Email predates google, however I don't thing the services would be anything alike without the bigger players. Initialy email was just a communication tool, however it quickly evolved to be sold as a feature on various hosting provides or was "thrown in" a more general package just to be feature par in attempt to bring in more people to use the service. This is not really directly related to online ads, however just shows that it's comercialized one way or another.
Open street map is a great example, along with wikipedia and numerous open source projects which are either backed by some foundations or collect donations and membership fees. The broader scope here is that while this is a better approach for the world, as long as there is the possibility to earn a buck on some service, there will be a comercial version of it. Guess capitalism just works that way.
Open street map is a great example, along with wikipedia and numerous open source projects which are either backed by some foundations or collect donations and membership fees. The broader scope here is that while this is a better approach for the world, as long as there is the possibility to earn a buck on some service, there will be a comercial version of it. Guess capitalism just works that way.