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By David Rothman

Well, just as I expected, Amazon is apparently preparing to put ads in books, or at least a Slashdot item gives that impression. Also see Techgeist, CrunchGear and Techmeme Roundup. From Slashdot:

image "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?"

Question: Will you be able to legally share Amazon books with friends if the files have enough ads in them?

Note: I see both positives and negatives in the ad model.

The whole thing will depend on good tasteful, execution—the very thing that is missing from the New York Times and Washington Post these day, as they go about abusing their readers with big ads that wreak havoc with the reading experience on the Web.

More positively, Kindle ads could reduce the costs of books and make many free. Let’s just hope that Amazon and publishers don’t jack up the prices of books with the expectation of gravy from the ads.

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