Re: our patent application for an evil advertising scheme [Fake Steve Jobs]

Earlier today, I was loading a free, online Flash game in my browser. I also loaded another web page in another tab, which I put upfront...

The ads that were shown before the start of the game were frozen, for as long as that tab wasn't in front.

Yes, people, it has already begun.

Wait until schools license this patent to force their students to actually learn! It could revolutionise education.

This passage by FSJ may highlight the essential difference between Google and Apple in coming years, even as they offer superficially similar services:

Google might make a play for this [replacing cable TV] as well. But they’ll try to do it without charging money, which will never work. Google’s whole world revolves around generating revenue through advertising. And they still think that asking people to pay for something is just a total non-starter because nobody wants to pay for anything anymore.

Truth is, money is the easiest thing to get people to give up. Much easier than asking them to give up their time. Nobody wants to watch ads or futz around with some science project where you have to integrate a bunch of different things and it never works right.

That is: Google wants people to pay with their attention and time, which Google then resells to businesses for cash. Apple wants people to pay in cash, to save attention and time.

And somewhat relatedly: is there a higher proportion of Apple customers among people who click Google ads (spending their attention freely), or among people who buy Google ads (buying the attention of others, or paying to preserve their own)? I don't have figures but strongly suspect the latter.

This reminds me very much of a short-story by Stephen Baxter called "Glass Earth, Inc.", which was set in a society where everyone has to watch a daily ad-quota, and is monitored to ensure that they do.