In a surprise press conference today a White House spokesperson announced that as part of the government rescue of the auto industry, General Motors may be sold to Google (*see note 1 below). In the face of much political controversy about the ballooning Federal deficit, it seems that Google has stepped in to assist in the transition of the auto industry to a new business model. It is thought that Google has several new product initiatives ready for the GM acquisition including:
Auto-AdSense - dashboards of all GM cars will henceforth include a small central panel devoted to Google advertising;
Enhanced local search - connection to the car's GPS unit will allow location-sensitive search results to be presented to drivers and passengers in real-time;
In-GPS video ad-streaming from YouTube linked to addresses entered into the system by drivers.
The new GM cars, "powered by Google", will also enable integration with Google's other offerings such as Google Earth and Google Street View. A new "person-search" will allow users worldwide to locate any GM car instantly and watch it via Google StreetView while also being able to see any planned GPS route (*see note 2 below). "Google has pioneered the free advertising-supported business model in many sectors," Google representative April Papanatas said today. "Advertising-supported autos are simply the next step."
