With Google’s interest in securing a section of the upcoming wireless spectrum that becomes available after the digital switch, there’s been some speculation that the main intention on Google’s mind is to offer a free nationwide wifi network based on the high-power frequencies usually reserved for television.

Not long ago, Google submitted a six-page letter to the FCC outlining processes and tests to avoid interference on the frequencies in question, which was a major concern to the FCC. Google also promised to reserve some frequencies to be used not for wireless Internet and provide free tech support for people using their WiFi.  It looks as though they’re laying the groundwork to dovetail nicely with the launch of upcoming Android handsets.  That is if the FCC and the privacy groups don’t interfere.

If Google can control the network, as well as the handset software, and combine it with their core search engine knowledge, it will post serious privacy concerns regarding the vast amount of personal data and pure information Google would control.  Since Google’s number one goal is to generate a larger footprint to incorporate it’s advertising models into, it obviously makes sense that it would want to place itself at all levels of the process, but controlling and managing that much information could cause problems.

On the other hand, the benefits are enormous in terms of both advertising revenue for Google, and the fact that everyone would have access to a completely free wifi network that’s available anywhere, anytime.  It would take a ton of testing and configuring to make sure it’s secure and stable enough for widespread adoption, but exciting to think about nonetheless.  We’ll see what happens…

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A few days ago I posted a blog about the Mobile Marketing Association’s announcement of new guidelines for mobile ads. The first substantial hitch, however, to a “universal application” of those guidelines was observed almost as soon as they were announced. The four proposed banner ad formats outlined differed in size from Google’s mobile image ads, which were publicly revealed almost in conjunction with the MMA guidelines. Read the rest

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I’m not convinced that Google walked away empty handed Mike, I think this is maybe what they wanted short of a totally open Internet like mobile network. Android is going to be the vehicle to deliver the Google products and if I read your C-Block Winners Chart correctly, that’s the entire US for Verizon.

Google just needs to ensure that the right measures are taken so that Android meets the minimum manufacturing standards guideline to be eligible to access that network.

Even if Verizon creates a 2 tiered network as Erick indicates, Google should still get into the mix at the lower tier and they didn’t have to put up a few Billion to get it.

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Although not as widely used in the US, mobile-barcode scanning is still gaining traction with mobile advertisers.  They’re slowly realizing the potential in allowing customers the ability to scan the barcode that already exists on virtually every consumer product on the market.  This, in addition to specialized barcodes placed in print advertising presents a huge opportunity. 

Large, well known brands that produce everyday products that we all use are still spending millions of dollars on advertising, while they neglect the small UPC barcode they already place on all their products.  If consumers had the ability to snap a photo of the barcode while standing in the grocery store aisle, it would turn every product that brand sold into a virtual mobile website link.  What type of content that consumer receives after scanning the barcode is up to the advertiser, but could include links to WAP sites that engage the user further, product comparisons, health information about a product and so on.  The possibilities are endless. 

Imagine walking into your local grocery store and while walking the aisles and choosing products, you could snap a quick photo of the barcode on that box of cereal your considering and instantly receive a quick coupon and detailed health information.  You could even quickly find out if that box of cereal is acceptable to your current diet.  Another example of a useful application would be for traditional print advertisers to incorporate a small barcode into their advertisements, that user’s could quickly snap to save information about a certain event, product, or service, they might otherwise forget quickly.  Google has already shown interest in this technology for expanding it’s online advertising business.  

Most methods currently in use in Japan and in Europe consist of a mobile application that translates the barcode into the appropriate content.  Some phones produced even include a separate barcode scanning feature built in.  There are plenty of open-source mobile applications that will turn any camera-enabled mobile device into a mobile barcode scanner as well.  The application simply takes the photo of the barcode taken with the device’s camera and sends it to a central server to be decoded and then quickly returns the requested content to the device. 

The problem, with most devices not having the capabilities built in, is how to get consumers to download the simple application needed to read the barcodes.  Similar to proximity marketing, advertisers will have to find a way to incorporate their messages into useful, non-obtrusive content the consumer would actually want delivered to their device, instead of finding it as another obtrusive form of mobile marketing.  If there could be a good incentive to downloading the application, consumers would be much more apt to adopt the technology.  Also, with the use of Android and other open source OS’s and third party mobile applications, barcode scanning could easily come pre-packaged on mobile devices very soon, especially if the company behind the mobile OS (Google) wants users to have the ability pre-packaged for their own marketing efforts.

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I’ve gotta agree with Stan Schroeder on this. Symbian should look at recent history because it’s about to repeat itself. The dominant Desktop OS is either going to be replaced with an Open Source flavor of Linux or something in the Cloud. Dial back 10 years and most folks would have called you crazy. The reality is we can see that coming now. Read the rest

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I’m late on this and I’m going to try and embed another video, it didn’t work so well that last time so hang in there with me for a minute… here’s the video on the Open Handset Alliance that was announced. The early preview of the SDK is coming Monday. This is going to be just absolutely huge for marketing. Mobile has not had a true open platform in this Country and it may be finally coming. Some notables missing from the list are Apple and AT&T.

Update: Sorry, that video didn’t work, embedding video seems to play havoc with my template. Not sure why, I’ll find out from SoloStream and see if they can help me out. Here’s the video on YouTube.

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IntoMobile sez, “Say What”? Looks like IntoMobile was one of the first to report this too, it’s been 2 hours and they’re still the only story on Google News when searching for GPay, it’s also on TechMeme. Here’s the Patent Application.

I included legal on the tagging because I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this one.

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