Per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has begun “exploring” the idea of showing search ads in its Apple Maps app.
Back in 2022, Gurman said software engineering was “already underway” to display ads in the Apple Maps app, but Apple did not move forward with the idea at the time. On Sunday, he said Apple is “giving this notion more thought” again.
Gurman stated that Apple has yet to start the engineering work for this feature, so ads in the Apple Map app could still be a good ways off.
The ads themselves wouldn’t be the traditional banner ads seen on websites, but rather paid search results. In one case, a fast food chain could pay Apple to appear near the top of the results when a user searches for “burgers” or “fries.” Many similar apps already offer search ads, including Google Maps, Waze, and Yelp.
Apple already displays search ads in the App Store, allowing developers to pay to promote their apps to users who search for relevant keywords.
The ads themselves would provide additional income for Apple’s services revenue.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.