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Comment by dizhn | Hacker News Reader

I am kind of surprised none of the navigation apps divert your course slightly to pass in front of a large store or something yet. It could even announce the place. "On your right is such and such store where using the code Maps will give you a 10 percent discount."

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You could actually package this up in a way that people would find palatable.

What if maps only took you to places where you have a loyalty card - or the places that currently have discounts on things in your shopping list.

Give it the right marketing spin and people would love it.

I can imagine Margrethe Vestager will start flexing her regulation muscles the minute Google even thinks about it.

Google Maps (and even more so Waze which they own) already had partnerships with various brands - for example, type McDonalds into Google Maps (at least in the UK) and it has the M logo next to "see locations" as soon as you've typed Mc - so it's not such a huge stretch as you think it would be.

I'm grateful they started doing this sort of thing. It was what got me to finally stop using Google Maps.

What’s the alternative?

This isn't a "partnership", it's an option for anyone who has purchased a Local Campaign product on Google Ads.

Despite not being privy to the details, I am familiar enough with this sort of marketing to be extremely confident that Google and McDonalds (and other big brands) did indeed negotiate specific terms including promotion of McDonalds locations beyond what is available to typical Google customers, rather than a McDonalds marketing manager just logging in and setting up some local campaigns.

I'm sure you're right, but that doesn't change the fact that "logos on Google Maps" =! "partnership"

Waze does this, or at least it did a few years ago when I used it. I remember being stopped at a light, and it told me there was a Taco Bell or Jack in the Box, or something within X feet, a coupon for some kind of discount if I go there, and a button to navigate me to it.

"And weren't you searching for something like this on your laptop yesterday?"

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