[truthbe]

> Google made an egalitarian web, where money doesn't matter and attention does.

They did? Could have sworn their whole business model up until the other day was attention for whomever can pay the highest bid for their ad space.. I guess I've been doing it wrong

[WarmWash]

Any person on earth with internet can use google's standard suite of products with no money necessary. I'm not aware of any other company that did it before them, on the scale that they did it. That is straight out of the progressive book of a utopian future. No money, equal access.

It's not egalitarian for advertisers, they need to pay money and compete. So Google is structered where megacorps pay the money to cover costs of the services you use, rather than you needing to come up with the money. This system made google available to every person on earth with an internet connection, billionaire rich or $2/day poor, you were using the same Maps, same Sheets, same Youtube, same Search, etc.

This isn't a defense of the system, frankly now I wish it was paid, even if that means 6 billions people who had accounts can no longer afford them. It's a recognition of the system for what it is, not what people who never really thought about it or understood it think it is.

Also, a side note, Facebook followed right behind Google with this model.