Link: Never mind the iPad saving journalism or advertising, will it gut the Web by leading a trend of locking consumers into false scarcity?

Never mind journalism, will the iPad save advertising? Poynter Online – Mobile Media

There is a reason Steve Jobs kept saying the iPad was like the Internet in your hands. Implied in the statement is a reduction of operationally infinite medium into a discrete package, and businesses sure like discrete units because they fit into neat revenue formulas that don’t require an endless chase after page views in an infinitely expanding advertising space (though, interestingly, Google would seem to like this). The only problem with treating digital goodies like real-world ones is that you rip a good chunk of the Internet’s power right out of its guts. I suspect we will look back upon this era of remarkably free information with envy and awe in the coming decades. Bummer.

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