Mark Gurman of Bloomberg previously claimed that Apple into its Amps app as soon as this year. He has made the claim again recently, this time with narrower windows as to when things are happening. And according to the report, the announcement could happen as soon as this month. Actual implementation has been narrowed down to as early as this summer – which starts in late June – on the iPhones and other devices, in addition to the web.
The report cites sources who claim that it would work similarly to ads in Google Maps. As in, retailers and brands can bid for ad slots against search queries. Then, when a user enters a search term, the ad for the location of the highest bidder will then appear at the top of the results. Which can leads to problems, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Ads To Appear Above Search Results
It should come as no surprise that the decision to do so is ultimately a business one. The report mentions that “the increased ad revenue will bolster a services business that already generates more than US$100 billion a year for Apple. The operation now accounts for more than a quarter of the company’s sales, up from less than 10% a decade ago”. Also cited is an Emarketer report that says “Apple’s advertising division remains relatively small but should generate about US$8.5 million this year”.
Which is all well and good, but the user experience would definitely need improvement if Apple truly intends to put ads above search results as Google Maps does. As it is with the latter, it can sometimes be difficult to determine where the ads end and results begin. This is especially during searches where you don’t have a precise address, or the address you have doesn’t match the one registered in the Maps app. Which can, in turn, lead to accidents like navigating to the location of the ad rather than where you actually intended to go.
(Source: Bloomberg)
