NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Google patent for virtual billboards in Street View
Google patent for virtual billboards in Street View/Google Maps
http://bit.ly/9LIhAI (eBrandz)
Here we see the continuing co-mingling of the real and virtual worlds.
There are a number of interesting issues and aspects:
- As the article notes, this is a patent, not a product announcement.
It may -- or may not -- become an actual offering.
- I wonder how many people realize that virtual ads can appear
superimposed at various sporting events, only visible on television
(however, this is done in cooperation with the stadiums, teams, etc.)
- The article notes the possibility of one competitor attempting to
buy up virtual ad space close to other competitors. This seems
a real possibility.
- It is unclear to me how building owners and the owners of the physical
signs and billboards being "covered up" by such a system will react.
At a minimum they might well lobby for a piece of the ad revenue action.
- It's perhaps instructive to remember the very negative reaction
that a major television network (NBC I think) got when they tried
a similar technique (covering physical signs with their own virtual
ones) on a New Year's Eve broadcast some years ago.
- Some store/building owners, etc. may find particular superimposed
ads at any specific point in time to be offensive to their
business -- or to their personal standards -- particularly if they
became concerned that those ads' presence suggested to Street View
users that the building owners were involved in the ad selection
process. Monitoring virtual ads that could change at any time but
appeared to be part of a building or other existing structure
could become problematic to concerned parties.
Most of these problems can probably be dealt with. Ad revenue sharing
and some control over ad selections for building and sign owners would
probably help -- though validating such ownership could be tricky in
many cases. Sometimes there are complex rental arrangements between
the major billboard companies and property owners.
Some sort of total opt-out provision from virtual signage placement would
also seem appropriate.
If such a system actually were implemented, unless it was handled very
carefully, the result would likely be a significant increase in
demands for total image removal from the Street View database, which
of course causes issues for users attempting to use Street View for
navigation.
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator