Google Maps Gone Commercial!

When it first released, one of Gmail's ground-breaking features was the text-only advertisements. For such a versatile and free email client, text-only ads are definitely worth it. They don't increase page loading times, they're not flashy or obtrusive like good old days of Hotmail and Go (my first email address was k_quantus@go.com), and the fact that they're customized to each email sometimes turns out to be useful.

However, while searching for the location of the MoMA yesterday, I noticed something interesting as I zoomed in on my location:
The ingenious bastards had snuck ads into Google Maps as well! At first I saw the Museum of Modern Art and Rockefeller Center labelled, and I figured, okay, a nonprofit organization and a NYC icon make sense. But once I saw the Hilton and Tiffany & Co, I knew those had to be paid advertisements.

I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, but if at a fully-zoomed in map of Manhattan (as dense as the streets get), those little ads aren't doing any harm, I can't see why not. If anything, they are helpful, because knowing the location of your destination in relation to a city landmark (aka Rockefeller Center) can only help in finding it. However, I do hope Google doesn't get greedy and increase the density of their ads, because then it can be problematic.