Dutch online marketing magazine Emerce has an interesting interview with Chikai Ohazama, Google Earth product manager. Google is releasing this week a new version of the 3D application which allows users to browse the world through satellite pictures.

In general, in the new version the quality of the images has been very much improved, but the most appealing feature for us, as marketers (and advertisers), is the possibility of using Google Earth to display ads. Advertising will increasingly become a part of the tool. Mr Ohazama explains they are still in a testing phase to find the best solutions for advertisers, but the AdWords model is already an interesting model to use and exploit.

If you're interesting in learning more about the new Google Earth version, this is the link to follow...

Great idea... you think it will pick up though?

I mean, what is the real application of this program for John Smith, other than checking out how big his neighbour's pool really is. Sure.. cool and all to surf the earth, but I think there will have to be some serious search - engine integration to make this work.

Posted by: admind at June 21, 2006 07:12 PM