Google developing free navigation app?
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 27th 2009 4:24PM
posted Oct 27th 2009 4:24PM
[Via Fierce Mobile Content; thanks Elad]
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I'll pay for no Ads version please! Go Google.
It should be noted that the BoyGeniusReport website posted a leaked spec page for the Motorolla Droid phone coming to verizon in 2 weeks. On that spec list was listed "Google Turn by Turn Directions" as one of the many Google features.
This would be a huge value add and would really be a great differentiator over the iPhone. Maybe this is why Apple bought that map company. They probably know they can't compete otherwise if Google decides not to bring this feature to other phones other than Android phones.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/22/motorola-droid-makes-appearance-on-motorolas-site/
i hope they bring it to other platforms... windows mobile at least, since i'll probably be getting the HD2 when it comes to the US.
Wat the hell? The screen is already small enough to see. Hopefully the ads start at the beginning of starting up the apps and not during the apps.
@PhotoFre@k,
Ads could be just voices and little dots. Remembering how Google placed right ads into right places, their ads would be like, "Second right for a Starbucks Coffee, if you mention this voice ads, we'll give you 20% discount. Otherwise go straight for 2 miles"
Ads price could be also appropriately set depending if you actually visited the place...
Cool.
That would really make me want that new Google phone on top of already how much I want it lol. :)
This would actually work with phones other then android, such as windows mobile, and perhaps maybe even webOS eventually!? I have google latitude and all the android google apps on my htc touch pro II(windows mobile), and I'll install this too when its available.
Free? I can live with ads on a navigation device, no problem. Gimmee!
Would the ads be location specific?
"Turn left past McDonalds where today it's Big Mac Monday, 2 Big Macs for a Dollar"
I for sure can live with that. If "free" on any web-surfing-with-GPS-device I can come up with.
Especially if that means we can those sweet, sweet Google satellite maps on our GPS screens...
@domthomas did you make that up? because im going to mcdonalds next monday to ask for this if you didnt.
@ Dr Steve Brule - Actually it was a deal near Sarasota, FL a few years ago when I was visiting. Go and ask, who knows...
@d0mth0mas
Should have patented that! If someone else does it after today, I will support your cause fighting it :)
this is excellent and a great price point
You drive a hard bargain, El Goog.
AT&T not gonna like this. They want their $9.99/month subscription.
Good point... but does AT&T get money from TomTom though?
If you have GPS on your phone, and ATT doesn't lock it like Verizon, Google Maps Mobile already does this. Why would anyone pay the $10 fee?
Google Maps does not provide realtime turn-by-turn.
If it did, do you think so many iPhone users would be spending $100 or more on nav apps?
I get my navigation free from Sprint right now, so this won't make a huge difference, but it would be nice to have options.
The GPS is updated in real time. You can see upcoming turns. It just doesn't explicitly say turn right, left, etc. If you turn off the annoying voice on GPS anyways, it's not much different except for maybe telling how close the next turn is, but you can still figure it out by looking at the screen.
hmmm i just hope it's not like:
Me: Alright where is my next turn?
GPS: Come on down to your local Toyota dealer to save big this weekend only! Intersection of Maple and Main street!
BUT I'm sure Google will make it reasonable. Ad-block anyone?
Fail!
I would love this. Ads are nothing to me. I would get 5 of em, lol.
But, how do you know they aren't providing it at a loss. They are taking the revenue from their search engine and subsidizing these other "sub industries" or even buying them outright. They've been doing that all along. MS has done it. Look how long it's taken for youtube to be profitable. I don't know what youtube is currently doing, but in the past it use to bleed them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Finally, I'm not an economic law historian but I do know anti-competitive laws / moods have changed over the decades. Companies that would be considered monopolies in the past may not be so presently. Right now, it's about not stifling innovation or harming the end consumer. That's google. But I can see the lawyers and spin doctors spinning this aspect differently.
Anyways guess is the next flavor of anti-competitive clause will be targetting companies that echo all the past sentiments of what constitutes a monopoly with something new. And that new thing? My guess is preventing companies from becoming "too big to fail". I think that will be google.
Just wondering...
I would say that providing "services at a loss" is less anti-competitive than other conditions that exist today, such as companies (like Apple, Sony, and now Amazon) that provide both hardware and content, and limit consumer choice to protect distribution of content. In the past, there were corporate champions of fair use selling hardware (the old Sony), but now there are none with significant resources. Consumers have definitely harmed by a shift to an entirely one-sided treatment of copyright and content rights. How about an anti-trust rule preventing content companies from making hardware?
