Is it just me, or has the pin density on Google Maps been upped considerably? Take a look at the following image, centered on the I-540 / I-40 interchange here in Raleigh:

There must be close to 50 or more pins in this (fairly zoomed out) view. The vast majority of these pins are places I've either never visited or don't care about. Maybe this is a way that places can "advertise" with Google? I would argue that this density of pins makes the map incredibly hard to read. I feel as though Google Maps used to be way less busy than this.