https://www.wired.com/story/eu-hits-google-third-billion-dol...
What would actually happen for users if they added a zero? Would poor people be SOL if they want high quality maps?
But what about stuff like Google Assistant? Seems like Google does a lot that doesn't serve ads, so I assume it must be either to sell their hardware or to spy. Are the hardware sales alone worth it to a CEO?
Eh? Google Assistant is the quickest shortcut so serve you an ad, but also can do your calendar.
> Are the hardware sales alone
No way, especially the Google branded ones. But the ability to shoehorn it's ads on almost every device - is priceless. Don't forget, the Android smartphones are practically useless without Play Store and every Play Store install not only allows you to install apps, but:
links the device with your account (so any data explicitly known to come from this device is now can be correlated with you)
sends your location data
provides the way for you to spend the money, including RL
servers as a giant ad sink - every freemium game/app there has the ads from... you know whom?
They seem to mostly just exist to do tracking to enhance the stuff that does do ads, or to add value to some other thing that shows them, but they're not directly ad supported, they're tracking supported or pure promotions.