Predictions are hardly a problem. They are fun, we are wired to make them, we have foresight so why not use it. The point when making a prediction is not to be right, but to go through mental scenarios of possibilities based on the present and try and make a rational decision based on that.<p>And, if someone made a correct prediction in the past, it does not mean he will in the future. Life is great because amongst other things it can take you by complete surprise.<p>Anyway, that hardly would be on the list of "problems". And google is mainly a service provider than a tool maker. The main service which is search and advertising both of which have plenty of problems which would significantly improve people's life way above predictions. If they solve the many problems of search I would be way happier than if they told me in some sort of big brother way who said what when and why he was wrong and who is right and who should I believe and...<p>Just keep your feet to the ground google. The world is not yours to occupy, you know mighty empires have tried and failed. Just retain your focus if you may.<p>As for the micro payments, I was doing some data analysis yesterday and it does come to 0.5 cent per user from advertising revenue. So requesting micro payments might be an annoyance by requiring logging in at all times, etc. Even if the system was so as to not disturb me at all, I would rather not have to pay 0.5 cent. It seems nothing of course, but god knows how many articles I read a day. Especially since the web master hardly would gain much. It might be perhaps a good idea to be an alternative for the user to choose a non ad version of a site and pay 0.5c to do so. I doubt it would catch on though. The internet wants to and needs to be free. Its popularity and usefulness is dependent on the free consumption of information supported by advertising.<p>Now, google could of course lower the share it gets from ads on sites, I mean, they have a really high profit margin and it is a little bit selfish of them.