I read an interesting post about Hiro, a software program to force feed users ads. The technology allows broadcast networks to send television programs digitally with advertisements that cannot be skipped or fast forwarded.
The day after an internet video player appears that disables fast forwarding through specific pieces of content (glorious advertisements) a hack will appear to circumvent this feature.
What would really be interesting is if the web based media viewer was tied to a user account activated by a credit card. Imagine a Google User Account that had a valid credit card attached. In order to have a credit card you need to be over 18, so the media viewer could not allow you to watch certain R rated programs if you didn’t have a credit card.
The day after an internet video player appears that disables fast forwarding through specific pieces of content (glorious advertisements) a hack will appear to circumvent this feature.
What would really be interesting is if the web based media viewer was tied to a user account activated by a credit card. Imagine a Google User Account that had a valid credit card attached. In order to have a credit card you need to be over 18, so the media viewer could not allow you to watch certain R rated programs if you didn’t have a credit card.
Taking this one step further, a Google Account contains all your browsing and ad clicking history. Google knows all the searches you have done and all the ads you have clicked on, so it would be easy for them to give you specific targeted ads. Google Television could be free internet video, similar to broadcast TV with ads that take more effort to screen out than its worth.
When viewing American Idol on Google TV you could see an advertisement for a local auto repair shop to fix your car that broke down earlier that day.
Now thats Orwellian.
