Right right, we know that the Gmail Paper thing was just an April Fool's joke. And we promise to stop talking about it soon. But seriously, it might not be that far-fetched.

Japanese company Tadacopy is offering university students free photocopies. They're paid for by advertisers, who print messages on the back of each page. The paper is thick enough that the ad doesn't bleed through. The advertising offsets the cost of ink, paper, and photocopier maintenance.

If Google really wanted to offer users free print-outs of their email (they don't), advertising could pay for the paper. In fact, Google said so itself "The cost of postage is offset with the help of relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica."

Of course, there's a difference between copying a few documents and printing thousands of pages of email. Odds are you wouldn't actually look at most of those pages, which means very little return on investment for advertisers. Not to mention what a huge waste of paper this would be, even if the paper was recycled.

[via Springwise]