This is just another way to capture user information. The mobile network operators are capturing usage activity, tying it very precisely to location. I'm convinced they're making a killing on this data. Google wants to bump them out of the way, and enter the market, and capture it directly, expanding their reach even further, and becoming even more of an advertising monopoly in the process.
Thanks Matt for highlighting this! I live in San Mateo County in CA and have been advocating for us to expand our existing muni networks. It'll be interesting to see how much momentum these efforts gain with a local gorilla like Google now pushing the same thing.
I will be making a presentation next month to local muni and county IT officials about ways to fund muni broadband network expansion, so this is great timing. Hope it leads to some progress.
Do you know of anyone who has looked at how app stores came to be? Is there any chance at all that app stores in general, or hardware and operating-system supplier owned app stores (e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung) could be made illegal?
Prior to app stores we had review sites to find new kinds of programs and compare them, and could directly download programs from the company websites.
I see a definite benefit to this kind of distribution compared to central repositories which track and manage purchases and have difficulties screening out malware.
This reminds me of a truth that hit me in 2018 or 2019. Google and its allies largely invented the phony bogeyman of "net neutrality" back in 2014 or so to attack the legacy telecom and content distributors. I hold no brief for them. But Google's strategy, in full alliance with the Obama-Biden White House, was to distract everyone else from the the *real* monopolist in the room. A few people, like Scott Galloway, were already wise to Big Tech way back when, six years ago, and calling for their breakup. I'm sure the Borg took notice.
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This is just another way to capture user information. The mobile network operators are capturing usage activity, tying it very precisely to location. I'm convinced they're making a killing on this data. Google wants to bump them out of the way, and enter the market, and capture it directly, expanding their reach even further, and becoming even more of an advertising monopoly in the process.
Theta network
Thanks Matt for highlighting this! I live in San Mateo County in CA and have been advocating for us to expand our existing muni networks. It'll be interesting to see how much momentum these efforts gain with a local gorilla like Google now pushing the same thing.
I will be making a presentation next month to local muni and county IT officials about ways to fund muni broadband network expansion, so this is great timing. Hope it leads to some progress.
Hey Matt,
Do you know of anyone who has looked at how app stores came to be? Is there any chance at all that app stores in general, or hardware and operating-system supplier owned app stores (e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung) could be made illegal?
Prior to app stores we had review sites to find new kinds of programs and compare them, and could directly download programs from the company websites.
I see a definite benefit to this kind of distribution compared to central repositories which track and manage purchases and have difficulties screening out malware.
This reminds me of a truth that hit me in 2018 or 2019. Google and its allies largely invented the phony bogeyman of "net neutrality" back in 2014 or so to attack the legacy telecom and content distributors. I hold no brief for them. But Google's strategy, in full alliance with the Obama-Biden White House, was to distract everyone else from the the *real* monopolist in the room. A few people, like Scott Galloway, were already wise to Big Tech way back when, six years ago, and calling for their breakup. I'm sure the Borg took notice.