Amazon applying for in-book advertisement patent for Kindle

[Shaggy]

"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 ..."

Whew! Thank god somebody has finally solved that "problem". It was such a hardship having to read all of my books without advertisements in them.

I guess it wouldn't have looked as good if it said "Three Amazon inventors set out to correct what they felt was a real problem: Amazon isn't making enough money yet."

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Teyrnon

Hooboy, I was thinking relatively obtrusive ads appearing at the end of the book. Here it sounds like what's on the plate are ads that could potentially be every other page...

It sounds that way, because it's a "Slashdork" speculating about what Amazon might do with the patent.

There's no way to know yet what Amazon will or won't do with this, everything (including my comments) is pure speculation.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

It sounds that way, because it's a "Slashdork" speculating about what Amazon might do with the patent.

There's no way to know yet what Amazon will or won't do with this, everything (including my comments) is pure speculation.

Quite correct. But the whole purpose of speculation is, in essence, to run a Monty Carlo simulation on the possibilities of a change. If you don't like some of the possibilities, the time to attempt to affect a change is before it occurs, rather that after it already exists.

As for my previous tone, since this was about the addition of advertising, I thought a huckster/barker tone would be appropriate. Apparently, some posters didn't agree...

I merely point out that this idea, is capable of making book reading on a device subject to this patent rather like TV. There is no click-through on TV, only eyeballs viewing the ad. If, say Coca-Cola for example, was offered the advertising opportunity to place a Coke@ ad before every available reader during the summer, they might be interested, if the number of readers were large enough. it wouldn't matter to them what book was being read, Jane Austin or Dan Brown. They'll push to all of them....

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Whew! Thank god somebody has finally solved that "problem". It was such a hardship having to read all of my books without advertisements in them.

I guess it wouldn't have looked as good if it said "Three Amazon inventors set out to correct what they felt was a real problem: Amazon isn't making enough money yet."

Well, if you get technical. Amazon is a typical retailer: their net profit margin was only 3.4% in 2008 ( http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AAMZN ). If they are heavily subsidizing ebooks to get to the 9.99 price that certainly isn't helping their profits.

[griffonwing]

Maybe the ad comes before you start reading. You turn on the reader, it boots up, you choose your book, and then you have 10 seconds of ad screen (can't forward past it) after which you start reading.

This would suck.

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Well, if you get technical. Amazon is a typical retailer: their net profit margin was only 3.4% in 2008 ( http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AAMZN ). If they are heavily subsidizing ebooks to get to the 9.99 price that certainly isn't helping their profits.

Their little shenanigans of big-arm tactics aren't helping their sales or profit-margins any.

Blocking someones kindle-book access due to non-books related returns, abilities to go into your device and delete stuff. They are losing sales, so they try and find a way to get some of those profits back via ads.

I only assume they are losing sales. Negative publicity always makes people think twice. I used to not want a Kindle due to how it looks, now I'll never get a Kindle due to Big Brother syndrome.

[dreams]

Trying to understand the patents listed in my links made my eyes cross

Here is another blurb.. I love the picture...
http://techgeist.net/2009/07/amazon-...-kindle-books/

Amazon Wants To Put Ads Into Kindle Books?
By Michael Klurfeld on July 4, 2009

You know what my favorite part of Moby Dick was? The part where I realized I wanted a Klondike bar. That experience may be expedited in the future, courtesy of an Amazon patent for a technology which would dynamically insert ads into e-books. And get this: the ads would be context sensitive. “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.”

What’s so annoying about this is that Amazon presumably wants to put ads into books to be read on the Kindle, as that is the e-book market they’re desperately trying to push right now. We can probably all agree that ads in stuff we’ve paid for is quite annoying, and doubly so when we’ve gotten use to experiencing whatever it is without ads.

But Amazon isn’t stupid. It could be that Amazon is trying to use advertisements to profit off of books they would allow users to read on the Kindle for free. If they let you download a full book in Kindle format under public domain, for example, they could monetize serving up that content by inserting an ad. Though it would definitely make the reading experience somewhat annoying, ads would be a negligible price to pay for millions of free reads at one’s fingertips.

[cheese bogart]

Am I right in thinking that Amazon subsidise the books that they sell? If so, why would they then give you an option to opt in to the ad's(to then get an even cheaper books). I think that if they did put ad's in the books, everyone will get them at the already subsidised rate.

As I don't own a kindle I haven't seen the license agreement, but I'm pretty sure it allows them to change content at their discretion. I might be wrong though.

[Robertb]

dreams
Coffee, the 505, and Me




Posts: 771
Karma: 3034
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: California, U.S.A
Device: SONY PRS 505*BLUE* System: Vista 32-bit Home Premium w/Firefox
When I read about Amazon applying for the patent, I thought about all the points that have been posted. What I am afraid will happen is that if Amazon leads the way, others will follow.

Quote: Astak will not be duplicating what Amazon is doing. We do NOT like the entire Kindle idea of locking people into buying from one website (theirs). I am not at war with the Kindle, it is a good device... but I will always think the business model of requiring users to have no real choice (on where to buy eBooks) opens people up to these questionable tactics such as advertising.

