Venture Beat noticed that the Urbanspoon iPhone app has what looks like Google AdSense ads on them. I immediately downloaded the Urbanspoon app and went to a restaurant review and saw a similar ad. Here is a screen capture:

I am pointing to the small lowercase G, which looks much like Google’s second favicon, which they changed in January.

I would not be surprised if Google was testing some type of ad platform that works in mobile Safari and iPhone apps. It does appear that the Urbanspoon review pages are using mobile Safari. So technically, it isn’t necessarily an ad in an iPhone app, but an ad in mobile Safari. That being said, ads in mobile Safari would be easier to integrate for developers.

I have emailed Google for a comment about this and I will update this story when I hear more information.

What happens when you click on the ad? You are taken to a mobile version of the Pizza Hut site:

Related Topics: Google: AdSense | Top News

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz