Google Patent to Add Real Time Ads to Street View

Google Maps and Street View

Currently, when you open up Google Maps and click the little orange man to see the Google Street View, you see the surroundings just as they were photographed by the roving cars of 2008, including people’s clothes, car models, etc. Faces and license plates are blurred out, but major landmarks are visible and you can zoom in pretty closely when using the tool.

Google has applied for a patent that will change every billboard photographed in Street View that will alter them from their native state to a series of real time Google ads. This will allow for more revenue opportunities in that you can click on billboard ads pasted on top of the ads that currently exist. I assume you’ll be able to click nearby restaurants, stores, coupons, etc. just like when you search for something localized in any traditional Google search.

This sounds fun but my initial thoughts are two-fold:

1. Who the hell will use this tool over traditional search? Who really cares? Billboards currently in their native form have a low return based on the off chance a lead passes by, remembers and contacts the advertiser. This patent seems strange and out of place, no one cares about walking around on Google Street View to happen across an ad they weren’t looking for.
2. This feels like it violates some sort of air rights or advertiser rights, although I’m not sure of the legalities. It seems like although it’s their image, if I have an ad property, it’s MY property and they would need my consent to visibly alter it. And if it’s not illegal, it at least feels ethically wrong to erase the presence of ads in the native environment and replace them at will.

Why it’s not a stupid toy:

I see the usefulness of replacing something that is a marker in time (they do change, after all), but at first glance it looks like a stupid toy. At second glance, I can tell you exactly what this is that no one else is saying- it’s a quiet Google step toward a full augmented reality suite. So if you do the math, Google Street View billboard ads + Layar 3.0 = impressive augmented reality advancement that has tangible uses above and beyond what it’s currently being used for.

Imagine a real estate search where a user finds a home then begins discovering the area via Google’s Street View and sees ads for your services, for a mover, for lenders, and more. Google search is being invalidated right now by social media (and they’re letting it), so Google’s advertising revenue could take a dip in the future. This patent is one move that could revitalize the need for businesses to once again rely on the almighty Google ads if consumers take to the impending augmented reality movement.

It will be interesting to see how under the radar this project goes and what alliances Google will make in the meantime with real estate search portals. The new 2010 race to the “we did it first” is on and quality/useful augmented reality is the ribbon at the finish line.