waves in the aether

Reading Evslin’s why not apis post I wondered how google makes money on their api.

If the api is free and you can’t control the rendering of the api, then how does an ad company like google make money?

I am reminded of a story my grandfather told me when I was a kid (he is a farmer).

I asked the guy how much his cabbage was. He said, “Ten cents a head, but the more you buy the cheaper it gets.”

So I said, “Keep loading it on my truck until its free.”

It seems to be the underlying theme of web services these days.