Comment by turtle4

While I understand your point - businesses should act in ways that benefit themselves. I think that is simply a recipe for a business to succeed, but it is a short-sighted one. I think the guideline which Google is putting out is better for the system as a whole, our economy, and the end user. And that seems to be - businesses should act in ways that benefit themselves and their users. The fact that what Google is really saying do what is good for your end-users (and us) is irrelevant in terms of my support of their stance.

None of the existing companies have to let you leave freely or support the movement of your data, but to a large extent they have been willing to and it has benefitted the end users, the economy, and the web, in the form of new start-ups, new mash-ups, and interesting ways to view and share the data you've put into other systems. If one company wants to benefit from that sharing, but not return the favor, I think consumers ought to call them on it. The unfortunate fact that most users don't understand the effect means that other companies are going to have to make them aware, and Google is taking that step.

I hope they succeed, but it isn't because I think Google needs the graph access: it is because in the end it will benefit the end user in general and us (hn/new startups) to do so.