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Behold the Future: Ad-Powered Public Wi-Fi |
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Dr. Samuel Says -
New Toys
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 27 November 2007 |
Well, can't say I didn't see this one coming. The New York Times ran a wee little under-the-radar story today that will prove to be prescient in the coming years, I expect. It concerns laptops, iPhones, wi-fi hotspots, and our collective consumer conviction that we should have wireless connectivity everywhere.
 AnchorFree, a California company, is rolling out a service that will
provide ad-driven wi-fi systems to merchants large and small. The idea:
If wi-fi is free for your mom-and-pop corner store to provide, they'll
do so, enabling you and I to enjoy our mobile devices more often, in
more places, more effectively.
The catch, predictably, is that you will be advertised to. (In fact,
that could really be a slogan for life itself circa 2007: "You Will Be
Advertised To.") AnchorFree's approach is to use a "persistent
messaging frame" that pushes down the usual display on a device screen
to make room for a banner ad or video.
This solution makes a lot of sense for many reasons. It essentially
passes on the cost of public wireless access from consumers and
retailers to the advertisers. The advertisers, in turn, can target
their stuff to specific locales on the network. (In the NYT example, an
ad for a Lexus might be shown to customers staying at a four-star
hotel, but not to guests at an airport motel.) And it just seems kind
of inevitable. As mobile wireless expands, we'll all be carrying around
little personal billboards in our pockets. May as well get used to the
idea. Among the companies already signed up to AnchorFree's system:
American Express, Kaiser Permanente, McDonald’s, Toyota and Major
League Baseball.
Advertising's irresistible encroachment won't stop here, either. I've
ran a few simulations on the supercomputer and, projecting forward,
there is a 93 percent probability that by the year 2030, ads will be
beamed directly to our frontal lobes by giant Cerebro-type devices. So,
you know, bear that in mind.
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