Not to attack your post, but I feel as though the HN community is aware of Google's business model by now. I feel as though any time a story appears about Google (or any company that utilizes their model), there are at least a few comments about how ads are what is driving them. It just seems to be restating common knowledge, at this point. You aren't the only one to be doing it either, I just happened to reply to this post.
I don't see how it's any less relevant to the discussion of "they should charge so the service is smoother". If we're going to have that conversation, then it's important to acknowledge that they already have a business model that addresses this. Google isn't hurting for money nor are their projects and when something like gmail encounters a hitch, it has nothing to do with funding. Giving gmail more funding or funding it by direct service fees over their existing model isn't going to make it any more reliable, since it is still susceptible to "things just going bad" from time to time. Really, if my comment is inane, then so is the whole submission (which I would kind of agree with - no slight intended to the submitter).
