Google guides users to more than their destination

SAN FRANCISCO >> You might start seeing more ads when getting directions from Google’s popular mapping service.

The ads, called “promoted pins,” will highlight restaurants and other merchants located along your way. They’ll show up inside the directions map as Google routes you to your destination.

Google has displayed text ads alongside its online maps for several years. But the change announced last week marks the first time the Internet company has inserted the equivalent of a digital billboard into the directions map itself.

Google Maps boasts more than 1 billion users worldwide, but not everyone will see the new ads right away.

Google says it will tailor the new ads to your interests based on what it’s learned from past search requests and other activities on its services.

Coffee lovers might see a promoted pin offering a discounted drink from a Starbucks along their route.

The new ads are part of Google’s effort to make more money for its parent company, Alphabet Inc. People increasingly rely on their smartphones instead of their desktop computers to inform and entertain themselves, pushing Google to invent new “mobile-friendly” ads that work on small screens.