Google Maps is one of Google’s more popular services and for good reason. Not only is Google Maps very detailed and useful with turn-by-turn navigation services, traffic updates, and more, but it is also free and free of ads. This means that users can use the service without worrying that ads might pop up and get in the way.However that could change in the future, assuming that Google’s CEO’s words are anything to go by. Speaking to a Wall Street analyst who inquired about Google possibly turning Maps into a moneymaker, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai replied by saying, “I’m sure you have noticed changes in Google Maps with the last few months.”
“If you open Google Maps, you’re traveling or out on a Friday evening, we start surfacing a lot more info about what you can do, places to eat and so on. So those are beginning to get good feedback from users and I think that gives us an opportunity to add value there overtime as well.”
Pichai wasn’t explicit about saying that ads will be coming, but some have interpreted his words to mean just that. Exactly how these ads might surface remains to be seen. It could come in the form of suggested locations that pop up when you are searching around the area, or maybe it could be similar to how Google is serving ads up in search results, but either way we’ll just have to wait and see, but hopefully if and when ads do come to Google Maps, it won’t be intrusive.
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