Television, radio, newspapers, telephony, and now magazines may vie for Google’s attention. Did multi-billion dollar search ads become boring?
You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… 60 years.
— Google would have to lose $13.7 million per year, based on Consumer Price Index, to match Charles Foster Kane’s proposed burn rate
TechCrunch cited the HuoMah.com blog on picking up a new patent issued to Google. The patent’s abstract makes for a scintillating read:
A method includes receiving personalized content from a plurality of content sources. The personalized content is based on user input. The method further includes receiving a personalized advertisement based on user input, and creating a customized publication including the personalized content and the personalized advertisement.
Michael Arrington suggested this could be the harbinger of Google Magazine. Instead of being written and published by jaded New Yorkers, it would be written by whoever the reader liked reading, and published by Google with ads included as part of the copy.
(Any bets on how heavily this would be used for, ahem, adult content? Google is going to need to spend a lot on the myriad flesh-tone colors that exist. Time to buy stock in whatever company makes those printer inks, perhaps?)
“I also wonder how effective this patent would be if established magazines tried to allow users to customize content in a similar way – Google could step in and claim infringement. Their hope, of course, would be to license the patent and supply all the advertisements,” said Arrington.
