How does GoogleMaps and Live Search Maps make money?

rasmasyean · #1 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 02:34 AM

I don’t see any ads on these small screens or know where they can possible put them in the future.
I imagine they have to buy maps and satellite images and even traffic data (unless this is a public service), because even GPS providers often charge for these. And Live Search’s directory information seems like it’s something that just comes from a public yellow pages or something and movies listing. How do they get gas prices though? Do stations pay Microsoft to list them? The only thing I can think of that Microsoft makes money on this App IF you use “personal” collections, you will prolly go to their big Live Search to update it and they can show you ads there. But why does Google make this?

Is this like a “free service” that doesn’t cost much to maintain and large firms just want to use it to make you think of them the next time you buy or use software?

**No1ustad** · #2 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 05:48 AM

i know traffic is public info as far as my area is concerned..

k_semler · #3 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 06:18 AM

They probably pull down fuel prices via GasBuddy.com

**nuguy** · #4 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 07:16 AM

Well, as a business owner, I make sure my stores info is in their database so my ppc brethren can find me. One day I may even pay to upgrade their services.

**rstoyguy** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 07:53 AM

My vote is for advertising. That and googlemaps parent company is google.com, and livesearch.com is Micro$oft. Lots of money in them two parent companies...

**darren.wlsn1** · #6 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rstoyguy

My vote is for advertising. That and googlemaps parent company is google.com, and livesearch.com is Micro$oft. Lots of money in them two parent companies...

big +1, thats where its at.

zero157h7 · #7 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 01:55 PM

Yeah it is not so much the advertising that you see on the device as it is they want to saturate your mind with services from their company and get you hooked on all of their services, and I must say google is doing a fine job of this on me. I would not use google search for a long time because it seemed to be the popular thing to do and I have a strong counter culture side to me, but one day I tried it and after doing it a few times and Yahoo's search not giving me results that I liked as much as google, I changed.

Then I changed to gmail for unlimited inbox and now I use calendar, contacts, and every other service they offer.

(I hear yahoo's search has gotten better.)

**lawmangrant** · #8 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 02:20 PM

My money is on advertising!

bryn987 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darren.wlsn1

big +1, thats where its at.

agreed. They want everyone hooked on their services which will lead to advertising revenue.

Just think, a Touch HD using Android with seamless push gmail, google maps, youtube/flash support, google docs, google instant message etc etc, they will grab a ton of market share that will be using their search full of ads

Kamokazi · #10 (**permalink**) 02-25-2009, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zero157h7

I would not use google search for a long time because it seemed to be the popular thing to do

Haha, when I started using Google the opposite was true...I used Google because it was this new thing no one had heard about yet, and everyone was using Yahoo, Hotbot, Lycos, Alta Vista, etc.

That, and the results were infinitely better. Searching used to be a process of hitting up a couple search engines first, Yahoo was the best, putting the most relevant results up top, but more obscure topics wouldnt not yield anything useful..so then you would try a couple others like Lycos or Excite, and if those were still giving you trouble, you went to Alta Vista, which gave you EVERYTHING but somtimes took 10+ pages to find what you wanted.

But anyway, to the topic, it is all about saturating you with their services...they do probably get *some* money from results on your mobile, but they bank on you coming back to their desktop counterparts and really raking in the ad revenue for them there.