Good article and generally agree with the sentiment. Google isn't doing this out of the goodness of its heart. As well as PR generally though, it's as much ab

Good article and generally agree with the sentiment. Google isn't doing this out of the goodness of its heart. As well as PR generally though, it's as much about owning the consumer. Google and Facebook are increasingly the portals through which the majority of people consume content online. Each wants to protect and grow that - it's central to their business model (and a well-understood strategy generally). The biggest threat to either is disintermediation. That would mean both less eyeballs and reduced ability to profile --> less effective hyper targeting --> reduced attractiveness to advertisers. In that context, $1bn is loose change for keeping the content providers as commodity suppliers behind the Google brand.