Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Google Street Views : Product Placements

I guess most of us would have had a look at Google Street View (read more ) by now. In case you haven't it's basically a series of 360 panoramas of a city. You can use Google maps to look around the city streets that have been mapped. Where they've mapped a city they've done large chunks of the city. The way they make these is to drive around the city in a van with a special camera mounted on the roof. One unexpected outcome is all the odd details that are hidden in the details. It hasn't taken long for Top Street Views to take a Digg approach to rating these hidden moments. For example is this really a house breaker.

Looking at this shot of the Street View team it seemed to me it wouldn't take long for Google to start selling product placements. Imagine two girls holding a giant logo waiting in a street at a certain time for the Google van to take their picture. Or an actor from a current TV series doing something in character that would provide a hint to an upcoming "special event". There could even be artistic interventions. Perhaps lonelygirl15 could make an appearance. The opportunities for viral promotion escapades seem endless.

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