Anyone wonder how Google News actually makes any money? It's a nifty service: computer-edited news that actually is superior (most days) to what you'll find at most other news Web sites. But it's free, and therein lies the rub -- "News publishers would cry foul if Google displayed contextual ads against their content, even if it is just headlines and openers."

InternetNews.com, though, has the inside scoop on a patent application that Google has on file with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that could change all that: "The application illuminates possible plans by the Mountain View, Calif.-based search leader to enable search of printed material, offer pay-per-view documents, scanned documents with clickable ads and even the ability for print publishers to swap out ads in digital copies of their printed pages."

As a side note: the article includes a number of comments and quotes from the suddenly-controversial HighBeam Research.