Free Cell Phones
by
Randy Mears
The news that Google’s CEO is talking-up free cell phones only makes sense when you think about Google’s ad based revenue model. The idea that everything should be free for those of us willing to put-up with advertising has been with us since the Internet first started serving up free content. In reality, many of us won’t settle for the basic free stuff, opting instead to spend a little money on more robust, faster, richer or advertising-free capabilities.
That this topic would be broached by Google is no surprise. After all, Google derives virtually all of its revenue from selling text ads on the Web's most popular search service. Logically, and from a Google revenue standpoint, doesn't this mean that we should ultimately look for added value search services from Google, for a price? Maybe not, because it does make an odd sort of sense that searching free content should itself be free.
Is the message here that free communications will ultimately be added to the list of other widely available free services? I suppose it is possible; after all, we already have free search, free communities, free software, free information, free mail and free storage.
