Some recent news out of Google looks to have some big ramifications in the online ad world, at least that’s the take of Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling. Google updated its geo-location API to extend beyond mobile phones and work with browsers on Wi-Fi-equipped laptops. On the face of it, the update means that any Gears-equipped mobile user with a laptop or phone can now be located to within 200 meters, allowing web sites to target location-specific content directly to them at will. But in terms of online advertising, the ramifications are a bit more interesting.
Google says its original intent behind the Geolocation API was to make it easier for developers to deliver location-enabled web sites on mobile phones. But now it sees the wisdom of adding laptops into the mix, so it’s added Wi-Fi signals to the API. The API only works with Gears-enabled browsers, such as Chrome and Android (and eventually Firefox 3.1).
The API lets developers create locally relevant versions of their web sites without requiring the users to enter their location. The right localized version just gets dished out automatically. That is, as long as users decide to opt-in. Google realizes location-awareness can be kind of creepy and has made it so that the technology won’t kick in unless a user specifically requests it–at least twice–once from Google and once from the online publisher.
Sterling says he sees such location-awareness becoming commonplace in a year or so, and moving beyond Chrome and Firefox to even Microsoft’s IE. At that point, he sees the advent of super-targeted advertising. Whereas today, some online ads may be targeted by location at merely the city level, location-awareness within 200 meters gets down to the neighborhood level. This means users typing the same search keywords can be served different ads based on the income/age/education level of the residents in the block they’re on. As he explains it:
The same search term(s) list might trigger a BMW ad for one user in location A and no BMW ad in location B. Here’s another interesting scenario, this time with GM. It could show an ad for a car in a certain price range to a person in location A and a different ad for a high-end model in another location. These different ads could both be triggered by the same keywords, but the location/demographic data would determine whether to show the ad at all or which ad to show.
Of course, the technology and ability to incorporate the requisite Census data isn’t quite there yet. But Google’s provided the base. Now we just need to wait and see what Google and the advertisers do with it.
