I understand that Google may want more and more control over the web, but we need a free and open Internet, for both business innovation and non-economic societal growth. It's a good thing we have other data giants like Facebook and Amazon to say no to Google when moments arise like this.

And I predict that future technologies will democratize the ability to 3D-print hardware to be used with open-source networking and web software to connect to each other in ways that don't depend on single web companies like Google in order for it to be cheap and nice to use.

Think about this: no consumers care whether Google succeeds or not - people just want the web services that they want. Google could easily fade away and be supplanted by another entity in ten years' time if something sufficiently innovative and disruptive arrives on the scene.