Google Maps to get ads

They know where you are and where you have been but now, with the help of internet mapping technology, advertisers are trying to predict what you want.

In the coming weeks Google will put logos for fast food chains, coffee shops, hotels and travel agents on its popular maps site.

While symbols for schools, train stations and even speed cameras are usually always visible on online maps, advertising has been kept to a minimum for fear of irritating users.

But as pressure builds on media owners to ''monetise'' their key assets, advertising has become inevitable.

Google confirmed it would begin ''the experiment'' shortly but declined to name the participating companies or to say whether company logos would be shown in response to a user's query and subsequently plotted along a route, or if they would remain live on the site permanently.

Google has built a global empire off the back of providing answers and selling advertising against it. In Australia it gets an estimated 90 per cent of the A$700 million spent each year by companies buying popular terms entered into Google's search engine.

- © Fairfax NZ News