How long until Google gets hit with an anti-competitive law suit for offering everything for free and driving everyone else out of business? Don't think it can happen? It will eventually... offering everything for free is the same as severely undercutting everyone else and driving them out of business. Not saying that Google is trying to do that, but anti-competitive suits are hard to prove definitively either way
Google would need to be providing services at a loss to be considered anti-competitive.
I've never understood this aspect of monopoly law. It's not like Google is using magic to do all of this. They've obviously found a business model that allows them to provide all these services at no cost to the user without losing money. That's not anti-competitive, that's just intelligent.
@Hurricane >> "They've obviously found a business model that allows them to provide all these services at no cost to the user without losing money. That's not anti-competitive, that's just intelligent."
So true. Maybe TomTom will realize that people would have been happier using a free ad-supported app than pay a couple hundred dollars for a hardware/software solution.
Although the hardware with the extra GPS module might work better... you can't compete with free in many people's minds...
Doh!! Sorry, replied to the wroong person. Here's what I wrote:
But, how do you know they aren't providing it at a loss. They are taking the revenue from their search engine and subsidizing these other "sub industries" or even buying them outright. They've been doing that all along. MS has done it. Look how long it's taken for youtube to be profitable. I don't know what youtube is currently doing, but in the past it use to bleed them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Finally, I'm not an economic law historian but I do know anti-competitive laws / moods have changed over the decades. Companies that would be considered monopolies in the past may not be so presently. Right now, it's about not stifling innovation or harming the end consumer. That's google. But I can see the lawyers and spin doctors spinning this aspect differently.
Anyways guess is the next flavor of anti-competitive clause will be targetting companies that echo all the past sentiments of what constitutes a monopoly with something new. And that new thing? My guess is preventing companies from becoming "too big to fail". I think that will be google.
Just wondering...
A quick glance at their page on Wikipedia will show you all the financial info that proves that, in the end, they're making a profit.
@Hurricane, What page are you looking at at Wikipedia? Here's what I read
"In March 2008, YouTube's bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately US$1 million a day."
"In June 2008 a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at US$200 million, noting progress in advertising sales."
So that's $365million dollars a year, and $200 dollars in revenue. That would be a net loss, according to wikipedia.
Here's what the chief financial officer had to say about youtube just last summer (2009):
Patrick Pichette said, "in the not long, too-long-distant future, we actually see a very profitable and good business for us,"
So it hasn't even been profitable up to the year 2009. And has been bleeding money ever since.
Anyways, Hurricane, it's no secret in the business world that google get it's main source of revenue from the online ads in it's traditional search engine, most everything else that Google does barely makes them a profit or is subsidized by their original business. In fact, that is one of the biggest complaints investors have about Google, that Google hasn't found a way --yet-- of making profit in other ways. This is the business model that you are talking about. I think it's definitely "spinnable" that Google can be slapped with an anti-competitive suit. Note, I said "spinnable" whether it's "truly" deserving or not, is another matter.
weird i work right around there...
In the ghetto. That's a hardcore neighborhood.
Ha, yea I recognized that place on the map too. I love The Hideout!!
I go by that area every day, but I've never been to The Hideout. I'll have to check it out sometime.
Where's Wabansia?
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this what the Palm Pre has. My Pre has turn by turn directions using the built in GPS. It's free and built in with no stupid ads.
That's the glory of Sprint my friend!
You sort-of pay for it via Sprint's data plan which includes turn by turn. Att just wants more money by charging people monthly for something that should be a one time cost for the app and maybe additional money if you want the maps updated.
That's probably Sprint Nav, which is powered by TeleNav.
Hmmm...seems to be Bucktown, Chicago! I live in that neighbourhood.
Me too, off North and Western.
It's not Bucktown, the Hideout is in the Industrial Corridor between Bucktown and Lincoln Park. It's weird, Engadget has a lot of Chicago stuff on here. And they seem to be little tech hipsters, too. The Hideout is just that!
I'm just shocked that the image shows full bars in Chicago...thats gotta be photoshop'd...
That's the glory of Verizon !
Nokia phones have this too, mainly their navigator range. It's about time - I don't have a GPS device except my WinMo phone, and google maps on it is useless for driving. A WinMo version of this app would be wonderful, as long as it has all the areas I'm used to (google have remarkably good coverage of the Isle of Man, which is where I live). I can live with ads for it being free, or a small premium for it because it will no doubt be a lot less than any other GPS system.
