More ad opportunities via Google

Bloggers across the world have noticed text ads appearing at the bottom of Google Maps. I tried a search for my local city of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island and sure enough, an ad for the Crowne Plaza hotel was displayed at the bottom of the map. After refreshing the map, a different text ad appeared, this time for the local annual Cup and Show week.

The one-line text ads don't appear to be linked in to the main map with an icon. What appears to be missing is a push-pin or logo to locate the business to which the ad refers. Instead the text link refers the user to the business website, opening it in a separate window.

However, adding a location pin would be difficult for, say, the ad for the Cup and Show week displayed on my local search as this is an event, not a business, although I suppose the location could be one of the venues, such as the racecourse.

Alongside the text ad is a set of arrows which allow users to scroll along to more text ads. These are not yet apparent on all text ad links.

With over 130 million unique visitors to Google Maps in August alone (comScore), it seems Google is turning on the ad taps as fast as possible to create, as Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch put it "a gusher of ad inventory".

As yet, there has been no official announcement from Google.

Tags: ad inventory, Google Maps, local business, search advertising, text ads