[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]And thats the problem, the original poster assumes the world revolves around him, these companies do not care about you, the person, they care about us, the consumers.We are never ever factored into decisions based on what "you" or "I" want, we are all boiled down into statistics and averages.So yes that one poster is very happy that he doesn't give his click contribution and denies Google that whopping $0.00000000001, but advertising is passive as well.If I said the words Jack Daniels, McDonalds, Pepsi the brand logos are automatically flashed in your (the public, not you) mind, you have already been advertised to and it is in your consumer mind. Next time you drive past a McDonalds you can hear the jiggle and remember the smell of a Big Mac.All that advertising is paid for somewhere.Apple spent $691 million in 2010 on advertising, it sure as hell doesn't absorb that cost from the bottom line, every penny was clawed back with the higher retail cost of their products, that's almost $24 for every iPad ever sold.[/citation]
This is so, so silly. You miss the point, absolutely, and entirely.
For every single person in this world, the world DOES revolve around them. If a guy in Spain decides to buy a Ferrari, that doesn't mean that suddenly I have somehow paid for a Ferrari, because on 'average' people have paid 0.00001% of a Ferrari each. I have a choice not to buy a Ferrari, and that choice is very important. That choice is what the original poster likes. What you're talking about, in terms of averages, is not at all relevant to the individual. We are all individuals. The companies like Google work off averages and that's fine, but that DOESN'T IMPACT ANY SPECIFIC USER WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT.
The one poster isn't happy of denying Google, on average probably $0.20 (not 0.00000000001), they are happy because they were provided with services which demanded no fees in return. That is the reality faced by the original poster, and every other person.
Talking about McDonalds advertising, could not be more irrelevant, what has McDonalds advertising got to do with Google, and what has McDonalds necessarily got to do with the original poster anyway? Being exposed to advertising doesn't cost the original poster anything, at all. Similarly, your claim that Apple 'spends money on advertising' is so simplistic, obvious, and irrelevant - it has no relevance whatsoever to whether or not the original poster is charged for using Google services. He will be exposed to advertising on a vast variety of mediums all the time anyway, and it costs him nothing. If he buys an Apple product, and the Apple product has Google marketing, then yes he is indirectly giving Google money, but a) That purchase is optional, he may not buy it. and b) He may actually get a lower price because of the aforementioned cost benefits associated with advertising on Google. and c) If he never buys an Apple product, he's not contributing ANYTHING AT ALL to ANY apple costs, advertising or otherwise.
The bottom line, which you can't seem to grasp, is that it's possible for Joe Bloggs from London to use Google Services without a penny of his money ever having gone to Google, either directly or indirectly. Whether or not other people have paid for it or not is completely irrelevant, because if you go to that extreme, all things in the world ever have been paid for by everyone. If you took things to that extreme then you personally also paid for a Ferrari, and you paid for all the people who bought Apple products, because we can't consider you an 'individual', we have to assume that an 'average you' bought a small percentage of a Ferrari and lets say an Apple device. Effectively your logic means that every single person in the world is a consumer of every single product for every single company. In other words, complete, absurd, ridiculous, nonsense.
The beauty of both the Ferrari and the Google services, is the CHOICE. With Ferrari, you have a choice either to buy it or not to buy it. With Google services, you have a choice whether you finance the free services indirectly or not by clicking ads, buying from companies who advertise on Google.
That choice, is ESSENTIAL, PIVOTAL and the MOST IMPORTANT factor to EVERY individual.
The one poster is