1w ago

How does Google make money from Gmail, the google calendar, drive or other services when used with third party front ends?

I realise that Google places ads in the native Gmail environment. However, when using a third party front end to embed the Google services, how does the company make money off that? When I use Thunderbird to access Gmail or the Google Calendar or when I map my Google Drive to the file explorer, how can Google profit from this kind of use?

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The knowledge of what you do, where you work, who you talk to, what you eat, who your doctor is, where you shop, everywhere you go, what diseases or disorders you have, what kind of clothes you wear, what your family life is like, etc, are incredibly valuable to a company trying to show you ads. It doesn’t matter if you don’t see them through Gmail. Google owns so much of the internet, you’ll see them eventually.
Get your email from an email company, not an ad company.

Metadata.
It knows who you are talking to from the to and from fields, possibly the context based on the subject, if the do scan the email contents then they will know what you are interested in.
Gather that info with your search history it can sell targeted advertising.
- So, it's basically a loss leader in this scenario to feed other sevices like the ad network?
  
  For personal Gmail yes.
  
  Yes. About 75% of Google's revenue is from ads. Most (all?) of their free products exist to feed the advertising business in one way or another.
- They're scanning the email contents.
  and your google drive contents.
  and everything else you send through their services.
  
  That's why I am no longer using their services like Gmail and Google Maps. I jumped tot alternatives, much recommended.
  
  Google does not use the content of Gmail messages for ad targeting. Lots of misinformation here.

Remember: if you're not paying for a service, you're the product.
They harvest your data for a variety of reasons. 1) they pair your data with your broader Google profile (including search results, ad clicks, website views, etc) to better deliver targeted ads. 2) they train their AI (although that's an indirect revenue stream, and much more recent).
- Remember: if you're paying for a service, you're also likely the product.
  
  Check the privacy policy. It's about all you can do these days, and hope it doesn't change post fact.
- Remember: if you’re not paying for a service, you’re the product.
  So... Tor network and Signal?
  Wikipedia?
  Archive.org?
  Lemmy?
  (Not all free services are evil lol 😉)
  
  I pay $10 a month to Wikipedia.
  
  None of those are business though, they are non profits

These data allows
To train AI model, which is considered as a gold mine today
To do targetted ads (Yes we do have blocker and so on but still)

they use your data to train their ai. they show you ads on other platforms and webs. they are fucking your privacy

They probably make more money selling data collected from its use through any means, than they do selling ads in their own apps.
Remember: If the thing is free, you are the actual product getting sold.

I recommend the book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. It’s from 2018 but it is still very applicable. It explains what big tech is doing/trying to do with your data and how they intend to make money.
It’s info dense and may take some time to get through but it is very eye opening even for someone like myself that felt pretty well aware of their tactics and intentions before reading the book.
- Shoshana Zuboff really was ahead of its time. So many people who were privacy conscious and therefore thought they were clever by simply thinking that Google makes money by only selling your data completely missed the scale of manipulation and control big tech has (myself included).
  Google/big tech doesn't sell your data. Google/big tech sells advertisers predictions of your behaviour, a highly refined, processed version of your data. Advertisers cannot purchase your data, only "impressions" or "views." In an extra sinister twist, Google/big tech then uses it's resources to manipulate you in ways such that their predictions become true.
  This is why their predictions are the best, because after making them, they have a financial incentive to manipulate them into being true. It is why we naturally see more and more polarization, because after Google has sold the prediction that you will engage is a specific type of content (e.g. right ring rabbit holes), it is financially incentivised to make that a reality, and therefore further push you in that direction, to make their prediction true.
  How to “improve” prediction using behavior modification - ScienceDirect - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207022001066

Could be a loss leader to suppress competition and own the market, getting you into their other paid services. They probably also profit from your data either directly or through things like training AI.

Don't forget that most people do not use external applications such as Thunderbird. You're a blip on the radar.

Many people pay for additional storage on Google.
Plus tying your online identity to Google means you're more likely to use their other services.

I think ads on Gmail are also a thing of the past, aren't they? The answer to your question is: no income. But you're having a constant time share lunch with Google to actually buy a share in a beachfront condo. By which I mean subscribe to their cloud and AI plan. Or YouTube. Or their business suite. Etc. And then they have converted you to a paying customer. The free service is an investment to get you hooked and then paying.
And in the meantime they can collect some data from you so when you're faced with ads they might be more effective.

This still causes you to have a Google account and probably use it for other purposes too, during some of which you will see ads.
- Unfortunately this seems all to plausible. Despite Firefox and ad blocking in general, there's very few services that rival Google's Android and (in my opinion) none that can honestly rival Maps at present.
  
  I rarely use Google Maps (you really should check out OpenStreetMap and OsmAnd), but I use Android and YouTube a lot.

Every little bit your device sends to google is being used. Your IP, mac address, email contents, cookies (now kinda phased out by fingerprinting), phone number, etc

They're still collecting data that helps them sell ads.

I wonder what percentage of people access Gmail and Calendar through third party frontends in 2025. I would bet the number is very low.

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