Nokia has previously instituted advertising on the web version of here.com, but the service is also available on Microsoft's mobile OS. Nokia is now evidently moving to mobile to provide relevant adverts in search results, presenting users with related companies or points of interest. It's non-intrusive advertising with some decent functionality to offer, but users are are mixed on the idea.
Read on for all of the details.
HERE's Pino Bonetti has confirmed the introduction of advertisements over on our community forum:
"After rolling out advertisements (e.g. with Groupon) on here.com, we are introducing them on Windows Phone 8 apps too. In the specific case of HERE Maps, we are displaying locally relevant ads in search results and nearby places [...] if you want to see what their offer is all about, you can click on the banner to open the browser."
The question many appear to be asking is, "is Nokia right to do so?" Some of our own readers are questioning the implementation of advertising in a product that they feel they've paid for through the pricing of the Windows Phone itself (HERE is marketed as part of the feature set).
Personally, while it's true that Nokia offers HERE as part of the overall Lumia experience, it's an external service and I'm not actually fussed whether Nokia chooses to serve me relevant adverts or not. Nokia also isn't be the first company to push advertising on a service, as Google often does the same.
The advertising – whilst we've not experienced it ourselves as of yet – appears to be non-intrusive and limited in nature. There aren't adverts for games, dating websites or credit card companies. instead, these are local, relevant adverts that could prove to be rather useful. HERE is free to use, and I don't really see how some light advertising will affect the services in a negative way.
But should there be an option to purchase a subscription to remove advertising? It's a possible route, but offering HERE as a free service to Windows Phone owners with all the bells and whistles is something we're sure many of us enjoy, even if there is an advert here and there.
Have you experienced any advertisements when using the HERE services on your Windows Phone? If so, let us know in the comments and be sure to add your input in the thread on our forum.
Thanks, unstoppablekem, for the tip!
