Over the last couple of days these two articles caught my eye: Google experimenting with free mobile access to its web services in developing markets and How every smartphone could become a Facebook phone.
As much as one can applaud these companies for giving free Internet access to people who might not be able to afford it otherwise — it leaves one wondering. Given that both Google and Facebook are publicly traded companies which have clear obligations toward their shareholders I am not sure if this is a healthy trend.
Remind me to tell you my eBay story one day. Wonderful (and sad) example what happens to even the best intentions when a publicly traded company stops hitting their growth numbers.