More and more, people are looking at what Google can’t (or won’t) do. One thing that Google isn’t doing is selling a lot of ads on a hyperlocal basis. If you look for a plumber in Tribeca, you are likely to get ads for all of Manhattan. That might simply be an issue of making sure it has enough ads to fill the inventory
But Google also isn’t getting a read on information within a map itself ( although James Nicholson’s notes, in his comment below, that it has begun to). That’s where LAT49 sees a market. The service, from IDELIX Software Inc., a Vancouver-based company, looks to sell inventory for customized maps, leveraging AJAX and Flash. The company has 20 people, including a five person sales team for selling travel/tourism, sports and recreation, real estate and local (generally).
In December, the company started working with MapQuest Gas Prices to place advertising along with the regional gas quotes. It also works with various vertical sites, such as MapMyRide.com, runningmap.com and oobgolf.com to provide customized maps – and relevant ads – for people seeking out a good bike route, jogging path or golf course in southern California, or wherever they are. The ads also aren’t restricted to specific subjects, typically brands (i.e. Trek bike ads). Instead, they can be for a local bike shop, or a favorite watering hole for bikers.
One of the company’s unique attributes is the ability to place ads on top of maps, rather than having them run alongside as with most sponsored search. Chloe Morrow, Vice President of Operations, says that with most sites, maps are “too small because they have to make room for the ads” – a lose-lose situation.
The ad placement also frees the advertiser from a specific location. With LAT49, for instance, an REI ad is merely placed near a park, because it has an outdoor context. It doesn’t have to be at REI’s downtown location. Starbucks has similar efforts.
The company also says it benefits from being able to move the ad context as people mouse up the map – north, south, west or east. Many people who are planning a trip might take in huge swaths of geography, but always see the same ads from the origination of the search –something that may have become irrelevant (by the time they get to Phoenix).
Google does, in fact, read information on a map as well as the surrounding web page to place AdSense ads on the map. This is controlled via the Google Maps API (see http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/reference.html#GAdsManager). This hasn’t gotten a lot of publicity, but it is operational.
I do think that Lat49 has a great opportunity in this area, but no one should be under the impression that Google is not pushing hard in this direction.