  cdru Go Colts Premium,MVM join:2003-05-14 Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to GeneStarwind Re: Googlebad
said by GeneStarwind :But it's another thing to provide free, no-frills service for an extended period of time (building up the reputation of an ad-free, dependable multi-service provider), and then suddenly shift gears in the aforementioned manner once your customer base is large enough I have only used gamil a few times in the past but hasn't GMail always had some type of text ads along the side? Google search has long had ads either at the top of the search listing or along the side. In both cases they are easily removed (well, at least hidden) using ad blocking software or a extension like Google Customize.
Even if they provided the service gratis without even ads and suddenly started showing ads, it still costs you nothing monetarily. It costs you some privacy theoretically, but even then I think the privacy you have "lost" wasn't there to begin with; it was just presumed to be there.
Anyways, it's their service and they can do as they wish. While there may be a policy shift after a long period of having their service one way, the service is still continuing to be free (as in money). It's not like they gave away the service for free for years and then one day locked down everything and demanded actual money in order to get access back holding everyone in hostage in the process. |