Yahoo has signalled it is investigating e-book adverts as a way to stimulate its earnings.
It says in two US patent applications that ads for digital book readers have been "less than optimal" to date.
The filings suggest that users could be offered titles at a variety of prices depending on the ads' prominence
They add that the products shown could be determined by the type of book being read, or even the contents of a specific chapter, phrase or word.
Gibble
3:41 pm on Apr 10, 2012 (gmt 0)
How is this stuff patentable?!?
Leosghost
5:47 pm on Apr 10, 2012 (gmt 0)
Because the USP(T)O doesn't bother insisting on there being "no prior art"..before accepting patent applications and even awarding patents..
So the Corps with the biggest lawyers available file..
And if they do fall foul of "prior art" or are found to be infringing someone else's previously registered patents..they don't care..unless the other party has big lawyers and lots of money too..if not..they'll just wear them down with years of litigation..
USP(T)O..should be put down..for incompetence..or hung for aiding horse thievery and fraud..
Sgt_Kickaxe
6:01 pm on Apr 10, 2012 (gmt 0)
I don't want ads in my books so I would not tolerate ads in my digital books, especially if I paid money for them. I find that ebook distributers already push the creepy line on tracking my personal reading habits so 3rd party ads doing the same would be over the top.
As a webmaster I rarely buy online anyway simply because I avoid ads and can easily spot them.
graeme_p
6:28 am on Apr 11, 2012 (gmt 0)
Given that on of the most popular ebook formats are based on HTML it requires only fairly obvious adaptation of exsting technologies to provide ebook ads.
Yahoo's patent seems to be for contextual and links ads in ebooks instead of web pages.
I refuse to buy DRMes ebooks so I have bought very few, although I read lots of free ones.
