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Amazon Wants Patent For Inserting Ads Into Books

Posted by Soulskill on from the it-was-the-best-of-times,-it-was-comcastic dept.

theodp writes "Three Amazon inventors set out to correct what they felt was a real problem: that 'out-of-print or rare books ... typically do not include advertisements ... the content is fixed and, therefore, has not been adapted to modern marketing.' Their solution is spelled out in newly-disclosed Amazon patent applications for On-Demand Generating E-Book Content with Advertising and Incorporating Advertising in On-Demand Generated Content. From the patent apps, here's what the future of reading may look like: 'For instance, if a restaurant is described on page 12, [then the advertising page], either on page 11 or page 13, may include advertisements about restaurants, wine, food, etc., which are related to restaurants and dining.' So, what would a delightfully-tacky-yet-unrefined Hooters ad do for your Hemingway experience?"

35 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. How Pointless.... by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is totally pointless. I mean, if you already paid for the book, why should there have to be ads? Heck with digital distribution why even have ads on free stuff because the price of the device itself more than makes up for the minuscule price of transfer.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:How Pointless.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, I mean when I paid for cable TV they took out the ads! Wait. Shit.

    2. Re:How Pointless.... by shoemilk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because they are greedy. Why stop there? Why not insert the name of the restaurant into the text? Auto replace "restaurant" with "Chili's". Does the main character put on a coat? Why not make it an Armani coat? Does she take a sip of water? Spice up that water to your brand soft drink for a small fee! Why stop there? Let sponsors have characters "As Captain 'Pizza Hut' Ahab looked out over the sea, he saw her, Moby Dick, brought to you by Target."

      Seriously, though if I wanted ads breaking up what I was reading, I'd buy a newspaper. But I don't so I'll never buy one of those books or a newspaper.

    3. Re:How Pointless.... by noidentity · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is totally pointless. I mean, if you already paid for the book, why should there have to be ads?

      I keep seeing this faulty argument involving the concept of "paying twice". It's not that you're being asked to pay again, it's that you didn't fully "pay" the first time. It'd be like buying a $10 product and paying $5 up-front, and having the other $5 paid by advertising it shows.

      That aside, isn't this patent a good thing? It means that only Amazon's products will be crippled with advertising inserted in this manner.

    4. Re:How Pointless.... by Jurily · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know a better solution:

      'Share and Enjoy' is the company motto of the hugely successful Microsoft Complaints Division, which now covers the major land masses of three medium-sized planets and is the only part of the Corporation to have shown a consistent profit in recent years.
      The motto stands-- or rather stood-- in three mile high illuminated letters near the Complaints Department spaceport on Eadrax. Unfortunately its weight was such that shortly after it was erected, the ground beneath the letters caved in and they dropped for nearly half their length through the offices of many talented young Complaints executives-- now deceased.
      The protruding upper halves of the letters now appear, in the local language, to read "Go stick your head in a pig," and are no longer illuminated, except at times of special celebration.

    5. Re:How Pointless.... by Garbad+Ropedink · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If that ever came to be I would wholeheartedly endorse book burning.

      Good god, why not just stick ads in all the old works? I'm sure Picasso would have put a coke machine in Guernica if he knew how cool and refreshing it was....
      'I painted this to protest the lack of coca-cola in my homeland. It will be returned to Spain when there is a coke machine on every corner'

      --
      And that was the last Terry Fox run I ever participated in.
    6. Re:How Pointless.... by HockeyPuck · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is no different than cable TV. I pay x dollars a month just to watch via cable. But then I still get advertisements thrown in. I get ads between "scenes", I get ads that are product placements, and then, imho the worst are those that the channel overlays some animation in the corner.

      So changing "Bob goes into his local restaurant for a greasy cheeseburger" to "Bob goes into TGIFridays for their Super Texan Bacon Burger" is only one step. Most of the books I own have blank margins. Why not put a few ads in there? At the end of a chapter, if the chapter ends with a partial page, why not just put a 1/2 page ad there? I'd love to see, "STIHL Chainsaws present, Chapter 6 in Stephen King's new thriller..."

      My phonebook has a section in the middle with coupons, why not inject a few pages of coupons into the next Harry Potter book? I'm sure all the teenagers reading it could benefit from the acne cream ads.

      I always thought that most people today that read Stephen King's Christine had no idea what a 1958 Plymouth Fury looked like. So maybe they should update it to be a 2008 Toyota Prius. Now while the Prius doesn't evoke fear due to it's toothy chrome grille or tension with it's low rumbling demon-like engine. I'm sure someone would be scared of being sneaked up on by a hybrid.

         

    7. Re:How Pointless.... by Adrian+Lopez · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I keep seeing this faulty argument involving the concept of "paying twice". It's not that you're being asked to pay again, it's that you didn't fully "pay" the first time. It'd be like buying a $10 product and paying $5 up-front, and having the other $5 paid by advertising it shows.

      The vast majority of books do not include such advertisements, but the publishers do still turn a profit. It's not like with magazines, where the costs of a print run are typically higher than revenue from subscription fees. With books, you're usually paying for the costs of printing the book and an extra amount on top. Thus, the idea that you aren't paying for the book in full is simply false. The ads are just extra profit for the publisher.

