If you have an existing free unlimited plan they should grandfather that in.
In a year they will start charging for gmail.
In two or three they will start charging for search.
They do. Photos uploaded before the change next year do not count.
Wouldn't it be 'bait and switch' if they did that after less time, say 1 year? 10 years is more than reasonable. And if you disagree, that's fine, but I'm curious to hear what number of years would you consider reasonable then? I'm not excited about the news either but I think it's _fair_.
Apply that logic to other situations and it doesn't make sense. I get that `you` may be ok with this, but it doesn't change what it is.
Regardless of whether we individually feel what is happening is 'fair', we should be able to acknowledge why someone is upset and that this is indeed a bait & switch. Customers were offered unlimited backup and storage of the photos they took. Customers used said service with that expectation, while competitors to it went out of business, and now, they are forced to pay for continued service. That is a bait & switch.
The moment we have to start saying, "well, they should have known better" or "how did you expect this to be free forever" puts us into victim blaming territory. Just because someone could have been aware of a bait & switch/scam, doesn't make that practice not a bait & switch/scam.
'unlimited backup and storage of the photos' was the market pitch, whether people read the TOS is another thing. I can see why some people would feel unhappy with this and I can't blame anyone for that but on the other hand I wish we would stop taking these vague market statements at face value. 'free', 'unlimited' and 'forever' can never go together in a capitalist market. And I'll abruptly stop here because I would derail into things like law and ethics which, I think, are out of my scope.
> while competitors to it went out of business
This is honestly a tragedy that happens all across the industry at the moment.
You don't like it, you have the option to take your photos somewhere else.
Now the choice is to pay or walk away.
> In two or three they will start charging for search.
Great! They should.
I would pay for this now if as a result google started respecting privacy.
