Stack Overflow helped it to scale really well, too. You could answer a question, just once, and over time it could help dozens then hundreds then thousands of people.
It’s easy to be cynical, but actually that was really awesome.
But then again, I think that I've profited quite a bit from having Google maps as a resource, far more than the contribution I've made.
It feels much better to look at the fact that it's a place that people help share information useful to each other, which happens to profit a large company, than to only focus jealously on the fact that said large company has hit upon a way to monetize the sharing of this information.
Both things are true, and whether you think it's great or horrid really is a matter of perspective.
So Jeff took that money instead.