Are Google Maps Street View Ads that unlikely?
Sep 27, 2007 Google Adwords
If you haven’t done so in a while, I urge you to check out Google Maps, and click on the “Street View” button that appears on a few select cities such as San Francisco. What Google has done here is quite simply remarkable - serve up recent street-level 360 degree views of a city. As fantastic as this may be, I’ll admit it’s old news, but keep in mind that Google is working on enhancing local business ads, including paid ads. The possibilities for “Street View” are endless, but one is closer than you might think.
In a recent conversation with a few Googlers, I more or less dismissed a joking comment regarding placing Adwords ads OVER real billboard ads in Street View. Now I think it’s not so far fetched. Considering in recent months Google has started to recruit normal citizens to take pictures of businesses and record store hours for cash rewards, it seems they’re working towards something much bigger. Let’s stick to online advertising, and a few possibilities:
- Billboards in real life could easily be overlaid online with paid search or local business ads from Adwords.
- Storefronts in Street View can be tagged with markers that include information such as hours of operation, menus, prices, website links, etc.
- Pay-per-action brings on a whole new meaning, imagine reserving seats at a New York restaurant via an interactive Google Maps Street View level application/gadget.
- Virtual tours - hey it could happen, look at Second Life.
- GPS-based integration via WiFi. This would be sweet, Street Level ad subsidized content streamed to your GPS receiver. Probably a few years away, but now a definite possibility.
Google’s advances are certainly opening the door to new and unimagined possibilities. However, I can’t stop to think whether privacy and security concerns may become a significant problem in a newly digitized world. Freedom of information is good, but too much information can become dangerous.
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