Yeah, I have refused to pay for the turn by turn service on the ifone, so if El Goog makes a free app is it banned on the iPhone because its a competing service ala Google Voice? Re-read the article and sure seems like it'll be available on the iPhone
Same conclusion from Android And Me
http://androidandme.com/2009/10/news/google-navigator-for-android-only-a-matter-of-time/
What did I just drop $120 for, again?
Dont they just need to ad voice to google maps?
That's not all they need to do. As TFA mentions, Google Maps uses map database licensed from other service providers, and the terms of license prevents Google from providing spoken directions in Google Maps.
Therefore, for Google to do this, they'd have to stop using 3rd party map database and build their own, which is not a simple task.
"Therefore, for Google to do this, they'd have to stop using 3rd party map database and build their own, which is not a simple task."
Google could try using data from openstreetmap.org like andnav.org did. Using navit-project.org's map file format I was able to write a mapping application for android from scratch ( 3000 lines of Java, 300 lines of C ). I have gotten the rendering time down to 2s on a G1, so I submitted the application to ADC2.
I wouldn't call that Bucktown; it's the Clybourn Corridor. (Of course, a lot of the businesses in the area like to claim it's Lincoln Park...) I totally love the concept of getting directions to the hideout from your GPS, though; it pretty much scuttles the "if you don't know where we are, you don't belong here" ethos that the place maintains -- or at least used to maintain. Great combination of live music in the back, bar in the front, beer garden outside with hideously ugly factory neighborhood ambiance, and art everywhere, though.
Just trying to give a little shine to one of my favorite spots, you caught me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sjL3mw_mbU -- my old band playing there!
dont forget guys there is already a free java nav app for your cellphone around:
www.nav4all.com
If you read the faq, they say they may start to charge a "small annual fee"
FAQ says they may soon start to charge a "small annual fee"
Windows Mobile has had this for years more thatn 3 years now. It was called WLS (Windows Live Search) for mobile ive product and has been free since it has been released. It is now Bing Mobile of course.
by navigating to http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile or http://www.discoverbing.com/behindbing/downloads.aspx .
You can also get to a web version of this by going to http://m.bing.com from any mobile phone browser.
That's not live turn by turn is it?
Microsoft has paid spam-bots now?
This has nothing to do with a bot or SPAM. Just facts.
But I guess your SPAM Bot commenting software is working at ful tilt as well.
Anyway, back to the thread.
The fact this, this is not new. Things lkie this have been avaialble well before Microsoft or Google did this. Just no one ever knew about them.
The TomTom's. Garmin, CoPiot's or the industry have been doing this far longer and far better than any free solutions.
For virtuall all phone, computer and stand alon devices. People had / have issues with cost and convenience.
But folks wnat free, so let's talk all the options. Opinions notwithstanding at this juncture.
Other can be found using simple search on you search enigne of choice or video site of choice.
Try even----
http://www.amazegps.com
http://www.maps-gps-info.com/fgpfw.html
Options, options, options.
What a great place to live.
Count me as one of those "plenty of people" you know. I have navigation on my phone (vzw style unfortunately) but I prefer just staring at the google maps directions for a few minutes and memorizing the route. I like to think that I'm developing my ability to know how to get places by not using a nav or printed directions. Except for those long drives when I print the directions out, can't be too careful there.
Ultimately, I'm looking forward to having google maps right there for me when I get my next (android) phone so I can stare at the route without going to a computer. But chances are I'll start using nav when google does it. I'm a sucker for google, that's really the reason I use google maps over nav right now. Though doesn't the droid and other android phones have "Google turn by turn"? If so what is the difference here? Is turn by turn not real gps tracking nav?
My Palm Pre costs less than an iPhone and the (ad-free) nav is included in my plan.
good thing you have a pre and not an iphone then.
Wow. Wonder if that is now a more desirable phone by the masses.
Awesum Stuff.. this should boost up the market
My HTC Hero on Sprint comes w/ free navigation software. I think all smartphones on Sprint do. Good stuff.
Beside the excellent Gmaps (with its add ons: Panoramio, Sky,etc.) and the many augmented reality free apps (Layar, SomaView, Wikitude, etc.) Android already has turn by turn sat nav with no ads.
All it's required is to download from the android market Nav4all, Aug Satnav, amAze or another one of the many very good FREE ast nav apps available.
And since you are at it try also some other GPS apps such as Car locator, Where did I park, Show way back" etc.
