Location Identified as Leading Digital Advertising Trend

[RobBrady]

Location based services (LBS) are predicted to be a major digital advertising trend for 2009.

Placecast, an online advertising solution that targets audiences using location-based information across the Web, mobile, Wi-Fi networks and email, have predicted that the Web will become even more connected to the physical world. They say that location will drive the next wave of innovation on the Web.

They add that typical location based advertisers will include those whose content is inherently location-relevant; sites such as travel, events, tickets, real estate, weather, maps and career search.

They cite several recent developments including:

* Geode for Firefox, a plug-in that allows the popular browser to determine and share the user’s location

* Google’s releases of Android, Chrome and the Gears Location API, all of which incorporate location data

* Fire Eagle from Yahoo! for location data management

* 500 iPhone applications are already using GPS location data as a critical component

* Microsoft Windows 7 will include location data at the operating-system level for any application

Placecast say that we can also expect location data to be incorporated into search engine algorithms as another way of increasing user relevance.
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Robert Brady

[Rowan29a]

Ah! Will one be able to opt out of such information or are we to be bombarded with information we may, or may not, want?
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Mike -
TomTom 750 Live
iPhone 5 16GB, Kavaj "Dallas" case

[RobBrady]

Thankfully, for the most part, it'll be our choice.

Think about when you search on Google and you see advertising above and to the right of the natural result listings. The vast majority not only find this acceptable, but also very useful. This is borne out by the millions who regularly click these ads which are actually sometimes more relevant than the unpaid for natural listings.

If you think about it, as it costs the advertiser an amount every time their ad is clicked (mostly around about 10-20p, but anything up to about £20.00 per click!), someone who is paying to be listed on Google is going to try very hard to ensure that their listing is relevant to what the searcher wants.

If future business models are as non-intrusive and useful as Google's then that'll be good for all; in fact IMHO it'll be far more useful due to increased use of location based algorithms.

I can see some companies getting it right and others wrong... the market always decides their fate. I'm sure that some companies will give away services for free that will encompass intrusive advertising. These will be willingly 'suffered' by those that cannot afford to pay for the alternative.
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Robert Brady

[DennisN]

Well, Rob, I've read this as I simply could not resist the temptation posed by a seven word, eighteen syllable title tongue-twister.

But I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[mikealder]

I only see this as a more accurate version of what you currently get when using the radio listening to local radio stations as you move around the country. The adverts are of little relevance to me as I pass though any specific area, the same applies to anything presented on a navigation device.
To be honest if I don't have the option to switch off intrusive rubbish such as adverts while driving I wouldn't use the unit as it could be a distraction to road safety IMHO.

Where this would be handy though is to enable searches on a connected device when you get stuck in areas you don't know, need a bed for the night or anything else you can think of. The current Google Search employed on the TomTom x40 Live range offers me all I require, information I need rather than useless adverts I have no intention of reading, if downloading of said adverts were to slow down the operation of the device I would be even more inclined to choose another nav hardware supplier..

This is going to be a very fine line for the marketing chaps to get right, push the boundary too far and the authorities could look at banning nav units due to driver distractions, but I guess all these university bods currently working on this will get it 100% right on launch to market - Mike

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