Marketing Pilgrim

Google is testing a new opportunity for companies to advertise in Google Maps. While the tests are only being run Down Under (Australia) it doesn’t mean that they are being secretive. The idea is a way to for companies to make their listings on Google Maps stand out a bit more thus increasing their exposure. While this would seem to be perfectly suited for mobile users it is currently only being rolled out on desktop and notebook environments.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports

Google has begun putting ads on its popular maps pages in Australia, a sign that the search engine giant wants to convert more of the high traffic to its websites into advertising dollars.

Logos for Bankwest, JB Hifi, LJ Hooker, NAB and Chemist Warehouse have started to appear on maps when users zoom in close.

According to analysts, Google’s Nexus One phone isn’t selling too well. In fact, its 135,000 units sold is way off the 1 million iPhone’s sold during its launch.

Still, there’s good news for Google. It was just denied a trademark for Nexus One, because it’s too similar to one that’s already being used by Integra Telecom.

“Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion with the mark in U.S. Registration No. 3554195,” the trademark office wrote in its March 9 ruling.

OK, so that’s not good news, but if Google decided that entering the mobile hardware business was a bad move, it now has an excuse to pull out–hey it worked for China!

Meanwhile, back in Portland, Oregon, Integra is obviously delighted with the USPTO’s decision:

Apps is now one of those words that has taken on its own meaning in the American lexicon as most people who use it are referring to the apps for mobile devices. Why not since the market is growing at a serious rate because it makes having a handheld device much more interesting than just being a phone and a way to connect to the web.

A study suggests that the growth will be unprecedented in the very near future with bold predictions of billions of dollars being generated in the apps market. Mashable reports on the study which I will allow you to read about before I say anything further.

Lithuanian-based GetJar, an independent mobile phone application store with over 60,000 mobile applications for major mobile platforms such as Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile, commissioned a study that predicts a huge surge in the number of mobile app downloads and the overall size of the mobile app market.

It’s getting closer to the moment of truth for me and this kind of “news” gets me a little closer to making the move on going with an Android device. I know the days are numbered for my BlackBerry. That’s a foregone conclusion. I guess I am the customer that is being most fought over between Apple and any Android device (hence Google for all intents and purposes). I want out of my Blackberry Storm sooner than later but I am still debating whether to wait out the contract to go with an iPhone (it’s a year away) or commit to an Android device ….. now.

Google today introduced the ability to search on an Android device using 2.0 or higher using written gestures. Pretty slick. The Google Mobile Blog tells some more.

A little over a month ago, Facebook revealed a planned conversion tracker tool to help marketers track the value of Facebook Pages and fans. Today, analytics firm Omniture announces “A new solution . . . to buy media on Facebook and measure its influence across digital marketing channels.” Any relation?

Facebook isn’t the only thing Omniture’s newest efforts will be tracking. They’re also adding:

• Display ad targeting, using Omniture customer segment data and testing through partnerships with ad networks
• New mobile analytics, including app measurement for the iPad
• Regular analytics improvements, using Experian (HitWise) demographic data
• A new “Idea Exchange” (forum?) for users to communicate directly with engineers and product managers on new feature ideas

However, the Facebook deal may be most key. MediaPost reports the plans to expand the agreement:

When you read headlines like this it sometimes feels like the rich just keep getting richer. That is until you learn that it was a trek that started six years ago and it’s serendipitous timing is a bonus. One would think that Google is rubbing their hands together and giving their best “Boo ha ha ha ha!” mad scientist laughs in Mountain View because it seems like there is just a little interest these days in targeting ads by location and the money that it could represent.

Digital Beat reports

While the blogosphere was buzzing over the patent Facebook won for its news feed last week, Google earned a killer one too. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the search giant a patent for using location in an advertising system last Tuesday, which is the emerging business model for most consumer-facing location startups today.

Google Maps added user photos from Panaramio to Street View last year. They started with photos around major landmarks and added user photos for all their Street Views as well as maps without Street View. Now geo-tagged, user-submitted Flickr photos as well as other location-specific photos from Google’s own Picasa are more a part of Google Maps’ offerings than ever: Google’s adding new ways to find the photos and better integrating them with their own street-level views.

The new integration will show the user photos just like it used to (accessible through a thumbnail shot in the upper-right), but it will also interconnect the user photos. If they have a better shot of a Street View or user photo, an “orb” will appear in the image when a user rolls their mouse over it. Click on the orb to see the better view.

Google recently made search improvements as your roam around by adding the My Location option to mobile search. The idea is to help everyone find things that can be visited, used or accessed right then and there based on your location. While there is plenty of concentration on the mobile side of search they have not let the local aspect of search from the desktop get stale either.

Last year Google started to give Google map results even if there was no local qualifier in the search which moved local search to the next level. The latest enhancement allows you to look for things that are nearby but with a slightly different twist.

The Google blog tells us