Ad-free Gmail: $2.99/month

I am working on a post on privacy that I will post next week. In the meantime I wanted to get an idea out there whose time I believe has come. You read the title right. I am suggesting that Google should offer an ad-free Gmail service in addition to its current ad-supported free version. Not just that. I am also suggesting that they should offer an ad-free Google services bundle for $4.99/month that includes YouTube, Maps, Search and all other popular google tools. Stupid? Preposterous? Allow me to make a case for you-the user and also you-Google.There has been a lot of commotion about what can be summarized simply as a "changing Google". It started with Google offering a more personalized search in the form of "Search plus your world" which I personally have no problems with. It continued this week with the rollout of a single Google privacy policy across all Google properties which again is perfectly fine if you took the time to read the fine print. All of a sudden people are worried about what Google is and can do with their data, while continuing to share every little bit of their life on Facebook.A paid Google service would solve a lot of problems for a lot of people in a simple and elegant way. Think about it like this.For the user:

• The paranoid user will have a way to know for sure that Google is doing nothing with his data. Not mining it. Not using it for ads. And not using it to make recommendations. And for this he pays no more than $60/year. Surely that is a cheap price to pay for one's privacy.
• When using the Chrome browser, the user will, by default operate in incognito mode. He can thus be certain that Google is not tracking his browsing data using cookies. He will of course continue to allow Internet Explorer to track all his footsteps but we will have that conversation for another day.
• When using Google Maps and Search, there will be no ads to clutter the screen. No suggested links. No personalized search. Just algorithmically page ranked results.

For Google:

• No more having to listen to Facebook junkies berating them on privacy.
• No more or atleast reduced European antitrust pains.
• No more backlash on any privacy changes even if it is for the better- the one answer for all such commotion would be," we offer a paid service for anyone concerned about their data over and above how sacrosanct we treat it."
• No more privacy ads from Microsoft- the company that literally tracks everything from the moment you switch on your Windows PC and spews targeted image ads on hotmail.
• No more Apple fanboys claiming Google is now evil.
• Make some money in the process. Imagine a million paid customers (which is extremely conservative). That would be a minimum of $36 million dollars a year for almost no real investment of time and effort. Many of these people rarely if ever click on ads anyways.

I am not trying to defend Google here. But the future might not have a one fit all solution especially when it comes to privacy. At that time, before the Government and public come knocking at its doors, it is easier to have an exit strategy in the first place. If Google had always been a paid service, would this conversation even happen?.