According to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is once again considering monetizing its Maps app with search ads. The company already does this with its News and Stocks apps. The goal is to boost its in-house advertising business.
This isn’t the first time Apple has looked into this idea. Gurman reports that Apple looked into integrated search ads a couple years ago, where companies could pay for more favorable search ranking:
A few years ago, Apple employees explored integrating search ads into its Maps apps. It would work similarly to Google Maps, where a business could pay Apple to have their restaurant or venue appear higher in search results.
Source: Gurman: Apple ’exploring’ search advertising in Apple Maps – 9to5Mac