Would you pay to search?What if your Google were no longer free?With talks that web portals such as Google and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter will sonn charge users of their services a fee, the time may have come when searching for joumals and doing assignment research will have a price tag attached to it.

‘Fess up.  You just paid a visit to Mininova.org, didn’t you? You’ve probably even got Limewire running in the background. While it certainly is illegal, let’s face it: we all do it; there is a little pirate in all of us.
Now, what if Google, or any web portal for that matter, made it impossible to do so? What if you had to pay to use their search engine? And they ensured that it would be pirate-proofed. Would you cough it up?
Sometime earlier this year, the search engine was reported to have mentioned to investors their plans to start charging users of their services (including YouTube) a small monthly subscription fee. This, however, is not fresh-off-the-rack; in 2002, Google began discussions on charging users for their News service and for their powerful search engine as well.
Apparently, the idea is being seen in a more serious light now. Discussions on blogs and online forums have chewed on this issue – there is talk that the ‘free lunches’ of Internet applications are over.
YouTube and Google are not the only ones to have caused no end of consternation among Internet users –Facebook and Twitter have also planned on charging their members, and have reportedly begun drawing up business models for it as well.
Discussions have also already been running around the boardrooms of major Web organisations that it is time they began making profits from the millions and millions of users who use their services every hour.
Forums have picked up on this news and almost all have reacted with a resounding ‘No’, with a few ‘Yes’s’ thrown in. Many have declared that if the payment includes everything else Google has to offer (search, maps, directory, and news, among others) they would pay, but not for search alone. As for social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, forums in LinkedIn.com showed that 20 out of 23 answers were a solid No –reasons extending from the fact that it is simply not going to sit well with users to it being not worth the price.
Still, let’s face it: we take a lot of the Internet services we have for granted. Don’t know a song lyric? Google it up! Want to find journals or newspaper articles? Google to the rescue! But at some point, we will have to start paying for those status changes on Facebook, start paying to own and write in a blog, and to search for song lyrics, journals, articles, news… trouble is, would you? Would you pay a fixed fee every month to have the joy of searching for absolutely anything with the wriggle of your fingers and a determined left-click? And would you, as a student, (with only the clothes on your back and a head-full of knowledge) be able to afford paying for it?
Internet Marketing Coach and self-made millionaire Fione Tan, who is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of eOneNet.com, says “As a website owner, I can see that ‘free’ does attract major traffic and users.
“However, companies would need to remain profitable or have other sources of income from the users’ activities on the site, if not charging for subscription or use of their services,” she explains. “Just like other portals in certain markets who charge for their services, there will always be complaints –there is no way to please all users while maintaining a profitable company for company growth expectations.”
Like Yahoo!, which offers users the choice between a premium or free account, Tan thinks that if there was a major difference between the paid and free version of Google or YouTube, she would not mind paying to use them.
“There are many people that are willing to pay for quality service and support. If paying for YouTube means being able to host my own videos and use their applications with full support, paying for it shouldn’t be a hassle,” she says. “It takes a lot of resources to maintain popular tools such as these and customers will definitely understand.”
“For those that do not want to pay, then they can just continue to use the free version with limited functions or no support. Therefore, by having a variety of packages, then it can appear to different groups of users,” she offers. “These would definitely depend on what level of support is included and the fees if it’s below US$50 per month, then this should not be a major concern.”
Still, it is fair indeed to say that this move will affect students more so than anyone else –students who depend on Google for pretty much everything from ‘Megan Fox pictures’ to ‘consequences of smoking’ to ‘politics in Malaysia’.
Melissa Ho, 23, weighs in: “Will I pay? It really depends on other alternatives,” she says. “I will probably start using other search engines first.” This Psychology and Communications student winces a little as she ponders the amount she may pay, if the ka-ching kicks in.
“I will maybe only pay US$5, at most. That works out to be US$ 60 a year,” she says. “This will definitely make it more difficult for students in particular. We can’t afford it, and then there is that problem of multiple users in universities, schools and cyber cafes.”
She also expects a mini-boycott of Google. “We, as students, are quite spoiled. We don’t want to pay for something that we can get for free elsewhere.”
After all, she says, having to pay for Google (or any other search engine or web portal, for that matter) will be very frustrating for students, who rely heavily on Google to finish assignments, look up research papers and so on. “Honestly, it may even cause a divide of sorts. A small number of students may be able to pay, but others will not.”
Still, she realises, that from the other side of the coin, Google cannot continue to fund their search engines without any recognisable direct profits from the services offered. “After all, it takes an enormous amount of money to maintain and fund servers, employees, and all those think tanks.”
