Google yesterday announced it is adding more information to Google Maps:
“(We’ve added) icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly on the map itself. We’ve found it super useful for checking out what’s nearby a hotel we’ll be staying at, orienting ourselves, getting the feel for a neighborhood, or just browsing around for fun.“
Wait a minute, let me rewrite that for you, with a business model attached:
“(We’ve added) icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly on the map itself. We’ve found it super useful for leveraging our Adwords algorithm!“
There ya go! Actually, I think this is a great move by Google, and in line with the concept of AdWords being useful to the information ecosystem.
For instance, if you’re looking to check out Martha’s Vineyard, the hotels link up on the left might be a link you are actually interested in.
Wrong! That Martha’s Vineyard ad is a complete waste of my time because it’s just taking me to another search engine and NOT a place to buy anything. John, you just made the opposite point.
@jenkins totally what I thought. I don’t wanna get redirected to another search engine, whether bing pays for it or not. Now a dedicated hotel/room search engine or a website from martha’s vineyard tourism organization or so with a room search, that would be good.
I sung it before, I’ll sing it again:
http://battellemedia.com/archives/004710.php#comment_134961
“We’ll show ads in new places!”