On July 1, search giant Google will start collecting a fee for a service it once offered for free. The changes, in this instance, affect Internet marketing and advertising companies that rely on data from AdWords, Google"s do-it-yourself advertising feature. Google"s move though raises a broader question about whether the firm will make similar changes affecting developer access it allows to other features.
There"s plenty of motivation to do so. For one, Google"s been under pressure to come up with new revenue sources to prepare for a predicted slowdown in the growth in Internet search ads, now its main source of income.