I don’t use GMail because I don’t agree with their terms and conditions (yes, I read them and declined. What spun it for me was the absence of the guarantee to destroy account mailbox contents when/if the account is closed). Other free web mail systems exist.
There are mapping products other than Google Earth, but to say you have nowhere else to go is quite frankly, nonsense.

But really and truly aliens can exist – and most probably don’t want anything to do with your bum! Anyone who believes in God however is a potential terrorist.

Nobody complains today about how wonderful and easy the web is compared to what it was like when it began. Of course its still a mess but its beginning to show that it can be a mess yet managed to some degree by organisations such as google. Although it still needs that personalised touch.
There was some vision many years back that one day when you came home from the office, your home would fill you in on what you had missed out on TV, in particular your favourite programs and or items of news that were ‘of interest to you’.
Now to get to that stage there are many ways often through subscriptions – but even they fail as the user may not see all that s/he likes. So browsing habbits need to be kept and further analysed to give the user the best possible internet experience. But this should not mean that any company need to keep any personal identity on you unless you request it.
Also developers need to be more open with their customers about what kind of data they are keeping and how they are using it and to completely assure them that constantly monitor the integrity of their data protection systems.
Unfortunately the mass media has a way of sensationalising ‘mishaps’ in the ‘data’ industry which quite often triggers paranoia and odd things begin to happen, people start seeing ufos, fear levels rise, people speculate on the costs of things and they ultimately rise too – but thats the mass media for you.
When I get home all I want is a bit of peace and quiet, some light jazz and a glass of wine, put my feet up and read something funny. Life changes somewhat when you have a wife and especially so if you decide to have kids.