Google Wants to Patent Mobile Ads
Wi-Fi Networking News' Glenn Fleishman today picks up on a report from ClickZ noting that a patent filed by Google in September of 2004 seems to be trying to claim ownership of a wide variety of Wi-Fi-based ad targeting methods.
"The patent, published last week but not yet granted, includes among its claims serving ads based on location, the entity providing the Wi-Fi hotspot, and behavior of a user at a hotspot – and all combinations thereof," Fleishman writes.
It's unlikely they'll be able to defend such a broad patent, considering that they're hardly alone in developing such solutions – note the recent buzz about Wi-Fi location service Loki – but Fleishman says they might yet win a few limited claims within that larger umbrella.
ClickZ's Kevin Newcomb points out that this is key to Google's entry into the citywide Wi-Fi space: "Google has been working on a plan to build ad-supported Wi-Fi hotspots in major cities, beginning with its hometown of Mountain View, Calif," he writes. "It is also bidding on a contract to do the same in San Francisco."