Scribd launched a new platform today called iPaper, which converts documents in the most popular formats into Flash. That's the big news, as covered on such well known blogs like Read Write Web, GigaOm and TechCrunch. However, the biggest news for RIA developers is that the content in those documents is matched to Google ads, allowing owners of those documents to make money from Google. This is the first known instance of Google ads being embedded in anything other than an HTML page.

This is great news for RIA developers. Scribd's Flex application allows writers to monetize their documents. Let's hope that Google opens up the API to allow other RIA developers to monetize their user's content as well.

Adobe and Yahoo have teamed up to allow advertising inside of PDF documents. I can see this being useful for a few applications that publish newsletters and documents in PDFs - similar to how some bloggers (like me) use Google AdSense to monetize HTML content. However, the real value to you and other readers of this blog should be the hope that this might lead to the ability to put ads inside of RIAs.

Currently its extremely difficult (not impossible, but difficult) to monetize an RIA that you've built. You can try what Picnik is doing - adding features available to Premium Members only, but there's no real payment framework available to repeat that for many applications. Meaning you'd have to write your own payment infrastructure and handle all the customer service interactions on your own.

Some people are trying to solve this with AIR applications, but there's no one that I know of working on a solution for in browser Flex applications.

I don't know how developers will monetize the applications that they build in the future, but I do know that its great news that Adobe and Yahoo are working together in some fashion. Here's hoping it doesn't stop at PDFs.

TechCrunch has an article up about Tailgate, a company that is putting a unique twist on Internet advertising. Instead of having banners where users click through to landing pages, Tailgate integrates e-commerce aspects right into the banners themselves. Users can purchase items directly from the banner, entering their credit card information directly into the "banner application". They have a few samples up on their website, and have had at least one customer for it.

The TechCrunch comments are mostly negative towards this, focusing on the fact that most people won't feel secure in entering their credit card information on a banner ad. That's probably true - but there must be something that Adobe could do in order to guarantee the banner is secure.

Even if there's no e-commerce aspect to it, the thought of interacting with a banner more than just clicking on it and being sent to a landing page is appealing. I could easily imagine people clicking through to download a piece of software after getting more information from the banner directly.

Home Depot is using Flex for displaying their weekly printed ads online, through the shoplocal.com website. The site allows you to browse the print ad from your area to see the sales going on. (Enter 90210 to see a sample... The most popular Zip Code for non-US residents.) A number of different views allow you to easily navigate the material, including a neat zoom view that allows you to pan over the entire page. Ely Greenfield's Flex Book component appears to be getting some good use - I think they're using that component to animate the ad when you switch pages. I hope he's getting royalties.

This application follows Mixbook, which I blogged about earlier this week, which also uses the Flex Book component to animate turning the page. Zinio could use something similar for their online magazines.