Google Local Selling Ads on Maps

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Of course, you may not be able to find them. Sites like PC World and Ars Technica have been running stories about this, but when I tried the examples, and entered them into Google Local, I received the normal display … no extra ads. Not just me, though. Ars Technica indicated this has been their experience as well. In fact, they tried a query once, got results with ads, tried it again … nothing.

For some searches such as “booksellers nyc” or “chicago ralph lauren”, the Local results map may show little icons for paid ads related to your search. For instance, the “booksellers” example can bring up little coffee cups, representing Barnes & Noble stores, and clicking on the icon then brings up the familiar balloon Google map results have sported for a long time, only this time the B&N logo gets a nice front-and-center presentation in the information bubble.

Now, I said that you may see these icons on your map. The bookstore example never worked for me, and when I then tried Ralph Lauren in Chicago again, the books were gone. Source: Ars Technica

We Say: Can’t … escape … the … ads … Yeah, you read right, books for the Ralph Lauren query. The Ars writer couldn’t figure it out either. On the other hand, I never had any query display ads for me.