Murphy's Law: The Unnecessary Freak-Out Over HP's Home Printer Advertising Plan
Murphy's Law: The Unnecessary Freak-Out Over HP's Home Printer Advertising Plan
Posted 06/18/2010 at 8:01am
| by David Murphy
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Won't somebody think of the children? Or the editors?
It seems that mass hysteria is breaking out across the Internet--or Slashdot, the only Internet a geek needs to know--about a new proposed treatment by HP and Yahoo in regards to that whirring hunk of metal and plastic in the corner of your room. I'm not talking about WALL-E, nor Jeffrey, but your printer. You know, that crude device that that basically transforms your hard-earned money into a few pages of text and color?
There are few more toxic battlegrounds than the ol' home printer, the site of a thousand separate arguments over the role a manufacturer can play in shaping your fate with a product post-purchase. It cuts to the very heart of what's an "open" environment--perhaps not in direct function or in one's ability to install Linux on a device, but rather, the concept that what you purchase should be yours to alter and modify as you see fit sans infringement or prevention by others.
I realize that I'm veering a little off-course from the prescribed definition of "open architecture," so please keep the flamethrowers on "standby" instead of "hot." To wit, an open architecture is one that's ultimately vendor-neutral. In an open architecture, anyone is free to submit add-ons or modifications to a core product that, itself, has been constructed via agreed-upon or popularized standards.
To me, however, I like to think of a device as "open" if I, Consumer Dave, am not blocked in any capacity from tinkering around with its form or function. That said, your average printer... is not open. Not in the slightest. But I'd be covering old news if I just waxed poetic about how it stinks that you can't really install third-party ink cartridges in a freakin' device that you already paid good money for.
The real flavor of the day is that HP and Yahoo are teaming up to deliver location-sensitive advertisements as a special bonus for the former's new line of Web-connected printers. Before I describe what that actually means, let's take a moment to reflect on what that could mean, given that your average Internet surfer rarely reads more than just a headline on a page, it seems.
In short, the hysteria has grown over the thought of HP being able to shoot location-based advertising directly out of your printer whenever the company wants to. Let's ponder that for a moment. I realize that printer manufacturers are generally up to no good, what with their proprietary ink deals and what-have-you, but really now. No company alive would shoot itself in the foot by insisting, in addition to having to purchase the printer, the paper, and the ink, that its customers would also have to contend with random (expensive) messages shooting out of their device like a possessed fax machine.
The real truth of the matter is that the advertising service comes bundled with the printers' ability to schedule-print particular jobs. Like, say you wanted to read the morning paper at 7 am each day; You could set up your printer to dish out 35 pages of news from a given source every morning which, presumably, would have some location-based advertisement tacked in per the original document. HP isn't going to just shoot you random advertisements throughout the day, even given how much it might dictate how and when you can use the rest of your device.
That's it. I confess, the "scheduled daily print" concept is ninety percent of the way toward the stupidest idea I've ever heard (who wants to waste all that paper and ink for part of a $1-2 daily paper?) But let's at least assign blame where blame is correctly due: In this case, location-driven advertising--wasteful as it might be--is at least better than having to print a generic ad alongside one's daily print/paper/whatever, right?
I don't know about you, but I long for the day when I can just buy a printer and... that's it. I choose the ink, I choose the services, I choose the interactions. HP's "scheduled print" concept might not destroy the openness of its devices--as I'm defining the word--as much as the company's other practices. However, it is just one more step in the grand business practice of a larger entity lording over your devices in an unpleasant, expensive way. Nobody wins when that happens.
David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software.
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Jims45wow
June 21, 2010 at 11:59am
Easy, kids. That's a signed-up for service, as explained.
But, I'm still POd that MY system resources get tied up by 3rd party advertisers.
Jim
aviaggio
June 18, 2010 at 11:22am
"I confess, the 'scheduled daily print' concept is ninety percent of the way toward the stupidest idea I've ever heard"
Pretty much sums it up for me. I stopped buying inkjet printers 10 years ago. Sorry HP/Canon/Lexmark, you will never get me to buy 3-5ml of ink for $50. You know something is wrong when the ink costs more than the printer did.
Keep your inkjets. Keep your ads. And please let us know who signs up for these scheduled daily print jobs, cause I have a few bridges I need to unload.
