Google Maps location-sensitive ads?
4555 University Avenue is not Poway Test Only, it’s Dan’s Smog Check.
I recently had my car smogged, and when I used Google Maps to get directions from where I’d be to where I normally go so as to find the best highway exit to use, Google provided an ad for a competing smog check test-only location! I didn’t search on the name Dan’s Smog Check Station, I just typed in the address from the business card I got from them two years ago.1
It could have been random; I just now asked for directions to a luggage store and got an appliance ad, which doesn’t make sense; but directions to a record store’s address brought me an ad to go to a digital sound design school. The record store’s name has “record” in it (Record City in San Diego). On the other hand, it’s not nearly as specific of a placement as one test-only smog check station advertising under the address of another test-only smog check station.
Dan’s Smog Check Station was recommended to me years ago by my mechanic. I think the smog check system as it currently stands in California is pointless except as one more fee for driving (ten percent of my driving this year was for the purpose of getting my car smogged), but Dan’s has been a pleasant part of the process.
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