4 ms·

Data to Money: How Much Does Google Owe You?

10 points by vinchuco 10y ago

BoorishBears 10y ago
How much money do I owe Google? How much would a company charge for the same services as Google if data wasn't a source of income? Some of their services I could see being free/cheap and still almost as good. Like Gmail for example. But stuff like Google Maps? Things that leverage all that data to do things no one else can? I'm not even sure someone else could do it as well without all that data, let alone do it for free.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  > Some of their services I could see being free/cheap and still almost as good. Like Gmail for example. Fastmail is pretty damn good and keeps getting better. I still use Gmail exclusively, but pay Fastmail an annual fee to hedge my bets and support an alternative. If Fastmail was to support multiple labels on a message, I would move tomorrow. That's the only thing holding me and my 9GB of mail history back. > But stuff like Google Maps? Things that leverage all that data to do things no one else can? I'm not even sure someone else could do it as well without all that data, let alone do it for free. OpenStreetMap? And now there's OpenStreetView [1]. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparision_Google_services_-_OSM http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparision_Google_servic... http://searchengineland.com/founder-openstreetmap-good-better-google-maps-already-192089 http://searchengineland.com/founder-openstreetmap-good-bette... [1] http://openstreetview.org/ http://openstreetview.org/
  - BoorishBears 10y ago
    Gmail was an example what I did think people could do for free/cheap. OSM isn't close to what Google Maps is, Google Maps is OSM+realtime traffic detection+Realtime transit integration+realtime Uber integeration+tracking municipal detours+a million other small things. I highly doubt any free project will ever be able to replicate the insanely extensive feature set Google Maps provides (half of them probably aren't even outward facing but improve direction data). The tracking aspect alone takes tracking device GPS data.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      You're entitled to your opinion!
x13 10y ago
1. The irony of this being on youtube 2. a gov-regulated repo of data.. seems horrible for privacy

10 points by vinchuco 10y ago

How much money do I owe Google? How much would a company charge for the same services as Google if data wasn't a source of income? Some of their services I could see being free/cheap and still almost as good. Like Gmail for example. But stuff like Google Maps? Things that leverage all that data to do things no one else can? I'm not even sure someone else could do it as well without all that data, let alone do it for free.

toomuchtodo 10y ago
> Some of their services I could see being free/cheap and still almost as good. Like Gmail for example. Fastmail is pretty damn good and keeps getting better. I still use Gmail exclusively, but pay Fastmail an annual fee to hedge my bets and support an alternative. If Fastmail was to support multiple labels on a message, I would move tomorrow. That's the only thing holding me and my 9GB of mail history back. > But stuff like Google Maps? Things that leverage all that data to do things no one else can? I'm not even sure someone else could do it as well without all that data, let alone do it for free. OpenStreetMap? And now there's OpenStreetView [1]. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparision_Google_services_-_OSM http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparision_Google_servic... http://searchengineland.com/founder-openstreetmap-good-better-google-maps-already-192089 http://searchengineland.com/founder-openstreetmap-good-bette... [1] http://openstreetview.org/ http://openstreetview.org/
- BoorishBears 10y ago
  Gmail was an example what I did think people could do for free/cheap. OSM isn't close to what Google Maps is, Google Maps is OSM+realtime traffic detection+Realtime transit integration+realtime Uber integeration+tracking municipal detours+a million other small things. I highly doubt any free project will ever be able to replicate the insanely extensive feature set Google Maps provides (half of them probably aren't even outward facing but improve direction data). The tracking aspect alone takes tracking device GPS data.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    You're entitled to your opinion!

x13 10y ago

1. The irony of this being on youtube 2. a gov-regulated repo of data.. seems horrible for privacy