Yes all of them are absolutely free, and all these and the lovely SenseUI are the main reasons why Android is far and away the best OS a guy (or a gal) can wish.
I love that Google forces free so much! I hope it really makes the traditional business model mull over how they "think" they can just line their pockets and treat customers differently based on how much they fork over.
Well this really isn't different from going on a free mobile version of a mapping site, and getting directions from there. Bing Maps for Mobile already does this for free, and I think with no ads.
It would be even nicer if you could pre-load the maps to cut costs from data connections, but most companies have been ignoring those people (those meddling kids...not paying money to cell providers).
But I guess that's just me.
I know exactly what you mean.It would be nice if you could just download a 100 mile radius around you and use that to plot directions without having to connect to a network of any kind. I wish Google would do that.
Me too.
I could use sattelite map when hiking without cell coverage.
I am not suprised. I actually thought that the Streetview cars where also mapping the streets for turn by turn. They should have great data on one way streets, speed limits, and traffic signals. I can not imagine that a company like Google would not gather that data when they where spending the money to do street view.
How is this any different than just going to a mobile version of a map service, and getting directions from there? I don't really see anything special about this. I use Bing Mobile on my phone, and it's handy and free, and gives me navigation too.
It could be nice if there were maps of your area and you wouldnt have to be connected to any kind of network to use them.
Beat me to the point.
I know that free is good... but since everything google puts out is web backed, what happens when you need directions while off your cell network? Most people won't run into this problem in day to day use but I could see quite a few trips getting screwed up very quickly (esp on AT&T :P ).
Garmins, TomToms, etc all cache the maps in local memory, until this is possible with network based gps apps I see one major flaw in them.
^^We were both beat by Karan Shah :)
In the old days all navigation software was like this on the PC. It was a normal install that saved maps for the entire US, it didn't need any sort of connection because everything was stored locally. The only reason you would need a network connection was to install an update.
Hell, Google could offer this as an iPhone/iPod Touch/Android App and just have the user select an entire city to download in advance.
Absolutly. Thta's why I have both. CoPilot 8 Live. Maps on SD, no cell connection required and Bing Mobile when I do not need an offline mode or somethig as heavy as a full GPS.
The other big issue is the consistant starring at the maps. I use CoPilot because of Voice Turn By Turn.
There has never (YET) been a free solution with voice turn by turn. and offline maps. These voices and maps have to be paid for by someone. Maps are not ceap and I am sure the folks an TomTom, Garmin, CoPilot a and others pay big dollars for this access and the rights to use the voices they include.
http://www.xatakamovil.com/aplicaciones/google-navigator-mas-cerca-de-lo-que-pensamos
GOOGLE IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!
yawn...goes back to my Palm Pre with my free tele atlus navigation.
Please let this be true!!! I'm so sick of the horrible Navteq maps that most other nav apps use! Google maps is by far the most accurate mapping data available.
yo the hideout? that place rules.
What google really needs to create is the option to download maps so that you can use the maps offline. I was in Vietnam recently and the Nokia Maps for Vietnam were basic to put it mildly. I wouldn't mind paying for that either.
Test
I hope the maps are downloadable so that the maps can be used even when 3G and WiFi signal is lost. This is currently still a big issue in Europe, where WiFi and 3G coverage are at best mediocre and that stand alone GPS use is much better. Then the iPhone will yet again be advantageous compared to the more pricy SatNavs such as Tom Tom, Navigon and CoPilot.
...and verizon will still want to charge you $10/month for the privilege of using the gps chip in your $300 phone.
I wonder if this will drive up iPhone sales. Or make it a more lucrative buy ?
Yahoo and Google are both working on free map data, Yahoo by 2010. This is largely enabled by Open Steet Maps / Open Layers, which is a high quality crowd sourced free/open source data set with mapping and turn by turn software being developed. Wake up and join the free participatory world, people.
I've never understood why turn by turn requires a subscription anyway. Is it really so much harder to do than mapping?
Love the Hideout. Hate my iPhone which is sitting in a bag of rice...
YES thatll be pretty awesome if its free. Team up a street level navigation along with streetmaps and have it pre download all images on your route to your device so you can navigate while offline and well have a winner!
I wonder how something like this would affect Canadians seeing as how in Ontario a new law took effect Monday that prevents people from using their cell phones at all while driving... interesting nonetheless.
google should make an ad-supported mmorpg that kills wow lol :P
Of course the ads would be location specific. What else would be the friggin point? Also, Win MObile has bing and live maps, google aint coming to them anytime soon toots.