Part of being an internet marketer is keeping on top of all the new technologies that are likely to have an impact on us in the upcoming year. A great example of this is understand how and why the iPhone would be so popular and trying to be early in the uptake of the App store.
Well after the TED conference this month I think we have found the next thing to be on top of. Bing’s map section specialist Blaise Aguera y Arcas talks us through the extremely exciting changes they have planned for the Bing maps system.
I found the video very interesting. There is a whole new level of interaction here and one of the first major projects from the big three (Microsoft, Google and Yahoo) to take Augmented Reality to the next level.
How does this technology open new marketing angels however? Well firstly these is the potential for static image or video advertisements. I am pretty confident M$ will eventually integrate this into the map system but there is nothing stopping companies sponsoring live webcam feeds from city centres or putting a billboard across from a popular landmark or even get a team photo wearing branded clothing in front of them.
Google are already starting to monetize their Local Business Centre and the paid potential for these new AR maps is even bigger. Think about company sponsored areas or webcam feeds officially endorsed by Bing as well as relevant display advertising and commercials that could be integrated. This kind of tech would also work really well on PS3 and X-Box if they can get it working in their browsers, I would love to see them do some specific functions for looking up gaming friends etc.
Of course there is always some potential problems, the big one here being privacy. People were up in arms after Google did street view, that was only static images, imagine the effect when there is live streaming involved! Hopefully people out there will see how amazing this technology is and embrace it however if the wrong types of press get involved I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The other massive marketing potential from this is of course mobile support. We are already seeing mobile AR apps and if Bing offer mobile support for this too then I can se eit being very useful for when you’re touring new cities or sightseeing in general.