3 ms·

No, they don't sell that.

• hardwaresofton 7y ago
  Is this a possible future play? It's not like they're hurting for revenue but it seems like this is only a few steps away/easily possible.
  • adrianmonk 7y ago
    Selling that data would destroy trust and drive away users. As it currently is, they make a TON of money off using the data for ads. Why would they kill the goose that lays the golden egg? That seems like a terrible strategy.
  • sfifs 7y ago
    Nope they won't. Over 60% of their revenue comes from Search advertising (Ref: latest quarter financial reporting). If people lose trust, they may no longer hand over the data that makes their search relevant and also will broadly agitate for restrictions (as opposed to essentially nerds doing so right now) Much of Google's moves are explainable in terms of steps to protect and grow the search revenue stream.
  • solveit 7y ago
    Google is literally the market leader at using personal information to make money. In any sensible business plan, they'd be the ones buying data, except they don't have to, because they're also the best at collecting it! In general people greatly overestimate the potential gains from selling data relative to collecting your own. Most personal data is fairly general and bland and useless. Gains come from very specific data that caters to your particular use-case. The best way to get that data is usually to collect it yourself, not just because it's so specific, but also because tiny details in collection methods matter, and the only way to make sure it's been done right is to do it yourself.