PDF and Advertisements
November 29th, 2007
I just read that Adobe has partnered with Yahoo to allow publishers to place ads inside of PDF files. I have mixed feelings about this. I am leaning toward “this is a bad idea”. The main motivation listed in the article was “allowing more free content” that would be subsidized by the ad revenue, but I feel that this has the potential to devalue the PDF format as a whole.
There are potential advantages (if the publisher chooses to take advantage of them). What if a publisher offered an e-book version of “Learning Flex 3″ for $10 that was subsidized by advertisements? What if online magazines were free (also supported by ads)? This would be great, but I feel that they still will charge the same price and still include the ads.
What do you think?
UPDATE: Here is the actual info on Adobe Labs.
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2 comments on “PDF and Advertisements”
01
I think I’d tend to agree with you. When does anyone actually lower their prices if they aren’t forced to. All this is going to be to them is an additional potential revenue stream to grow their margins. We may see a moderate price reduction at best.
02
You’re absolutely correct. Computer games have recently included ads in their games and I haven’t seen even a $1 discount in relation.
In my opinion it’s a quick, dirty, and bad for the user experience $ grab.
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