I saw this in TC and have not seen it myself, but I will keep an eye out over the weekend.  Basically, you could have a ad for beer or a bike shop or something based on the search.  Also, it SEEMS uses can inject items into maps, but I think its more of where an item on the map came from.

This could turn iphone google maps into a type of yelp I guess, and that may not be so bad, but my fear is when I search, say, sports bar, or car repair, I will get more ads then links to places I want to see.

What bothers me is there  is no way to turn this off!  THAT is the major issue here. Still its early.  We’ll see how this pans out.