Maybe the year......
Today's announcement of the Google and ValPak deal brings me one step closer to my online newspaper nirvana.
Like many of my geek compatriots, I rarely read a newspaper anymore. Paradoxically, when I do, it's usually for the ads. I've already seen the news online, so I don't need a newspaper for that. It's when I'm shopping for stuff that I pick up a paper. For example, before my recent trip to Spain and Portugal, I needed some vacation clothes, so I picked up a weekend paper and scanned the flyers for ads, deals, and coupons. The news part of the newspaper was unread and discarded, a big waste of paper in my case.
Some big department stores already have their flyers online, but you have to go to each company's site to find them. The newspaper provides the convenience of collecting them all in one place. What we need is the same thing, but online. An aggregator of the weekend's ads for busy shoppers. You could even have RSS feeds, searchable ads, categories, and bots that tell you when an item you are looking for is on sale locally. And much more....All without the waste associated with newspaper advertising.
Hopefully Google Maps or someone else will do this soon. Or maybe someone is doing this already and I don't know about it. If they are, I bet it will be big. I'll certainly use it!
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