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comment by steve
steve  ·  2508 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: This is How Google will Collapse Reporting from the very near, post-Google future

I will pay for gmail and google maps





kleinbl00  ·  2507 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It blows my mind that Google doesn't let me pay what they're getting for my data to be completely invisible, completely anonymous and utterly devoid of advertising. I suspect it's because it's such a fuckall small number that it would infuriate the world.

By the bye, I do pay for gmail. $5/email address/month.

user-inactivated  ·  2507 days ago  ·  link  ·  

... and if you could the only demographics that would see ads would be the ones less desirable to advertisers. Mitigated by the fact that the data on demographics advertisers really want seeing ads is worthless because they aren't going to see the ads regardless so as it stands you have no privacy and advertisers on whose behalf corporate surveillance exists aren't getting what they want out of the arrangement either. So, at least not the worst case, eventually the advertisers go away and having based your business model on corporate surveillance becomes a liability. Or someone pays enough bribes to enough congresscritters to get a bill outlawing adblockers passed.

kleinbl00  ·  2507 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Or someone pays enough bribes to enough congresscritters to get a bill outlawing adblockers passed.

Which will have as much pragmatic importance as the Betamax suit.

I think Google has a number of revenue strategies that will continue to make them money... but I also think that advertising revenues are due for a precipitous correction. The agencies have been dying for 20 years now and the only people who mourn them are the employees whose lives have started to resemble Al Bundy's more than Don Draper's.

steve  ·  2507 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Google doesn't let me pay what they're getting for my data to be completely invisible

but then they would have to release a payment schedule that would show that old farts like you and I aren't worth as much to advertisers as the [fill in generational name here].

kleinbl00  ·  2507 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Fuck yeah senior citizen meal pricing

ooli  ·  2508 days ago  ·  link  ·  

you're already paying b telling google where you are, or where you shop. That's how they make the maps good. That's how they make the search engine good: by processing what link people used after a search.

It's a nice business model : make the user work for you. The captcha to create an account on hubski is a way to train the google image recognition software.

But all of that is mere value extracting compared to amazon, who sell anything anywhere anytime to anybody

steve  ·  2507 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    you're already paying

understood... and after posting, I thought I might edit to say "pay actual money"...

WanderingEng  ·  2508 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Good point. I would, too. If Google collapsed, the pieces would get sold (or consolidated into a smaller company). I'd pay a reasonable subscription fee for Gmail and Maps.