[OSM-talk] Advertising on OSM?

[Lars Aronsson]

SteveC wrote:

> > > Currently we allow google to display any advert for which the advertiser has 
> > > chosen a map-related keyword
> > 
> > Do we actually generate a significant amount of income from the
> > advertising?
> 
> Maybe $30 a month

This is a double problem. First, it brings in too little money.  
OSM could use more money. Second, the ads are boring and feel 
irrelevant.  The reason is that Google's ads are based on words 
and the only word we offer is "map".  That brings up ads for 
commercial maps and sometimes for GPS navigators.

People who visit OSM should not be "looking for maps".  They 
should be looking for places, and perhaps also for tools to help 
them get to these places, such as vehicles, bus tickets, clothing, 
places to eat, destinations to visit, including shops, museums and 
other local information, and books and films about these places.

If Google really wanted, they could get a clue about the CGI 
parameters lat and lon and present relevant local information, but 
it seems they aren't really all that smart.  So we need to help 
them.  When I link to 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/index.html?lat=58.4&lon=15.6&zoom=10
there is a name "Linköping" in that map, but the Google doesn't 
OCR the tiled image to find that name.  Instead I'm presented with 
Google ads for "Toronto Map & Guide" and "Dubai Map & Guide".

Is there any way (with AJAX?) we could present "Linköping" in text 
in that HTML page, and make that text change as the user zooms and 
pans?  Perhaps a simple HTML reload with new static text after a 
certain distance of pan&zoom and some delay?

If we could solve this problem, we could get more relevant ads and 
probably pull in more money.  As we continue to add more 
placenames to our maps, the ads would only get better.

Even adding a static paragraph of text in the box to the left 
saying that "with data from a GPS satellite navigation receiver 
and some time, you can help us extend this map" would bring more 
ads about GPS receivers, which *are* relevant to many of our 
users.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se