This strategy is well-known by several companies, abandoning traditional marketing approaches in last years and offering whitepapers and small freeware as standard business practice.
But probabaly no company embraces this vision like Google, which actually monitors an overwhelming amount of users details offering several valuable products.
Further releases will then aim to fill as much users needs as possible, covering areas where no solution exist or where existing solutions are too expensive (3D modeling tool SketchUp is an example in this direction).
Next big, possibly the biggest, step in this direction could be the release of a content filtering product: a software proxying requests departing from computers to Internet, blocking or warning in case of prohibited contents.
Initially focused only on URL filtering, this technology extended controls also on email, FTP, P2P and other network oriented protocols, becoming the first tool for business productivy control at office and parental control at home.
The most popular company in this segment is Websense.
The URL filtering component, still the most requested feature, relies on the the activity of cataloging Internet sites in several groups like politics, sex, technology, news and so on, permitting the administrator to block a whole category at will and redirecting requests for a site contained in that category to a warning page.
Efficacy of this blocking activity completely depends on how precise and how often is updated the catalog, which require huge resources and intelligent algorithms to correctly label as much sites as possible. Something that translates in a very expensive product.
After working some years with URL filtering technologies I can say they are far from perfection but the precision level without customization is satisfactory for most businesses and surely for home usage.
Google could release such tool easily.
From a technical point of view the search leader can count on the widest and most updated database (think Google Sitemap tool used by worldwide site maintainers to push changes as fast as possible) ever, on a categorizing algorithm in experimentation (look at the recent Google Related Links and Google Sets), on a highly trusted desktop tool to do the monitoring (Google Toolbar, actually bundled with more and more 3rd parties, unrelated products).
Also it's important to remember that a first form of content filtering is in place (and active by default) on searches since months with the SafeSearch feature.
From a motivational point of view Google would have reasons as well: accused to not strictly control indexing of child exploitation contents, the company's Associate General Counsel recently remarked committment to filter our pedopornography. Closing with a promise:
These are just the beginning. We believe that much can be done to combat child exploitation online, and are committed to doing our part to protect the Internet as a safe place for all.
Being Websense (and competitors) I would plan as soon as possible the release of a free-for-personal-use version of my product.
Update: As predicted Google started implementing a rating system for its results, as Site Advisor does, thanks to cooperation with The Stop Badware Coalition.
From here to a full-featured content filtering product the step is short.