Astak remains multi-format (14 at last count) and Open Format (buy from our own website or hundreds of others). We think it is all about FREEDOM!!

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by Robertb

... We think it is all about FREEDOM!!

NOW we know what the 'b' stands for in Robertb..

Everyone, please welcome Robert the Bruce, friend of William Wallace.

[Ceili]

If they put ads in the books I buy for my kindle, I'll be selling it after seeing the first one.

I HATE ads in my books. Before the Kindle... you know those cards in the middle of P-Books? I'd rip them out and leave them on the shelf... yes, I know, a mess for the book store staff... so, after that I started filling them out using the company that was advertising as the address...


I am buying an item. I don't want some moron deciding I need to read an ad for a company I won't ever visit/buy from/see, in the middle of my books.

If I have to go back to paper, I will.... at least until I can buy a book without ads in it, ebook-wise.

As for Amazon, Apple, big company badguy FITB here.... get over it, they are ALL the same. None of them are in business to keep "us" happy... they just want their fatassed investors to be happy with them for another year so they can screw out some more money that probably should go to someone else. After all... wasn't it Sony that first locked up CD's that people were paying for... installing virusware without warning on PCs...

There is no difference... a company is in it for the $$, nothing else.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by dreams

Just saw this interesting little post....

Amazon applying for in-book advertisement patent for Kindle

by Devin Coldewey on July 4, 2009


http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/07/04...nt-for-kindle/



Added 7-5-09 11:55 pm

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/07/...Ads-Into-Books

Patent application links are listed below..

Well, that's not the sense I'm getting from it. My guess is that they are planning to include ads with the "free sample" books. I can't imagine them getting the rights from any publisher to include advertising in complete published works, they'd have a few copyright hurdles to jump over before that would happen.

However, I can see ads being a part of the download the first chapter to see if you like the book scenario, and having Amazon direct the ads based on your Amazon account profile, not really based on the content of the book itself.

If that is the case, then ads won't bother me because I virtually never download free samples of a book. I just buy the thing and eventually I read it. (I generally purchase books based on word of mouth from friends or Time Magazine book reviews, but I am seldom at a point where I'm ready to start reading a book immediately.)

Amazon knows the sort of stuff I'm interested in purchasing (from them, because I shop at Amazon all the time), but I can't imagine someone being able to figure my shopping habits from the books that I read. My reading is all over the place .... about the only thing I don't read is Louis L'amour and that Mormon Vampire Author (and I'm thinking of changing my mind about Mr. L'amour).

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

However, I can see ads being a part of the download the first chapter to see if you like the book scenario, and having Amazon direct the ads based on your Amazon account profile, not really based on the content of the book itself.

I can see a conflict of interests there. The few chapters of the teaser are ad on their own, for the very book that is previewed. If that marketing vehicle is further encumbered with ads for other goods, wouldn't that have an adverse effect, as fewer than usual potential customers might decide to read that teaser?

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

If that is the case, then ads won't bother me because I virtually never download free samples of a book. I just buy the thing and eventually I read it.

I am guessing that most of us would not mind if ads are limited to "free" content.

But how valuable is that ad channel, really? If there is an option to purchase an ad-free version of the book, who would be interested in pushing his ads to the audience that is filtered by their very decision to save a few bucks?

[junkyardwillie]

Well Amazon is already subsidizing the price of its eBooks and the reader to push for market share, why would they further increase their losses by giving a subsidy on the price of ebooks with ads? They may work it in slowly but I think they believe this will be a viable alternative for their already "low" prices for ebooks. They need to figure out a way to get margins for eBooks up and adding Ad revenues on top of what the consumer pays is the best way to do it from a business stand point. Theres a risk that people will revolt but it depends on how blatantly the ads are placed in the books.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by cheesejunkyard

Am I right in thinking that Amazon subsidise the books that they sell?

Originally Posted by emellaich

If they are heavily subsidizing ebooks to get to the 9.99 price that certainly isn't helping their profits....

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

Well Amazon is already subsidizing the price of its eBooks and the reader to push for market share, why would they further increase their losses by giving a subsidy on the price of ebooks with ads?

Kindle Books do not subsidize the Reader, or vice versa.

The Kindle Reader and Kindle Books are separate business units, and both aim to generate profits. Amazon is not releasing figures, but has said that they are making money on both. Hence, the high costs of the Kindle Reader, as well as making the Kindle for iPhone widely available. The only exception are best-sellers, which apparently do not turn a profit for paper versions either.

Originally Posted by griffonwing

Blocking someones kindle-book access due to non-books related returns, abilities to go into your device and delete stuff. They are losing sales, so they try and find a way to get some of those profits back via ads. I only assume they are losing sales. Negative publicity always makes people think twice.

1) Amazon isn't publishing numbers. But I seriously doubt Amazon is genuinely losing sales because of a few forum posts. Most of this "negative publicity" is a blip (if even that) in the media.
2) Patent application != implementation.
3) Again, the revenue from ads would be tiny.