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People have been building exciting and creative web mashupss, but most mashup developers haven’t yet figured out how to make them profitable. Fortunately, IDELIX Software has developed a new program called Lat49, that addresses this problem. Lat49 is an advertising platform that is solely designed to work with map-based mashups.
It’s a new map-based advertising model targeted directly at this class of online, Ajax-based map applications. Publishers (mashup developers) in addition to using the usual map APIs from Google, Yahoo and others can use a JavaScript API from Lat49 to drive contextually relevant ads. The ads can appear directly within or outside the map. What’s interesting is how the ads can dynamically change as users drag the map around as well as vary based upon their zoom level. via ProgrammableWeb
The ad revenue is determined by how much space the add takes up and this space is limited. The IDELIX team is set to have different ads running depending on the zoom scale and geographic position of the map. Ads can be bought on all four of the Lat49 zoom scales, Local, Neighborhood, Urban, and Brand. Using this tactic, more ads can be shown on the site while using the same amount of space (or less). This kind of contextual advertising offers more possibilities for advertisers (the kind of ad you have at the scale of a city might be very different from those you have at the scale of a street) and offers a nice example of a creative way of monetizing mashups.
Currently, Lat49 is in alpha testing, and the company is looking for developers and advertisers to help out in the testing. The final product ships in August.
