Amazon Patent Reveals Plan for Ads in Kindle Books
In the technology and gadget industry, patents can reveal a lot about the plans of a company. Amazon recently filed several patents that are clearly related to their Kindle line of devices. One of the patents could give publishers the ability to bundle an e-book (or Kindle) version of a book with a physical copy of the book.
Other patents, however, point to something potentially less helpful for consumers. These two patents allow for placing advertisements within e-books every ten pages or so, or in the margins.
The news of these patents have caused a small amount of outrage on social networking sites like Twitter. Some consumers are against any advertisements at all in Kindle books. However, as a Kindle owner I would actually like to see this implemented. If it’s done properly, it could be pro-consumer. After all, who’s better at recommendation advertising than Amazon? Here’s the two ways I see this working:
- Good old paid advertising supporting free content. – It’s the way people have made millions on the internet, and it’s the way network TV has been run for decades. If I were able to download a free copy of a quality novel, I wouldn’t mind there being advertisements for other products.
- Recommendation-based advertising similar to Amazon’s current “You may also like…” functionality – While some people think it’s creepy that Amazon keeps track of everything you’ve bought or looked at in order to recommend products to you, I actually appreciate it. I’ve found lots of new, useful, or entertaining products thanks to Amazon’s recommendations. If a Kindle book were to be populated with “You may also like this book” advertisements (and the recommendations were as dead-on as my regular Amazon recommendations), I think it could be unobtrusive enough that I wouldn’t object.
You can read more about the patents in this CNet article, or check out Amazon’s other recent patent for an electronic pen technology.
What do you think? Would you be receptive to advertisements in Kindle books? Under what conditions?
Other Posts of Interest:
- There Is No “Kindle Killer”
- Nine out of Ten of Current Kindle Bestsellers are Free
- Amazon Releases Kindle Source Code
- CNN Covers the Kindle
- Kindle News Roundup – March 29, 2009
3 Responses to “Amazon Patent Reveals Plan for Ads in Kindle Books”
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Outrageous… Absolutely not! Are you insane? Don’t we have enough solicitation in our lives?!? Is this really necessary?
I like to immerse myself in a good book to get away from the world for awhile, not be reminded of how pitiful its become. Man, what’s next, roll-out ads printed on toilet paper? Pharmaceutical ads in the Bible; “Why trust God, ask your doctor about…”
If amazon does decide to move forward with this approach, I surely hope they continue to offer the same book in ad-free format, or for me, the relationship is over.
I am in no way insane. In fact, I think I have a good understanding of advertising-supported content. Nothing is free. If content is provided for free (such as this website you’re reading right now), you can reasonably expect the revenue to be gathered elsewhere (the ads you see on the right side of the page). You can see this across most digital media – Pandora.com is free but ad-supported, for example.
Your last point – that Amazon should offer the book in ad-free format – is an interesting one. I’d like to see how many people would prefer to pay for a book than to receive it for free but have ads present.
CJ,
I wanted to take a brief moment to apologize for the comments I left on your site the other day regarding amazon’s possible consideration of inserting ads into future Kindle books.
Although I feel strongly about this, I didn’t mean to come across quite so harshly. In fact, I wanted to retract the post after re-reading it, but only had the option to add another.
I have a Kindle DX on order, and after reading your post, was half-tempted to cancel my order (and still might). Especially in light of the recent DRM concerns.
Don’t misunderstand me, I realize that ads serve a purpose, but there’s plenty of space for that type of thing in the kindle bookstore itself or on sites such as yours where I might actually want to see suggestions or related product ad. The only other point I’d like to reinforce is that although I agree with your statement that ads do generate revenue, there comes a point where it just boils down to corporate greed and erodes away at the overall experience. I can point to several examples where inserting ads into products didn’t impact the price point very much, if at all. But again, it’s a matter of opinion.
That said, I’m hoping amazon reconsiders some of their positions, and that you accept my apology.
I’m anxiously awaiting the shipment of my Kindle and love what you’ve done with the site so far.
If it’s any consolation, it was reading the related articles on kindlenewsandreviews.com that ultimately sold me on buying a kindle DX in the first place, and the ads didn’t bother me one bit.
Well thanks for hearing me out…
Dean