The map service is about to become the next biggest giant of Google. The company wants to make it easier for advertisers to reach Maps users. Google has become the most profitable internet company in the world just behind the search engine advertising. Now, it's going to turn another popular web service into a real money-based advertising machine.
Google Maps is an indispensable service to more than one billion people around the world. Since it was launched, 14 years ago, it has been largely free and, most importantly, protected by advertisements. Now Google is about to transform it altogether.
At a time when advertising bombards us every step, and all our moves are retained to receive personalized ads, Maps is the perfect target of advertising agencies. And Google opens wide doors.
The Internet giant facilitates the way advertising agencies can reach users, while increasing prices for some companies using basic technology. The application begins to focus and bring to the foreground in particular the sponsored locations and also to display extra lists for additional charges when people search for gas stations, cafes or other nearby companies, according to Bloomberg's domestic sources.
In search of maximized profit
Google's financial search engine search is still extremely profitable and growing. But this can not last forever. That's because Google began to abuse advertising in an obsessive and disturbing way for the user. As the search engine does not have much room for commercials in all searches being piled up to refuse ads, Maps is starting to look like a virgin territory that has the potential to generate huge amounts of Google's advertising.
However, there is a good chance that this initiative will lead Google to anti-competitive practices. Europe has already punished the company for violating the competition law and there are increasing demands in the United States to regulate Google's actions regarding data collection, privacy standards, and ultimately advertising business. The intention to squeeze more money out of Maps, a service used by millions of people, could throw Google further into the attention of the authorities.
Along with the data collected from other services, Google already knows where we live, where we work, the places we visit and all of our interests. Since last summer, the voice guider from Maps has begun to name names of well-known companies that are already large Google advertisers. Instead of mapping a street, Maps now directs you to certain companies. Towards what they pay for advertising.
The company hopes that adding more location and business data to Maps will cause people to spend more time in the app. Which will obviously bring the company's profit.