New Google Maps ads will drop branded pins on your search results

Yes, Google builds plenty of useful and fun products, but don't ever forget -- the company is first and foremost an advertising business. As such, today the company is announcing a number of updates to its various advertising products to help brands do a better job at reaching the billion-plus people using Google's core services like search, Gmail and Maps.

The change that'll probably be most noticeable to Google's end users comes to Maps, a particularly valuable product for the company -- Google says that nearly a third of all mobile searches are related to specific locations, and lots of those searches likely end up with the user in Google Maps. So now, when you're looking at Google Maps on your phone, you'll see the occasional "branded pin." It's similar to the red pin that shows up when you do a search, but it contains a brand's logo right in it. These will show up when you're looking at a map or looking at the navigation view in Google Maps.

Google is also offering brands and advertisers more customizable product pages within Google Maps itself. If you tab through to an advertising business's detail page, you'll be able to search a store's local inventory or redeem special offers (if the store chooses to offer those options, that is). During a press briefing, we saw a Best Buy that offered 10 percent off iPhone accessories and a Starbucks that offered a dollar off your drink when you tapped through to the specific location details.

Obviously, none of us really want more ads in our products, but it's an inevitability when dealing with Google. And there are worse things than having the option to save a few bucks if you need to hit a big-box store or chain. Hopefully Google and advertisers will exercise some restraint when using this tool, which will start popping up on iOS and Android over the coming months.