Free Newsletter
Google patents location-based advertising
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Google a patent granting the digital services giant the right to incorporate 
location data into its web and mobile advertising efforts, a turn of events that could have a profound impact on its rivals' own location-based marketing efforts. United States Patent 7,668,832--filed in April 2004--essentially gives Google the right to exploit location to determine whether an ad should be served and, if so, what kind of content is most appropriate. In addition, Google can enable advertiser partners to enter their own location data to improve targeting, and track ad performance according to location-specific metrics and analytics.
"The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience," reads the patent abstract. "Location information is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information."
While time will tell how Google will wield its patent rights, the scope of the patent effectively gives the company a hold over most location-specific advertising efforts, meaning it could potentially stand in the way of rivals seeking to roll out their own geo-targeted efforts. Google has made no secret of its belief in the promise of location-based advertising: During the firm's Q4 earnings call in late January, Google product SVP Jonathan Rosenberg called local services "hugely important" to the future of the mobile user experience, adding that Google anticipates location-based services more deeply integrating with mobile advertising and commerce services in the "not too distant future."
For more on the Google location patent:
- read this Los Angeles Times article
Related articles:
Google Buzz for mobile targets user location
Google premieres click-to-call mobile ads
Nexus One bolsters Google's advertising ambitions
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | March 4, 2010 - 1:10pm
I would suggest its ridiculous to grant such a patent or enforce it. You cannot stop any one from knowing where a mobile user is should they care to subscribe and send their GPS location ro cell location, and what service providers then use that information for is up to them, I am quite sure there are a load of ads pushed to mobile users that are related to the location context, like restaurants and other consumer services. This is all prior art and I would guess this long established principal of location based promotion is generic and Google's stupid cynical effort to Hijack the blindingly obvious old as the hills approach to marketing would not stand in court.
Posted by Anonymous | March 4, 2010 - 4:31pm
I intend to patent the decision-making process that I go through before making any decision, including whether or not to engage in a transaction with a Google patented process, which I would view as an infringement on my patent to determine my decision- making process, wherever I am. This is the sort of crap that is the bane of successful companies: they believe that they really are inventing the wheel. Why not return some of you profits to shareholders than fund this type of nonsense. Probably took a group of engineers and lawyers months to come up with this.
Posted by Dumbfounded | March 4, 2010 - 8:44pm
This is amazing to me. In 2002 I was in vacation in the Carribean and met a group of fellow Manhattanites there who told me about a company they worked for that was putting together ad campaigns designed to puch to mobile phones based on geolocation. This predates the Google patent application, which I do not understand altogether.
Another ridiculous patent granted to google deals with side-bar advertising to physicians used in an EMR (!)
If you or I submitted a patent application for these absurdities, we would be laughed into oblivion. This is the sublime state our corporocracy has degenerated to. Now that the Supremely Stuffed Court has ruled to allow limitless donations by megacorps, you can expect more of the same, I suppose.
Where patents are concerned too, now, I suppose it's not what you know but who you know. Ben Franklin is turning in his grave. Tom Edison would probably applaud this, however!
SHARE
WITH:
Comments (4) | Post a comment