> And I still consider what Google provides (search, gmail) "free" And you would join a large number of people who have recently started using that word to mea

> And I still consider what Google provides (search, gmail) "free" And you would join a large number of people who have recently started using that word to mean "can cost any amount in anything of value as long as it's not currency". So sure, it's "free" in that way and still not free in the definition of the term that's actually useful to people. Boring semantic argument, let's drop it. As to the rest, this is a much better way of phrasing it than in terms of Google's "generosity", which is what I was pointing out as flawed.