Regarding the "you get what you pay for" argument, in this case what you're paying Google is not "zero". You're paying them in data - specifically what they can learn about your email usage patterns. That might well be <i>very</i> valuable to Google, so they'd be happy to give you an awesome product for "nothing".<p>The HN mantra of "If you're not paying then you're the product" holds true in this example.