Google and Jet Blue

We had Google in the office yesterday for a day of presentations and conversations, with Google showing us some of the things they have been doing. One collaboration that got mentioned was one with JetBlue, who are using Google Maps on board to display where they are in the world. Over the summer they have been running a UGC contest with Google, for photos taken in a plane out the window. Entries are now closed and it’s now time for voting for your favourites. There’s some damn fine images, there, far better than any I’ve managed to produce so far. Everything is stored on Picasa, another Google product, demonstrating the company can provide a lot of what you need to run a contest. Nice use of the tools and collaboration with a partner; not sure what the media spend associated with it would be but you can be sure there is some.

As seems to be common with the case, all these nice photos now belong to JetBlue who claim ownership of them for evermore. So none of the photographers will be able to use the photos on their own sites. Wonder if they know that?