If you hate ads with a vengeance, prepare to be royally annoyed because according to a report from 9to5Mac, it seems that search ads have started to make an appearance on the iTunes App Store. This is a feature that Apple announced not too long ago, and it seems that they are finally starting to show up for users in the US.
As you can see in the screenshot above, basically search ads are an attempt to display ads for apps that are similar to apps that you are searching for. By default the iTunes App Store search already displays similar apps or apps that share keywords in the search results, but by buying ads, it more or less guarantees developers that their apps will show up.
Apparently the idea behind search ads (besides being another source of revenue for Apple) is that it will allow small time developers to have their apps show up alongside bigger name apps, thus giving them a better chance of competing. We’re not sure if that theory will work out unless you’re just searching for very generic terms, like “note taking” or “finance” or “weather”.
In any case thankfully the ads don’t appear to be too invasive or annoying since they pretty much just appear as a regular app in the search results, and hopefully it will stay that way for the foreseeable future!