The Economics of Free

If 411 is a multi-billion dollar per year industry, then why can Google give away GOOG-411 for free? Because every time someone calls it and says something, Google records their voice and matches it to the business name to build a more robust voice recognition system. After a few years of collecting, this database is worth millions and millions. In effect, the caller is doing labor for Google while perceiving that they are using a free product.

If you think this type of stuff is interesting, you should check out the book Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business by Chris Anderson. It's full of interesting ideas about the internet and it's seemingly cost-free nature. I'm only half-way, but I have to say it's caused a lot of discussion so far...

Check it: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free