NETWORK-BASED NAVIGATION SYSTEM HAVING VIRTUAL DRIVE-THRU ADVERTISEMENTS INTEGRATED WITH ACTUAL IMAGERY FROM ALONG A PHYSICAL ROUTE

A network-based navigation system includes a user interface and a computer server system that can access a map database, an actual imagery database and an advertisement database in order to provide visual route guidance information having virtual drive-thru advertisements integrated with actual imagery from along a physical route. The user interface permits a user to submit a request for navigation information, receive visual route guidance information in response to the request and initiate a drive-thru presentation of at least a portion of a route. The computer server determines at least one route from the map database based on the request from the user and provides route guidance information to the user interface in response. The computer server also identifies actual imagery from the image database associated with the at least one route and selectively replaces at least one polygon region identified in the actual imagery associated with the at least one route with at least one advertisement from the ad database to create a drive-thru presentation with at least one virtual advertisement. At least a portion of the drive-thru presentation is presented to the user interface. In one embodiment, the computer server records a drive-thru charge for the virtual advertisements present in the portion of the drive-thru presentation provided to the user interface.