Want To Buy a Billboard in Google Maps?
Well if the big G have their way you may be able to, according to this story about a recent patent application. The idea is that their software trawls Street View, identifies advertising space in the images then sells it.
Google want to find billboards, posters, signs and any other areas that might be suitable for the hawking of free online poker or male enhancement or whatever. They will then link the area and replace the image for anyone who gives them enough money. Here's a paragraph from the patent application:
The link can be associated with a property owner, for example the property owner which owns the physical property portrayed. The link can alternatively be associated with an advertiser who placed the highest bid on the image recognized within the region of interest (e.g., poster, billboard, banner, etc.). Any portion of the geographic display image in which the region of interest is located can be selectable (e.g., hot-linked). For example, the image of the coffee shop can be hot-linked to an advertisement for the coffee shop.
Obviously, this throws up some interesting difficulties. Could a coffee shop owner buy the link to a rival's establishment and link it to negative reviews? Could a movie theater buy the space on a nearby movie theater's posters to outline the ways in which that theater sucks? Could adulterers have their homes linked to Flickr accounts filled with compromising pictures? We don't know. But it'll be fun to find out.