these ads are now everywhere — Taco Bell, Baymont Inns, Ramada, Dunkin Donuts, a Wii U coupon at Walmart. Hard to find any map areas without these businesses where I live!

Ayzmo wrote:There's also the reality that I know a lot of these ads aren't in the right place. I know where Taco Bell and Dunkin Donuts are around me and there are about 4x as many little things for them in the area than there actually are, often quite close to each other and in neighborhoods. It doesn't make sense.

There's a form you can fill out to correct the location of the advertising pins. I submitted two entries for local Taco Bells and never saw any changes. I even fixed them on Google since they were wrong, too. Google updated the locations within hours, but Waze has yet to respond.

I don't mind the pushpins at all; you're (supposedly) limited to three per screen so it's never too crowded. I'd much rather have this than full blown pop ups which obscure all map info at random intervals, or something equally annoying.