The Dilemma of Free
9:31 am March 30th, 2007 by Sal Cangeloso
Over at Searchblog there is a thought-provoking post on the idea of Google buying DoubleClick. The post does not say much about the implications of such a deal, but they would obviously be immense. The addition of DoubleClick to Google’s portfolio would mean that it would be able to serve third party advertisements, assuming Google goes the route they went with Urchin (Google Analytics) and opens up the service to everyone for free.
On one hand this would be great- a powerful service once reserved for only the largest sites on the net available to everyone. On the other, now Google “knows” that much more about your site, they effectively own your data, and because the service is free (and/or in beta) there is no recourse if something goes wrong.
While privacy concerns and the question of data ownership are extremely important, this last issue is something that I find especially concerning, especially after a number of Gmail accounts were deleted a few months back. This is so problematic because it gets to the very heart of the matter- these people used Google’s mail service because is was free, but also because Google seems like a company that can be relied upon, at least more so than the alternatives. The same holds true for analytics or RSS reading or notes (etc.). It is not just the performance and availability, but the security.
This all goes back to the question of how “free” anything really is. You don’t have to pay for Gmail, but it is ad supported, so it’s not really free. Plus with certain other services, not to single out Google here, the company reserves the right to collect and store your data (such as search history) so they may not be getting money out of you directly, but they are profiting from the transaction.
No one is saying that companies have to be altruistic or that everything you don’t have to pay for is bad, simply that it makes sense to weigh all the options before making a choice. The aspect of support is one that is especially crucial in this decision- generally, on the internet, the less you pay the less help you are going to get from the service provider. This may not be an issue 99% of the time, but when your email account is deleted or your ads are not being served, that monthly service charge may not seem as expensive as it once did.
Battelle’s post ends with this note (his italics):
My advice to Google? Don’t make it free. Make it better, make it cheaper, and let those who use it own the data. Ah, hell, make it free, but let those who use it own the data and guarantee them you won’t use it to your advantage. But then….why do it at all?
This got me thinking how important it is to examine how free services actually are and if going with something free ultimately makes sense on a case by case basis. I will be the first to admit at many times it does, but it is always something to consider. This reasoning can get really interesting when extended not just to services but to things like open source software, but that is a topic for another day.
edit- just when I thought I was picking up on a story of my own, I saw this on Techmeme
