According to a new patent that was just granted to Google, the company could soon extend the reach of its advertising program in Google Maps to Street View. This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008, describes a new system for promoting ads in online mapping applications. In this patent, Google describes how it plans to identify buildings, posters, signs and billboards in these images and give advertisers the ability to replace these images with more up-to-date ads. In addition, Google also seems to plan an advertising auction for unclaimed properties. Sponsor In Google's example, the software could identify the marquis and individual window posters on a theater property and replace them with new information. Through this, a theater could promote a new play in Street View, even if the actual Street View image is completely out of date. The patent describes a two-step process for identifying potential advertising real estate in these images. Google's software first identifies interest points in the image (e.g. the edges or corners of an object) and then generates features around these interest points. Google can then augment this region of the image with a link or replace a part of the current Street View image with a new image. What Happens When Somebody Wants to Put a Virtual Ad on Your Real-Life Billboard? One of the most interesting aspects of the patent can be found in the following paragraph: The link can be associated with a property owner, for example the property owner which owns the physical property portrayed. The link can alternatively be associated with an advertiser who placed the highest bid on the image recognized within the region of interest (e.g., poster, billboard, banner, etc.). Any portion of the geographic display image in which the region of interest is located can be selectable (e.g., hot-linked). For example, the image of the coffee shop can be hot-linked to an advertisement for the coffee shop. This does open up some interesting questions. It makes perfect sense for the owner of a local coffee shop to advertise through this system, but in this patent, Google also describes an advertising auction. Does that mean that a rival coffee shop could also bid for ad space on the virtual image of a competitor's store in Street View? Chances are this isn't quite what Google has in mind, though it could definitely be a possibility. Instead, it looks like Google could potentially identify some billboards and banners in Street View images and then replace these real-life billboards with virtual ads from the highest bidders. Discuss

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Google Plans to Upgrade Old Billboards in Street View

Startups in the Boston area considering applying for TechStars Boston 2010 should bite the bullet and fill out that application today in order to receive an invitation to tomorrow's special meet and greet with TechStars mentors. The event, dubbed TechStars For A Day , will be held in Cambridge, Mass. and will provide startups with the opportunity to find out more about the TechStars program while getting some early networking under their belts. Sponsor While it isn't possible to make a definitive correlation between TechStars' events and nation's VC funding climate, the cities TechStars is based in - Boston, Boulder and Seattle - is were the money is flowing. In December, the Wall Street Journal reported that six out of the eight venture-backed companies that went public in 2009 were from outside of the Valley - two of which were from Massachusetts, one of which was from Seattle. In attendance will be Shawn Broderick , the executive director of TechStars Boston and founder/CEO of TrustPlus , TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen , as well as many other Boston mentors . The deadline for startups to apply for TechStars Boston 2010 is midnight, Jan. 11. Discuss

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TechStars Boston Hosts Invite-Only Mini-Camp on Jan. 5

Square , a new mobile phone payment system founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey , just launched its private beta today. Square will give anybody the ability to accept payment cards without having to go through a costly credit card processing service. Instead, Square will give its users the ability to use their mobile phones, laptops or desktop computers to accept payment cards and swipe them with the help of a small dongle that will plug into the computer's or phone's audio jack. Sponsor Square is backed by Khosla Ventures and a team of angel investors. Square's team of advisors includes actress Alyssa Milano , Susan Wu, Ryan Gilbert, Ted Wang and Gregg Kid (who was also an angel investor in Twitter). According to the information on Square's website, users won't have to sign any contracts and there won't be any monthly fees or hidden costs. Square is currently only working with a select group of companies but plans to expand widely in 2010. In its current iteration, Square works on the iPhone and iPod touch. It's not clear how much the dongle will cost, but chances are that it will be cheap, as the company plans to focus on the service and not the hardware. Disrupting the Credit Card Processing Business Credit card processors (the people behind the card swiping machines at your local coffee shop, restaurant or corner store) typically take a hefty cut from every transaction and charge monthly fees. Square want to be a cheaper, more modern alternative to these systems. Square will email receipts to a payer's phone, for example, and allow merchants to track frequent customers and offer them discounts. In addition, Square will also donate one penny for every transaction to a cause of the user's choice. Thanks to Square, every stand at a local farmers' market and every small coffee cart or hot dog vendor on the street will soon be able to accept credit cards without having to go through one of the major credit card processing services. Competition It's worth noting that other services like ePAY and Obopay also offer solutions that allow anybody to accept credit cards, though Square's service looks to be far more elegant than any of the current solutions we have seen. See the next page for additional screenshots The Square dongle Discuss

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Square: Twitter Co-Founder Launches New Mobile Payment System

Google just announced the launch of its Google Maps Navigation app for Android 1.6 and higher. Until now, Google's turn-by-turn navigation app was only available on Android 2.0 phones like Motorola's Droid . Now users of older Android handsets like the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and G1 can get free turn-by-turn navigation courtesy of Google. The Android 1.6 version of Google Maps Navigation doesn't offer some features of the 2.0 version, including advanced voice commands. Otherwise, the two apps seem to be identical. Sponsor Starting today, Android 1.6 users can download the app from the Android Market. The service is currently only available in the US, though some users managed to hack their phones to make the app work anywhere in the world. We called Google Maps Navigation a killer feature for Android 2.0 when Google announced it's release last month. Currently, however, there are only a few Android 2.0 phones on the market, so it only makes sense for Google to release this app for older phones as well. Just like the Android 2.0 version, Google Maps Navigation for Android 1.6 will include voice guidance, traffic data, satellite and Street View imagery. The app will also show geographical information courtesy of the Google Maps Layers feature the company introduced earlier this year. Discuss

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Google Brings Its Turn-By-Turn Navigation App to Older Android Phones