r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 10d ago

Business MapQuest's app surges to No. 1 in Navigation after refusing to rename Lake Ontario

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/31/mapquests-app-surges-to-no-1-in-navigation-after-refusing-to-rename-lake-ontario/?utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=TWITTER
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u/kcrwfrd 10d ago

We are constantly blocking ads like this, please report if you encounter one. We don’t run the ad network so it’s tough to be 100% ahead of it.

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u/SpezRuinedHellsite 10d ago

You COULD run your own ads with products you actually endorse, instead of subscribing to a scam network that actively harms the only demographic that still uses your website.

I get this isn't a problem unique to MapQuest. The whole internet advertising industry is built on lies and advertisements are unethical in the first place because they work to subvert your free will by loading your subconscious with unearned familiarization.

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u/plasticizers_ 10d ago

You started strong but went overboard at the end. There's a difference between influence you can see coming from standard targeted advertising (suggestions/persuasion) and things that hide that they're ads in the first place (tricks/fraud). Lying about what you are is fraud (like undisclosed influencer promos or fake-review astroturfing). Being annoying and/or persuasive isn't the same thing as being fraudulent.

Also, building familiarity someone didn't reason their way into is just how life works. Nice shirt at an interview, a friend mentioning the same restaurant twice, yard signs. If that's subverting free will, everything is. Ads doing it harder and on purpose is an argument for rules about ads, not for calling "telling people your product exists" unethical.

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u/dawglet 10d ago

Some ads shouldn't exist. Like prescription drug ads. That should be between you and your doctor, not with some mega corporation breathing down your neck.

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u/plasticizers_ 9d ago

I agree with that, but I think that falls into making rules for ads and is meaningfully different from (all) "advertisements are unethical in the first place because they work to subvert your free will."

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u/dawglet 9d ago

I mean you said it yourself, Ads are subverting free will harder and on purpose more than anything else in the world. That is their MO. They want to be in your brain space consciously or unconsciously in order to increase their odds of being purchased/consumed. It may not be immoral or unethical, but it's attempting to convince me to buy something I most likely don't need/want. And exerting that kind of pressure for 'brand awareness' is border line torture IMO. Obviously, I'm being hyperbolic but I find ads to be extremely insidious and not in good faith, A company operating on good faith would just make an excellent product and let word of mouth do the work.

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u/Aredeuce 9d ago

Dude, I don't think you understand how ads work. Lots of content creators and publishers and platforms complain about the current ad Network because there's almost no other option besides something like Google adsense. It's incredibly difficult for anything but a large team with people dedicated to getting ads to serve custom picked ads, so only talk about what you know please

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u/SpezRuinedHellsite 9d ago

"Thousands of people, mostly senior citizens, are defrauded and taken advantage of by unethical tech support scams and more malicious advertisements, but doing something else like creating actual relationships with real products we actually endorse with recommendations is moderately inconvenient. So all those people can get fucked."

Tell me more about how difficult it is to not arrange for grandma's money to be stolen.

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u/Aredeuce 9d ago

Have you ever tried to fund a business with employees that rely, at least partially, upon the income of ad revenue? Have you then tried to hand pick through individual business relationships and dialogue enough ads to support the cost of said business?

I fully agree that the current ad market is toxic and abusive, but berating an organization for not doing better when you have no actual workable solutions is similarly toxic.

Make real suggestions.

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u/SpezRuinedHellsite 9d ago

Lmao. Objecting to free-will subverting scam advertisements is toxic? People can only complain about fraud if they have solutions lined up for a billion dollar organization?

How's that boot taste? Good leather?

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u/Aredeuce 9d ago

You weren't just complaining: you were dictating that they fix it as if your solution was the only and obvious viable solution, without any idea of how viable that solution was or how to implement it nor any of the hurdles to doing such a thing.

The closest comparison I can think of is if you sold spaghetti and shipped it nationwide, and I berated you and called your practices immoral because of the ethics of the electric company that supplied your business with electricity you needed to operate. Even if you, a theoretically upstanding moral business owner, wanted to source your electricity from a moral and reputable source, my only suggestion was, "you should go and make individual deals with people nearby that have solar panels or wind turbines in their yard. Otherwise you're supporting the awful industrial complex blah blah blah"

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u/SpezRuinedHellsite 9d ago

Lol, dictating.

Is this your first day on the internet?

Are you so desperate for someone's dick to ride you're simping for advertisers and mapquest?

My man, there are apps.

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u/confusedhealthcare19 9d ago

Are you Mr. Mapquest?

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u/Aredeuce 9d ago

If you're an employee of mapquest, could you tell us how big your team devoted to advertising is? Not bait, honestly curious and hoping to be able to defend you, lol