      It's greed coupled with a total disregard for the artistic integrity of a work.

      --
      "In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
    8. Re:How Pointless.... by DreamsAreOkToo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except it doesn't work like that with ads. You can watch public television for free and get ads, or you can pay money to watch cable television and get ads. You can pay $50 for Battlefield 1942, or you can pay $50 for Battlefield 2142 and get ads.

      Ads increase profit for companies, they never decrease the price of products, except those offered for free (like Google.)

    9. Re:How Pointless.... by hedwards · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's because whenever people come up with a viable alternative the industry kills it by demanding that legislators make it illegal. They're not always successful, but in most cases they are. Free markets are all well and good, as long as they're actually free. The problem is that in places like the US, we've got a free market when it's convenient to business and a heavily regulated market when it's inconvenient for the consumer.

      The cost of TV would go down dramatically if people had the opportunity to make choices. Right now where I'm living, I've got basically 4 choices. No TV, Satellite, Cable or free to air. Of those, really Satellite is the only option with multiple choices, making that a grand spanking 5 choices over all, of which 3 have very little incentive to compete on cost too vigorously.

      Which is coincidentally why the news of online ads costing more per viewer is so significant. It's much more difficult to abuse ones market position if a provider from anywhere in the nation has to compete with all the other ones.

    10. Re:How Pointless.... by linguizic · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Somehow "the Fudruckers at the End of the Universe" just doesn't ring right too me....

      --
      Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?
    11. Re:How Pointless.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Can't we just start burning Amazon marketers?

    12. Re:How Pointless.... by EdIII · · Score: 2, Informative

      Can't we just start burning Amazon marketers?

      +11 Insightful
      +11 Inspiring
      +1,000,000 JUSTICE

    13. Re:How Pointless.... by sowth · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't get it. Where are the advertisements? You had a great idea, but you forgot to mix the ads in with your text--find great text with Bing! the greatest search engine made by the greatest software company in the world. <-- like this.

    14. Re:How Pointless.... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nope. They are not for free. Who do you think pays the money that Google wants for those ads? You, when you buy the product.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  2. This was their plan all along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I TRUSTED THE KINDLE!! Oh what a fool i am. capsssss

  3. If it's actually tasteful, I wouldn't mind so much by Mad-cat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wouldn't mind a tasteful, text-only add in its own table that doesn't interrupt the flow of the text I'm reading. I would mind full-image or full-page ads.

    I suggest doing it the way authors like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams used footnotes. Put an asterisk, add a footnote advertisement, and make it funny and in context with the text. Then I might actually buy whatever crap they're hawking.

  4. Let them patent it by Weaselmancer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously. It means that anyone else with this idiotic idea will have to pay a royalty fee, which should discourage them. Unless you want to fight a prior art campaign against Amazon, claiming magazines with ads are prior art. Either way the money will discourage people from trying and this idea will die a lonely death.

    Except for Amazon of course, since they hold the patent. But they can try it, and then they can see for themselves just how great this idea is when they launch it. It'll tank, hard. Nobody will want this.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
    1. Re:Let them patent it by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Informative

      It wouldn't at all surprise me if somebody or somebodies, including the big guys, try hard to kill this one before it leaves the application phase.

      A huge percentage of web pages these days are dynamically generated, on demand, and includes ads. This patent could, plausibly, be seen to cover that. First, that provides a giant helping of prior art. Second, it means that there are loads of big serious companies who Amazon could theoretically go after if they got this patent.

    2. Re:Let them patent it by causality · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Seriously. It means that anyone else with this idiotic idea will have to pay a royalty fee, which should discourage them. Unless you want to fight a prior art campaign against Amazon, claiming magazines with ads are prior art. Either way the money will discourage people from trying and this idea will die a lonely death.

      Except for Amazon of course, since they hold the patent. But they can try it, and then they can see for themselves just how great this idea is when they launch it. It'll tank, hard. Nobody will want this.

      That's the thing I don't understand, about all of these ideas. None of them come from overwhelming customer demand.

      Am I to believe that no one EVER gives them any suggestions, feature requests, etc.? Should I believe also that they never conduct any sort of market analysis, or hold focus groups, or otherwise try to find out what people already want so that they can come up with ways to meet that need?

      This is about control just like far too many things I hear about that come from either corporations or governments. For just that reason, it deserves to fail. Miserably. The problem is that there seems to be a long-standing tradition involving inherently failed ideas: when they don't work out, the perpetrator responds by trying harder instead of recognizing that the idea is a failed idea.

      I would like to find a reason not to agree with Bill Hicks and what he said marketers should do ("there's no fuckin' joke"), but I can't. "Ooooh, the anti-marketing dollar, that's a huge market ..." "OOOOOhhhh, the plea-for-sanity dollar, that's a HUGE market, HUGE!!"

