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You Are the Service, Not the Customer
German public radio program DRadio Wissen spoke with me this week on the subject of Google and the Future, with a particular emphasis on privacy. The conversation, which ran about 20 minutes, was edited down to a 12 minute report, mixing German and English.
The DRadio Wissen page in English (via Google Translate, of course).
The original DRadio Wissen page in German (hit the "Abspielen" button to play the audio).
The title here (also the title given the piece at DRadio Wissen) nicely sums up my argument: Google is a long-term focused company, with plenty of smart people and big ideas, but everything (for now) remains driven by advertising. Gmail, Maps, and all of its other services are offered solely as a way to bring eyeballs to Google's real customers, advertisers.
