Google's New Patent on Commercial Breaks

theodp writes "What could be more annoying than having ads precede online videos? How about having commercials interrupt the videos? That's the premise behind a newly-published Google patent application for Using Viewing Signals in Targeted Video Advertising."

Re:And now, a message from our overlords

[rdradar]

I first modded this down as a troll, since Analytics is just a regular statistics scripts for webmaster. However, then I got it; its so clever. That Analytics service is used on millions of websites, almost every site uses it (slashdot aswell). Its a great tool, easy to use and free aswell. Theres no ads, and theres no any paid or premium user like service. And you know why? It brings more data to Google than anyone could ever imagine. Google Analytics script is now on almost every site on internet. They could and can easily track users movement on internet, from site to site. So what I can fastly see, they can track users both with ads and the more hidden (and cleverly disguised) Analytics. And you know even their file systems are designed so that the data takes months or even years to _really_ delete? And the best part is, they dont need any browser toolbar thingies to track users.. Ah silly me. They do have that aswell :) * If you dont hear anything back from me in 24h, you know I revealed their deepest secrets *

The Patent

[BIGELLOW]

Didn't anyone read the patent? The ad doesn't fill the entire screen space. The ad is a thin banner along the bottom of the screen. The video will continue to play uninterrupted. If the banner is in the way of anything, you can click a close button to make it go away. If you are interested in the ad, and click the banner, the video will be paused and you will see the full version of the ad. Once you stop interacting with the ad, you will be returned to the video which will continue to play where you left off. This isn't a whole lot different than those banner ads that already appear across the bottom of the screen on NBC or MTV, etc... except for the fact that you can make them go away, can close them, and are given a fair warning when one is going to appear.

Re:Sounds like an abuse cool technology

[chromatic]

... but the community...

There's the problem. You assumed that there's a single dominant opinion.