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    3. Re:Let them patent it by hedwards · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you've ever met somebody involved with marketing or fund raising you'd realize that they see $ on everything. Trust me, they'd charge a person being given an award for the plaque if they could get away with it. The only thing that ever kills ideas like that is if people opt to have nothing than accept whatever it is.

  5. Sick of ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I am so sick of ads. Just yesterday I swore off using youtube, what with all their ads overlaid on top of videos now.

    I also recently compared the same exact video on hulu (which has ads) to itunes. The video from itunes was much, much better (sharper, better framerate) and no ads. Hulu video was complete crap - now way I could stand watching that. I'll gladly pay a reasonable price for a superior product.

  6. Very telling ... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the content is fixed and, therefore, has not been adapted to modern marketing.

    So to them a book is nothing more than a marketing instrument.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    1. Re:Very telling ... by ae1294 · · Score: 3, Funny

      So to them a book is nothing more than a money making instrument.

      I sort-of fixed it for you... but I don't really feel good about it... Read all about why I don't feel good about it in my next post for only $14.99!

  7. Google itself can't find relevant ads for classics by dpbsmith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wondered what sorts of ads Google would put in Tom Sawyer. Cave tours? Paint companies? Anatomy textbooks? But I see that Google itself offers no paid links when I search on "Tom Sawyer."

    I wondered what sorts of ads Google would put in "The Pit and the Pendulum." Rat poison? Grandfather clocks? Surcingles... whatever a surcingle is? But I see that Google itself offers no paid links when I search on "The Pit and the Pendulum."

    "To Kill a Mockingbird?" No paid links. "Gargantua and Pantagruel?" No paid links. "Lolita?" No paid links.

    Inserting relevant advertising into books may be sooner said than done.

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

  8. Ads in books? by A+Pancake · · Score: 4, Funny

    Reading books with ads in them? No thanks. I'll be off to the pirate ba... shit.

    1. Re:Ads in books? by causality · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Reading books with ads in them? No thanks. I'll be off to the pirate ba... shit.

      Hey look, the story is about advertisements in books. And wow, look at that! - this comment is also about advertising in books! ... and for some reason, it was modded Offtopic.

      That's a good example of shitty moderation. As in, this is what not to do.

      As for me, do your worst. I have karma to burn. Any points you waste on me for saying what you know to be the fuckin' truth are points you won't waste improperly modding someone else. So, make my day.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  9. Attn: Amazon - BOOKS DO NOT HAVE ADS! by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I dont really ever remember seeing and advertisement in ANY BOOK I have ever purchased. I'm sorry Amazon. Blow it out your ass. I'll stick to paper backs rather than your greed infected E-book.

  10. I claim my own patent... by blcamp · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... for filtering book (and book advertiser) content through human decision-making processes.

    --
    The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
  11. Oh Yeah? by causality · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... for filtering book (and book advertiser) content through human decision-making processes.

    I claim MY patent for "a method of monopolizing obvious ideas for which there is lots of prior art by means of convincing the Patent Office that the same old idea, when done with a computer, is somehow radically different and worthy of being treated like a new and innovative invention."

    The way I see it, I should make billions. BILLIONS!!

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  12. Print books had ads by henni16 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There were (are?) real books with ads.

    Maybe it was only done by a handful of (German?) publishers, but I remember going through my parents bookshelves and flipping through some paper back whodunits and some had one or two pages with ads, sometimes in context to the story. i.e. making a reference to the story.
    A little bit like with old time radio shows: "While $detective leans back with a $cigarette, waiting for the guy to leave the house again, why not get yourself a $cigarette with their unique flavor and our special brand of cancer.."

  13. Good thing the specify "on demand" by Nyckname · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember ripping ads out of the center of paperbacks thirty years ago. Without "on demand" they'd have that pesky prior art thing to deal with.

  14. There Were Ads in Books in the 80s by miller60 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not sure if this serves as prior art re e-books, but Chris Whittle was including ads in books in the late 1980s, before Amazon was launched and e-books existed in a meaningful commercial form.

    --
    RichM
    Data Center Knowledge
  15. Better idea by SilverJets · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How about putting ads inside ads? Take a look at an ad, any ad. Open a magazine and look at an ad. Look at all that space in there. Plenty of room to jam another ad right in the middle. TV? Sure, lots of space to cram another ad inside an ad. Use picture in picture. Heck, you could cover the first ad entirely with other ads using picture in picture and depending on the size of each extra ad I bet that you would more than double your money! Radio? Heck yeah. Lot's of space. Just cram the words for another ad into the spaces between the words of the first ad. The possibilities are endless!

    Ads inside ads. I'm running to the patent office right now!

  16. Re:If it's actually tasteful, I wouldn't mind so m by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "I wouldn't mind a tasteful, text-only add in its own table that doesn't interrupt the flow of the text I'm reading."

    I would. Books are the last advertisement-free stronghold, the last place we can turn for entertainment that does not come loaded with advertisements. There is no possible way to place a tasteful ad in a book, and the concept should be immediately dropped. Honestly, how greedy can these publishers get?

    I will not buy a single book from any publisher that engages in this practice (unless it is a used copy without ads).

    --
    Palm trees and 8