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Thought you were safe from Google ads in Maps? Not anymore!

Google Sponsored Listings have started to appear within the Maps application installed on every iPhone and iPod touch device. These paid listings appear alongside organic results when user’s perform relevant searches, helping local customers find appropriate businesses from their mobile phone. PM Digital is working on getting more details on the specifics of this new program and how it relates to Google’s Local Business Ads program.

Sponsored listings appear both in the map view and list view after a user performs a search. In the Map view, sponsored listings use a custom pushpin icon rather than the traditional red one used for search results. Also, these paid listings are labeled “Sponsored Link” beneath the business name. In the List view of the search results, paid listings are shaded yellow as they are in Google search results, with the favicon-like graphic used in the pushpin also present. Our testing has found sponsored listings to appear at the top and bottom of search results. [via]

Maybe thats why Apple bought their own mapping company.

Thoughts?