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The LA times just announced that Google (who else) has won the patent for using location based data for advertising. The patent, numbered 7,668,832, was filed way back in 2004 and was just now awarded to Google by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent will allow Google to build tools for advertisers that use location information to determine ad placement, track performance in certain areas, target customers based on their location, and ultimately improve the effectiveness of their campaigns. This could have far reaching effects on smartphone users with location aware phones making them susceptible to a constant barrage of ads as they go about their day. The technology could determine based on location if an ad should be sent and what content is appropriate making it ideal to reach your target market directly Google hasn’t announced exactly what they will do with the patent but it will definitely change the mobile user’s experience.

Google Street View, the popular Google Maps and Google Earth feature launched in 2007 that provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views along many streets around the world may become the newest digital medium for advertising.. They recently filed a patent entitled “Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising” which would allow them to edit outdated billboards shown in Street View and replace them with new current advertisements. These new advertisements can be linked directly to the company’s website and serve as an effective call to action. Google wouldn’t have to stop at billboards, they could update marquees outside movie theaters, storefronts, and everywhere there is ad space in the real world. It is a great idea, with Street View’s increasing user base and obsolete billboards and ad space littering the virtual landscape this would give the software giant yet another source of income. Although brilliant, this could stir up possible legal issues and raise a lot of questions. Who owns virtual billboards? Does the owner of the physical property that is being portrayed have any say? What would the companies that originally placed an ad on that billboard have to say? Could competitors advertise on each other’s ad space? Could someone place an ad on my virtual property without my permission? Legal questions aside, this idea of owning virtual real estate will certainly pay off for Google and possibly open up yet another frontier for advertisers.

Last week Google launched a new application for use on Android mobile devices that allows users to use their camera phone to capture an image of something like a landmark, logo, or work of art and run a Google search off the image to instantly pull up information. It is called Google Goggles and will change the way we find information about the world around us. This type of “augmented reality” application opens up many possibilities, if you are a tourist in a new city you can instantly pull up relevant information or if you are researching different species on a hike you can take a picture of a plant to quickly identify it, or even snap a photo of a product while shopping to find the best price. There are currently similar apps out there that offer similar functionality like PlinkArt that identifies paintings or SnapTell that pulls up book information but Google Goggle is the most advanced, it can even identify people.

This is where the problem lies with the Google Goggle application, it can instantly pull up information on anyone it captures making it a threat to personal privacy. With so many people having an online presence with social networking sites, picture sharing, and video sites they are left open for strangers to quickly learn everything about them without knowing. Because of these privacy concerns, Google has blocked the ability to identify people for now. Google does not have the best track record regarding personal privacy and has been criticized by watchdog groups for their street view technology on Google Maps.

Privacy concerns aside, this technology can open up great mobile marketing possibilities. This emerging technology will no doubt change the way people use their mobile devices and interact with the world around them but the privacy concerns should not be overlooked.