The Attention Merchants
Tim Wu · first published 2016 · ISBN 9780385352017
Wu traces how the business model of capturing human attention and selling it to advertisers became the foundation of modern media. Starting with penny newspapers in the 1800s, he shows how radio, television, and the internet all adopted the same free-content-for-ads formula that drives Google and Facebook.
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The Best Books About Search Engines and the Internet
Search engines seem free because users aren't paying with money. This book explains exactly how and why the attention economy works, revealing the economics that makes Google's search dominance so profitable.