Seems like leaving money on the table if they aren't getting paid for that. It's brand advertising gold for the shops.

Anyway, my family doesn't care for them. No thanks for another machine sticking brand names into our lives. Hopefully Apple doesn't adopt the same feature.

Especially since - and this is the part that makes it feel most like an ad - it's really seems only to be for certain big brands. "Street name, street name, street name, WENDY'S, street name..."

Oh c'mon, like jedberg said, fast food chain restaurants and gas stations usually have good signage for driving (hat tip Learning from Las Vegas), so it makes sense to use them as visual milestones.

I love Naomi Klein and all, but sometimes looking for small side street sign while everyone's going at least 45mph on a stroad is nearly impossible.

> No thanks for another machine sticking brand names into our lives. Hopefully Apple doesn't adopt the same feature.

I actually find it super useful. I remember the first time it happened to me, because I was surprised but also super pleased.

I was driving and it said "turn into the driveway after the Good Earth sign". And sure enough, I would have totally missed the nearly hidden driveway right past the Good Earth, but the sign on the restaurant was so big it was impossible to miss, even on the 45mph stroad I was on.

I disagree. I absolutely see it as an ad, using driving directions as the trojan horse to sneak it in.

Well, it's not. And they're not paid for it.

Whether or not it's intended as an ad, and whether or not they're getting paid for it, kinda doesn't really matter. I perceive it as a kind of advertising, probably because it came around when maps was adding all sorts of other advertising as well, and advertising was the final straw that drove me away from Google Maps.

I also find it a much less useful way of indicating directions, but I recognize that's just because my brain works differently. That's not a criticism of doing it that way.

It's literally the only thing that matters to the question of whether or not it's an ad. Imagine telling your grandma 30 years ago you don't appreciate her advertising to you because she used a business as a navigational reference giving directions to her house. Absurd.

Eh, to each his own. My grandma is not Google. Google has earned a high degree of suspicion and mistrust. My grandma has not.

Besides, she wouldn't have done that. She would have been more likely to give me directions in a way that is more useful to me than that, because she knows me.