Susan Kuchinskas at Internetnews.com takes a look at how a patent application titled, "Method for searching media" authored by Larry Page, might offer clues about Google offering access to magazine articles, CD's, DVD's, and other media using a pay-per-view revenue model.
The proposed permission protocol would request authorization from the publisher -- and that protocol could be used to track page views and share some revenue with the publisher, or to enable pay-per-view. One idea Page includes in the patent application is to permit "subscription-like access" to the electronic content.
Google is looking not only to news, but also to to CDs, DVDs and audio books, as well as magazines, newspapers and journals, according to the application. As Google points out, much printed media isn't available online, but rather "sold in hard copy for profit." That makes it hard for search providers to get a piece of the action.
You can read the complete patent app here.
Btw, Google registered the domain name Googlemusic.com in 2003. (-:
