Original Article: Tomorrow (September 9), a giant worldwide game of Monopoly will commence, using the real world. That is, the real world on Google Maps. Hasbro, the creators of the classic board game, are launching the game called, “Monopoly City Streets,” in which players will fight for the largest empire in the world.

The official site for the game offers the following description:

A live worldwide game of MONOPOLY using Google Maps as the game board. The goal is simple. Play to beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence.

Own any street in the world. Build humble houses, crazy castles and stupendous skyscrapers to collect rent. Use MONOPOLY Chance Cards to sabotage your mates by building Hazards on their streets.

I have to say, I’ve seen some interesting things done with Google Maps, but this is one of the most interesting. I’ve always been a fan of Monopoly, but to create a massive online game of it, using the actual world (as seen by Google Maps) is just brilliant.

What I have not seen yet is a rulebook for the game. How does the game translate to such a large-scale project? How do you roll the dice and take turns? Is there a “Go to Jail…Do not pass go, do not collect $200″ card? Are there even Community Chests?

There are a lot of questions, but they should be answered tomorrow. Daily Mail does have a few details. Players will start with $3 million. Pennsylvania Avenue (home of the White House) costs $2 million, and rent is automatically paid each day from $50,000 for a house to $100 million for a skyscraper.
source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211686/Monopoly-goes-global-giant-online-game-using-Google-Maps.html

To a certain degree, this move makes more sense than other advertising tie-ups. Game shows often involve money and products that are available for purchase, after all, putting their viewers into a consumer-y frame of mind.

A post on Google’s Let’s Take it Offline blog also adds, “As the premier television network for games, GSN produces some of the most popular original casino and game show series on TV today. The typical demographic for GSN is pretty broad, with its audience consisting of adults in all ranges, who are interested in live game shows and interaction with TV shows.”

Anyway, as the picture below proves, this development follows a number of other impressive partnerships involving Google TV Ads and various networks. Despite the struggles and eventual demise of Google Audio Ads and Google Print Ads (with which Google TV Ads shared the “Offline” blog), Google TV Ads just keeps getting stronger.

Would-be users should know, “Once you upload your ad and set the CPM and budget, your ads will then be entered into the auction. After your ads air, you will have access to reports measuring the number of impressions, CPM and audience retention based on accurate set-top-box data.”

Google has now decided to add Picasa photos into the mix. This makes perfect sense, considering Google owns Picasa.

“Millions of people already rely on Picasa Web Albums to share their photographs with friends and the internet community,” says Daniel Cotting, Software Engineer, Google Zurich. “Now, their public geo-tagged photos will help Google Maps users to get a better impression of a geographic place, especially for areas where we may not have any Panoramio photos.”

Google selects Picasa photos by looking for geo-tagged public images. They apply face detection to screen out images with identifiable individuals and image matching so they are including the most relevant pictures.

“The feature is available at major landmarks around the world, in places as different as Paris, Tokyo, and New Zealand,” says Cotting. “When you try it out, you’ll discover how easy it is to seamlessly navigate between images from Street View, Panoramio, and now Picasa — particularly with our new photo-zoom feature.”

This year, Google also added some new zooming functionalities to Street View. You can read more about that here.

source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/08/14/google-taps-photos-on-its-own-picasa-for-street-view