Twenty-year-old Lim Yve Von is a definite Maybe. “If Yahoo was still free, I would not pay. But if Yahoo started charging, I would pay –though it largely depends on how much they’re charging. I would not pay more than RM5 a month!”
However, when confronted with the possibility of most, if not all, of web portals (Yahoo and Hotmail, for example) and search engines embarking on a plan to make users pay, Lim seems at a loss for words.
“Well, in this case, I can’t go online anymore!” she jokes. “I am very dependent on Google. I think all students are. How many students actually go to the library anymore? And some of our libraries in universities are not well-stocked.”
She also says that if Google started charging, there will be impracticality on the use of Google in universities, colleges and cyber cafes. “Who will bear the cost? The individual user? Or is there a ‘package’ fee?”
Lim, a marketing student, suggests a different way for Google to make more profits. “It’s called ‘cloud computing’, where Google can offer medium-sized companies information storage on their (Google’s) servers for a fixed fee. It may not be a new thing, but this is one of the areas that can be developed rather than charging the general public.”
Tan Yian May, 23, says that she would most likely pay for Google. “I would pay even up to RM 30 per month.” She reasons that the people behind the genius of Google need to turn a profit as well. “Think of the developers and all the people behind Google.”
She does, however, admit that she is not overly dependent on Google, preferring also to look up hard material from books, journals and articles for her assignments. Nonetheless, she feels that students of moderate family incomes will pay, regardless of the hassle. However, there will be a problem of some who may refuse to pay and find ways to use it illegally.
“We as students are spoiled by all the free stuff we get off the net –we have this buy one, free five attitude” she points out.
Alyani Syaida  Azlan, 19, would hesitate to pay for Google search, because she believes that information should be made free and open to all –there should not be a price to pay to look for that information.
“More money is less information, and less information is a huge issue for students!” she emphasises. “Perhaps Google could start charging for a premium account to increase profits.”
Siti Faiza Amira, also 19, agrees –it is not fair or worth it to be charged for information. “I am really quite dependent on Google, so this would be a big impact on me.”
She suggests a different way for Google to bump up the profits –“perhaps they can charge a small fee for downloads, but not for viewing.”
Robin Ho Choon Ren has Google as his homepage, but he would not pay if he can continue to use it for free. “Even if the time came that I have to pay for it, I would not pay a lot –there is a low, low chance I will even pay for it,” says this 20-year-old student.
“It’s a financial thing,” he confirms. “Students simply cannot afford to pay for it.” Though fair is as fair does, Robin agrees that many students are spoiled with the ‘free’ applications on the Internet.
Punetha Peremalo, 19, an accounting student, would not pay either –and once again, it is a financial problem. “Google can make money, yes, but it would not be practical –what about students who have no income of their own?”
“Google can seek revenue elsewhere, such as pay-per-click advertisements,” she says.
While all these students do depend quite heavily on Google, especially their search engine, all of them are hesitant to pay –but this sentiment is not echoed by Eileen See, 21, who once pretty much saved herself from joining a fraudulent company simply by Googling the name of the company.
“I discovered that this company, which I had applied for and got an interview, was a running scam –they would put up misleading and false job responsibilities, intending instead to use those who applied for a totally different job altogether.” She shares that a Google search revealed this scam, and the very next day, she hastily cancelled her interview.
“I would pay for Google once it stops being free,” she says.
Soraya Kee, 19, would most likely pay, though she would not actually want to. “It’s been free all these years, but I would pay, because I am so used to Google and I don’t want to resort to other alternatives such as other search engines or to other networking sites.”
“I am very dependent on Google, I use it several hundred times a day!” she jokes. “I would pay up to RM20 a month.”
Personally, Kee thinks that Google may use their loyal users for a short while, but eventually it will recover due to how much a part of everyday life it has become.
“They might lose users for a while, but I think these websites have become so indispensible that eventually some people would end up going back to them,” she says. Nonetheless, she thinks it’s a rather negative move –seeing that Google is so popular now, putting the ka-ching into the equation would change things.
“Honestly though? I would grumble for a week and sign one of those random petitions calling for the fee to be discontinued, but then I’d end up paying, because I need Google,” she says. “I would, however, pay for a premium account if I absolutely had to, because Google Maps is a lifesaver, and Gmail blows pretty much all its competitors out of the water.”
Nonetheless, it is justified that there has to be profits in there somewhere but many think that it would be easier to offer users a choice between premium and free accounts, or to generate revenue via advertisements.
While the proposed fees have yet to come about, there is no denying the hullabaloo it will create –one can only hope Google, YouTube and all the other web portals will continue to offer us the delights of absolutely everything… for absolutely nothing.