CNN reports that Google has recently applied for patents on delivering free wifi and ads. SEORoundTable explains the 3 Wireless Advertising Patent Applications.
Imagine the whole of United States being blanketed by free wifi running Adsense? Pretty neat. If I remember right, their test wifi network in San Francisco runs on 386Kbps — decent enough.
But patenting ad delivery on free wifi? I’ve seen similar strategies with Airborne Access actually. Whenever you login to an AA hotspot, a pop-up window appears showing you’re logged in and times your connection. At the same time, that pop-up window would show up varying image ads depending on which AA hotspot you hook up.
They are basically internal ads — AA at The Shang, AA at GB3 or AA in Boracay.
With geo-targetting, Google could serve up location specific Adsense ads as well. Picture this — you’re hanging out in Starbucks at GB3 using the ad-supported free wifi and you get a swarm of ads from neighboring Seattle’s Best and Figaro. *heh*
It doesn’t hurt to have some freebies. But I read US states are preventing this to happen because of heavy lobbying from ISPs.