Yahoo, Adobe To Serve Ads In PDFs 213
Placid writes to alert us to a new channel opening up between advertisers and our eyeballs: PDFs with context-sensitive text ads. The service is called "Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo" and it goes into public beta today. The "ad-enabled" PDFs are served off of Adobe's servers. The article mentions viewing them in Acrobat or Reader but doesn't mention what happens when a non-Adobe PDF reader is used. The ads don't appear if the PDF is printed.
Uninstall Adobe's product and... (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php [foxitsoftware.com]
Re:Ya frickin hoo. (Score:5, Informative)
Explain how this is possible when the purpose of a pdf is to keep the original formatting of the document and be able to be printed and still retain that formatting. The ONLY problem I have ever encountered with pdf files is on a Lexmark printer where I had to set it to print pdfs as an image file. Other than that, no problems whatsoever.
For the record, my last job involved maintaining over 800 printers across the entire state with Lexmark and HP being the most common but also Xerox copiers/printers and Imagistic (ewwwww) multi-function machines thrown in.
My current job has 1/3 the number of printers yet we still encounter zero problems with pdf files.
If you have problems getting pdfs to print, there is something seriously wrong.
Re:Sheesh (Score:3, Informative)
This is an option _publishers_ of content will have. I think it's a great idea, actually. I'm quite happy looking at a few ads to get the content of Slashdot, the NYT, Washington Post, Gmail, Google search, practically the whole subscription-free part of the internet. If this model allows some publishers to put out stuff for free that they previously charged for, I think that's great.
Re:Ad "Enabled" (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php [foxitsoftware.com]
"In the future all software will approach the condition of muzak"
Re:Just what I need... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ya frickin hoo. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Good! (Score:3, Informative)
The format isn't bloated and shitty (it's a subset of PostScript), it's Adobe's reader that's bloated and shitty, and they want to make it as shitty as possible. There are alternatives out there, like FoxIt [foxitsoftware.com].
PDF as a format isn't going anywhere, since it's becoming the de facto standard format in the print industry.
Re:Good! (Score:3, Informative)
As for overuse, it depends on how you intend to use the information. If it's meant to be viewed on the web only, then PDF really isn't the best format: what looks good on a printed page doesn't necessarily look good on a monitor. A wiki format is definitely better for many things, as wikipedia has shown. But if it's meant to be shown on a printed page (usually 8.5" x 11" or A4), PDF is one of the best formats available. I frequently view technical data sheets, catalog pages, and the like online in PDF format; it works for those because they're meant to be printed out if desired.
Also, if the document was originally made as a printed document, and the company wants to make it available online, the easiest way to do this is to optically scan it directly into PDF format. This is great for old manuals or other historical texts.
Re:Ya frickin hoo. (Score:2, Informative)
Explain how this is possible when the purpose of a pdf is to keep the original formatting of the document and be able to be printed and still retain that formatting.
Because the "purpose" of PDF has nothing to do with how software actually uses it. Hell, even Adobe's own reader doesn't format pages exactly the same when you print, vs. what you see on screen -- the default is to scale the pages to account for the printer's unprintable margin area. Which is a STUPID DEFAULT, because most documents ALREADY leave space at the margins to account for unprintable regions.
This alone has caused PDF to be rejected by various industries as a true print format. For instance in the mortgage industry, where the exact format of various regulated forms is dictated by law down to the millimeter (no kidding), this kind of print behavior is completely unacceptable as it renders the document legally invalid for various purposes. This is one reason among several why more simplistic, "raw" print languages like PCL have continued to survive against the "competition" posed by PDF.