Apple Prepares To Add Search Ads To Apple Maps
- Reference: 0181087882
- News link: https://search.slashdot.org/story/26/03/23/1839224/apple-prepares-to-add-search-ads-to-apple-maps
- Source link:
> Apple will make an announcement as soon as March. This will bring ads to search queries within the navigation app, which will operate similar to Google's advertising system. Retailers and brands will be able to bid for ad spots located against search queries for specific terms, such as types of food or services. The winning bid will be able to show an ad at the top of the results, pointing to a related location for that business.
Apple also [3]announced in January that it would add more ads within the App Store, starting March in the UK and Japan.
[1] https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/03/23/apple-prepares-to-add-search-ads-to-apple-maps
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-23/apple-is-set-to-add-search-advertising-to-maps-in-services-push
[3] https://www.macworld.com/article/3041228/get-ready-for-more-ads-in-the-app-store.html
Are maps really just maps anymore? (Score:2)
You use the map, and have to ignore all the little dots that are really just retail store advertisements. On some maps they look like other points of interest and you don't realize you just clicked a retail dot instead of say a traffic camera dot.
Sure there aren't many of those dots right now, but they will multiply just like ads and bots on the general internet. One day you will see an option to turn off roadways so you can focus on the retail dots that want your money.
Re: Are maps really just maps anymore? (Score:2)
Depends on the map. If you really want you can use OSM. But it will be missing things you would expect...
Re: (Score:3)
Missing things like accuracy. It appears someone thought my neighbor's driveway down the road was a through street from the dead end back onto a highway. UPS uses it that way, but it is wrong. That is also what the neighbor gets for connecting the driveway to both sides, they shouldn't be using the dead end as it requires an easement they don't have.
Re: Are maps really just maps anymore? (Score:2)
I've had problems like this with Google. Where I used to live in lake county CA it thought a road which ended in a creek and used to have a PRIVATE bridge over it went through to another road.
Re: (Score:2)
> You use the map, and have to ignore all the little dots that are really just retail store advertisements. On some maps they look like other points of interest and you don't realize you just clicked a retail dot instead of say a traffic camera dot. Sure there aren't many of those dots right now, but they will multiply just like ads and bots on the general internet. One day you will see an option to turn off roadways so you can focus on the retail dots that want your money.
The dots, more often than not, are landmarks. If one clicks on them, then one sees which business is at that location, and maybe the page for that business. In Google Maps, I'll grant that they are intrusive. Let's say I sat and ate at a Burger King, I sometimes might get a Maps notification asking me to rate that Burger King, since I obviously spent some time there (which it knows thanks to its spying)
Generally, if I'm new to a place and looking for something, I do find the dots useful. Of course, if
Re: Are maps really just maps anymore? (Score:2)
You can turn off tracking, and it will stop that, but then you don't get location history.
Gross. Fuck this. (Score:2)
What more is there to say?
Will this lead to a premium ad-free service? (Score:2)
because I’d pay for it. Grudgingly.
Some ads are useful (Score:3)
If a map service wants to take payment to make a business show on their map, that's fine. Good, even.
It's when that payment makes the business show on the map regardless of whether it's the class of business you're looking for or not that it gets to be a problem.
I don't need to know where the nearest coffee shop is when I'm searching for a gas station, nor do I need to know where Applebee's is when I ask about McD's. Those additional markers make the map less useful because they make it less clear.
Re: (Score:3)
> If a map service wants to take payment to make a business show on their map, that's fine. Good, even.
I disagree. Look no further than what Yelp does to see this is a terrible business model for the consumer and the businesses. It's only good for the tech company.
You have to pay Yelp $250+ a month so that competitors ads don't show on your page and that you are listed #1 for your own brand name. If someone is searching for you and you don't pay, you may be #7 on the list for your own brand name. It's mafia tactics.
Re: Some ads are useful (Score:1)
I am sure if you were starving you could pick a few kernels of corn out of a turd too
Apple Maps (Score:2)
[1]Now even worse. [apple.com]
[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/11/introducing-iphone-pocket-a-beautiful-way-to-wear-and-carry-iphone/
Remember this when smartphones are replaced. (Score:2)
When Musk, Apple, Google, Meta, etc all have their analogue of NeuraLink (which Apple could conceivably brand an the iThink), remember this day when you ponder whether to get the new whizbang tech implant into your brain, because for the first few years it might seem like the pros outweigh the cons, but then the company updates terms of service to force advertisements injected into your brain against your will, or at least against what you intended when you got the implant a few years earlier and now must v
remove Apple Maps (Score:2)
Install Organic Maps, download only what you need for your locale and Organic Maps even works offline so if you lose cellular data it will still work
Re: (Score:2)
How will it work if you lose cellular data? It'll need to know your location in order to direct you to where you're headed, and for that, it'll need cellular data. If you're starting from home, maybe you don't need cellular data then , but as you get out of range of any known hotspot, you'll now start needing it
Re: remove Apple Maps (Score:2)
All phones have GPS now, what year do you think it is?
opportunity - ad blocker for this sh*t (Score:2)
Seriously. Also Drone Nuker would be a very good business model right about now.
Funny as hell (Score:3)
McDonalds? Try Burger king instead. Are you sure? Y/N. What if we gave you 10% off? Y/N ? Press the invisible [x] to close this window.
Enshitification knows no limits. (Score:2)
Even at [cr]Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
i wish sj were alive.
Re: Enshitification knows no limits. (Score:3)
Why, so he could explain how this is a service to users and the RDF would make them believe it?
Re: (Score:2)
> Why, so he could explain how this is a service to users and the RDF would make them believe it?
Agreed - this was the guy that said "freedom from prom", which translates to "freedom from choice".
Re: (Score:2)
If Apple too is going to monetize our data, why go to them? When Google does it for much less! Also, if Apple is going to monetize our data, maybe they should bump up the free iCloud quota that we get from 5GB to 50GB?