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Google is showing ads in search suggestions on the Play Store. Several users have reported seeing ads for apps and games in the suggestions field when trying to search for something. The company has been laying the groundwork for this at least since November last year.
When Google first added ads to the Play Store search menu, it described them as an “organic discovery feature”. The company said apps that appear in suggestions aren’t paid ads but instead proactive recommendations for users. These apps have “major updates, ongoing events, or offers” that you may be interested in. Google wanted to highlight them at an opportune time when users might be about to search for them anyway.
However, things have changed lately. Those app recommendations in the Play Store search menu no longer appear to be “organic” suggestions. Instead, they seem like paid ads. That’s because the recommendations are explicitly labeled as an “Ad”. Not all of them, but some are certainly ads. By some, we mean those that carry the “ad” label. Others are probably organic suggestions as Google originally described them.
Coinciding with this change, the suggested apps also now come with more information. Google is showing everything from the publisher name to Play Store ratings and total installations. During the initial test run in November, it only showed the title. The amount of information shown doesn’t change between suggestions labeled as an ad and the proactive organic recommendations.
Google may be starting a wide rollout of ads in Play Store search suggestions
As of this writing, Google hasn’t officially announced that it is showing ads in Play Store search suggestions, and neither has a company spokesperson responded to media reports. However, several users have confirmed seeing the ads over the past few days. It appears Google is starting a wide rollout of the feature that it has been testing under a different label for a few months now.
While many may lament Google for filling the Play Store with ads, it isn’t a surprising decision from a company that makes a large chunk of its money from the ad business. Perhaps the internet biggie is adding a new revenue stream to the Play Store to cover some of the losses it has suffered from the forced including of third-party billing systems in some regions. If that’s the plan, ads in Play Store search suggestions may soon roll out globally.
