[ksec]

>Did Google even know they were going to be an ad company back then?

Yes it was even listed on their IPO prospectus. They knew very early on it will be Ads. The only thing no one knew at the time was how big is the online ads market.

>and I don't think anybody actually realized just how well you would be able to target advertising by systematizing all the world's information

There were plenty ( including myself ). But no one gives a damn about it. Google's privacy issues were later reported in 2006 / 2007, and Steve Jobs went on to put more fuel into it, or I would even argue kick started the whole privacy angle in Silicon Valley.

[smeej]

Google went public in August 2004, so <5 months after Googlemail launched, which is what we're talking about here. And it's hard to criticize regular people for not seeing privacy issues in 2004 that weren't surfaced until 2006/7, especially when the average person barely knew how to use email.

I know 20 years doesn't seem like all that long ago, but no normal person had any expectation that they would be carrying a device in their pockets that reported their every move and conversation to a giant megacorp that sold their attention to the highest bidder. Not back then.