Indeed, and this is how Google used to be as a company. I remember when Google Maps & Earth launched, and how they felt like world-changing technology. I'm sure they're doing lots of innovative science and development still, but it's and advertising/services company now, and one that increasingly talks down to its users. Disappointing considering their early sense of mission.

Thinking back to the firm's early days, it strikes me that some HN users and perhaps even some Googlers have no memory of a time before Google Maps and simply can't imagine how disruptive and innovative things like that were at the time. Being able to browse satellite imagery for the whole world was something previously confined to the upper echelons of the military-industrial complex.

That's one reason I wish the firm (along with several other tech giants) were broken up; it's full of talented innovative people, but the advertising economics at the core of their business model warp everything else.