A Google spokesperson explains:
Promoted pins in navigation are not new – they let people see relevant ads for businesses like gas stations, restaurants, and stores along their route. To avoid driver distraction, these ads do not pop up, expand only if they’re tapped on, and disappear quickly after a short time.
Organic Maps and OsmAnd are not adding ads during navigation either. Nor “promoted pins”. Nor ads when browsing the map. Nor tracking your every move.
Seriously, give them a try. And remember that, if the maps are lacking information, you are free (and encouraged) to improve them on OpenStreetMap.
My question here is directed to other readers: I find the traffic layer in Gmaps to be my most used feature for local navigation. It’s the one feature I really do use every day before I drive home from work to decide which way I’m going to take to get home.
I see there are tutorials to define a map overlay in OsmAnd for traffic using Google’s API that are dated from a few years ago. Has anyone here successfully done this, and do these tutorials still work in 2024?
Unlikely. Google restricted their API access a few years ago.
It’s funny to me how everyone wants the product of the location reporting, but nobody wants to contribute to that data by reporting their location.
Right? I’m sort of bought into Google’s ecosystem at this point, so I understand my Devil’s Bargain. I pay for their services, and in return I expect not to be hassled with ads or penalized for suppressing them on devices I own. I use their services because it’s convenient for me today, but at this point I’ve diversified my online footprint so that I could feasibly walk away and do without the conveniences.
Sticking ads in my face in Nav mode would be a bridge too far, but we’re not there so it’s cool.
Of course they probably feel differently. That’s their problem.
This is the only question that really matters when it comes to these alternatives
This. I live in a busy city. I know several routes through and around it. I need the traffic data. I need it to tell me there is a wreck.
I don’t need to know (usually) how to get there.
There’s even apps for making updating OSM easy on mobile and even gamifying it.
Every time I’ve used OSM I’ve seen the maps vandalized. I don’t trust anything running on OSM.
Too late. Already download OSM for the first time in years. I deliver all day long, and as much as I hated them, gmaps was worth it until now.
To avoid driver distraction, these ads do not pop up, expand only if they’re tapped on, and disappear quickly after a short time.
You know what’s even better and legally positive to avoid driver’s distractions? Not having any popup whatsoever happening during navigation. It doesn’t matter if you need to interact to view more or if it disappears after a while, it shouldn’t be there in the first place.
There is no popup whatsoever during navigation. The alleged popup screen is actually what appears when you yourself click a pin (whether normal or sponsored). Nothing ever pops up by itself.
The article was corrected, maybe you read it before that happened.
For now. 🙄
I like how they do the reverse psychology, at least for me. I have still the urge to press the non highlighted button, because in my time the “Buy”/“Go to play store” button was highlighted and this is just reversing this.
If they don’t pop up, then how do they disappear? They were never there but they go away? Double plus good.
Stop being deliberately obtuse. They pop open when you tap the pin, then disappear after a short time.
