Yep. This. I use a couple of different services (primarily Apple Maps and HERE maps) interchangeably _when I know where I am going_. But when I don’t know where I am going (e.g. looking for a type of store or restaurant or whatever) I use Google Maps. Their places data is just still so much better.
I hope the days of big tech treating startups as lego pieces to be snapped into their empires will be stopped by regulators. I imagine a lot of new ideas, not bound by ad tech revenue, may take root.
Re:Google Maps' Moat Is Evaporating
by joejoebags on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @09:03AM
(#25569786)
Thanks for the thoughtful response! I don’t have anything interesting to add. I suspect you’re right!
Yup. When I switch to DDG, the quality of local results is a huge discriminating factor that pushes me back to Google. Google Maps adds great value to the "one stop search" of Google Search.
While Google Maps as a distinct product has a bottom and top line I think the author underestimates the value that the underlying places data has for Google’s core search product.
The local place data is _massivley_ important to search. I don’t see any foreseeable way Google let’s the product that generates it languish. It’s far too strategic for them. Not to mention the amount of brand value maps has for them as an ecosystem.
My view is that as Google’s Maps advantage dwindles, they’ll do more and more strategic acquisitions of places data sources. Tying more data into their closed ecosystem. Whether the new tech anti-trust landscape in the US and EU allows this is another question.