I think that an all powerful consumer, who the companies will have to fight hardly for, it the most
probably future of business.
With it, low-cost consumer products may come hand in hand.
But there will be a stronger call for individuality and impact that the product makes on the
emotions of the consumer.
These services are offered for free to you because YOU are not their customers. You are an end user,
their customers are businesses who pay bucket loads of cash to these "free" companies to advertise
on their sites.
There is no such thing as a service provided for free. Somewhere in the chain is an exchange of
cash. Put it down to naivety, business is business. The aim is to make money. I'm interested to know
how you thought Google could afford to run a search engine, pay employees and lease plush offices...