BLACKCELL
June 18, 2010 at 8:16am
all his damn yapping could had gave me my 10 mins of my life back If he would had gotten to the point that much sooner. such a bag-o-tools!
scott tech
June 18, 2010 at 8:12am
If printer companies did start doing things like scheduled print of advertisments that could be a handy little kernel to play with. I know you can do scheduled print jobs etc. but something manufacturer based such as this could be a fun toy. I can read the paper online so that would not be a viable lure to make me want such a thing on my printer but the potential seems like a fun project.
Never stop striving
TechJunkie
June 18, 2010 at 9:16am
Fun/toy/tool for what? Running out of ink prematurely because it makes you print out ads is fun? I for one Don't feel like buying ink and replacing them because "they" made me print out ads. Nothing like printing out something for your son's class project with an ad slapped on it advertising "HP printers"....No thanks!
I have to PooP!
Keith E. Whisman
June 18, 2010 at 7:32am
If your in need of a daily digital newspaper then your in the market for a tablet or E-Book Reader. Ink is just too crazy expensive these days and the local news papers just plain suck. Because the news papers aren't making very much money the standard of the reporting has really come way down. So really the only real option these days are daily news websites with downloadable content for e readers and tablets.
I imagine after the print newspapers finally die and quit printing the magazines will come next but I think they'll last a lot longer.
Newspapers don't make much money on sales, they make their money on advertisements. Pretty much the cover price pays for the printing and the paper.
When I was a kid a newspaper was I believe .25cents. That is alot of paper with alot of printing work. There is no way I can print that much paper to produce one section of a newspaper for less than a dollar. Even with a laser printer.
Mark Hanchey
June 18, 2010 at 5:49am
If I didn't tell my printer to print it they have no business changing content or adding things.Unless HP is paying for the cost of the ink and paper to print things I did not select to be printed they better keep their ads to themselves.
Mark17
June 18, 2010 at 5:21am
All of this mass hysteria is hilarious. But really, who would be the target audience for a printer with the functionality to print daily news? If that was what you were looking for in a printer then wouldn't it just be cheaper to subscribe to a daily newspaper?
Anyway, I think that HP should give the option to receive random advertisements, if in return they pay for the ink and paper.
TechJunkie
June 18, 2010 at 5:31am
LOL! I'm not in mass hysteria mode -- yet. I just simply will not purchase that particular HP product. Then if they do this with other products, I will cease to buy any HP product. Plain and simple. But when all manufacturers start heading this way, that's when mass hysteria will set in and I will go back to the days of the pen and paper.
I have to PooP!
Nycromes
June 18, 2010 at 4:51am
I couldn't disagree more about this not being a big deal. It sets a precident for one thing. Today, it is only scheduled prints, tomorrow it will put a small ad on every print or prints from a certain location. The entire idea is enraging even for this scheduled print idea. I mean what makes them think they deserve to make money if I schedule a print job using their tool. HP has been on a downhill slide IMO for years. They have been experimenting with this universal print driver that causes nothing but issues, and their equipment quality has been slipping. What ever happened to just getting a driver for a printer and being able to use it without getting popups in the corner of your OS telling you that a job printed successfully or that you have 52% ink left. I for one don't appreciate this type of treatment from the companies I choose to buy from and neither should you. Murph, the issue isn't the ad, its the audacity of the idea that HP thinks they should be able to do this.
TechJunkie
June 18, 2010 at 3:22am
See, I was under the impression that when ever you print something, it would spit out a random add along side your document. That would just enrage the hell out of me. But still, companies are taking over control of what you purchase in a big way. It's starting to be that whatever you buy outright, it's not yours, it's thiers and they dictate to you how and when you can use it. You just have possesion of it. I know, if I don't like it, then buy something else. The point is though, is that they are all--ALL--headed that way. Soon, your not going to be able to "buy" anything. All merchandise will be sold at a price for you to take possesion but in the disclaimer it will say -- purchasing this product is really only a lease and that you MUST do what we intended it to do or you will be in violation of the Steve Jobs' penal code of conduct and this device will cease to work. Any and all modifications, either software or hardware without OUR consent, even after purchase, is punishable by up to 50 years in prison --
I have to PooP!
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