Re: That's silly
"Google take about £150 each year out of the pockets of every wage earner in the UK through their take of the advertising market. Ad funded doesn't come cheap."
How do you figure they take that money "out of your pocket"? Coca-Cola not getting to buy as many clicks comes "out of your pocket"? I think the truth is that if the corporate marketers were not paying as much for Google, they would just find some other way to waste the cash. Maybe there would be a nice billboard out your front window that doesn't exist. MSFT, on the other hand, is taking cash out of your pocket directly. If MSFT would just adhere to the common formats for docs, 90% of people and companies would just stop buying Office and use Libre or whatever instead.
Ad funded doesn't come cheap... for corporate marketing departments. For everyone else, it is free. Robin Hood situation. I think it is great that Google has figured out a way for credit card companies to voluntarily pay for my software.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
