Either they were shit slow updating it (which wouldnt be surprising, the Reg isnt overly concerned with facts) or you are blind.

Either they were shit slow updating it (which wouldnt be surprising, the Reg isnt overly concerned with facts) or you are blind.
Either way, as anyone with the slightest clue told ya long ago, its now been updated![]()
You could think that
Or you could have the sense to see it was just a cut'n'paste job from their other services where it actually makes sense.
And there are plenty of ways to use it without agreeing to those![]()
Broken up? Have any of their products actually cost you anything, directly?
Yes. And they've cost you money as well. Almost every online advertiser in the western world spends the lion's share of its online advertising budget with Google (I personally will sign off millions of pounds to Google this year), and because of their dominant market position, Google can change the advertising rules at will (the last time they did it was in May), which raises costs, which will ultimately be passed to the consumer. Google have got to this point by being very good at what they do, no question about that, but they have more influence over the fate of most businesses than government, and as businesses generate an increasing share of their income online, it will only get worse.
The genius of it from Google's point of view is that because their revenue comes from business and not the end consumer, then unlike with say, Microsoft, the general public tends not to care; they also very cannily stay away from all the messy stuff like customer service relationships, but Google are probably more influential than Microsoft, all the phone companies and bucketload of Rupert Murdochs. I'd also suggest that Google's dominance in their core business (search) has already stifled innovation; its now extremely difficult for a new search provider to gain traction because they would automatically be beholden to Google for the lion's share of their traffic!
Are you expecting an apology because I dont wear a tinfoil hat?You keep saying that like it makes everything OK.
Those are indirect costs are they not? Not direct costs, which is what I asked. You may as well complain about the price of Cillit Bang, a product that is successful mainly because of television advertising.
If Google are good at what they do, its up to the competition to do it better.

End of the day, they're putting software out there which is as good or better than paid for alternatives.
Doesn't mean a monopoly is good. Imo a smartass employee there should quit and make an alternative. Competition will lift Google itself and others to new heightsYou shouldn't blame google for being "monopilistic"...what you should be doing is blaming all the other companies that were so stuck in their ways that they let google dominate the market so much so that there is now no real alternative....
Doesn't mean a monopoly is good.