I&#x27;d advocate a bit towards the opposite: why does it matter?<p>The future of technology is probably going to wind up being entirely based on walled ecosystems anyway. If you own a MacBook, it&#x27;s already very enticing to tie that in with an iPhone, etc. It&#x27;s all about tight integration. I&#x27;d also say there is not a single existing system that exists yet which provides the kind of tight integration I&#x27;m dreaming of. I&#x27;m talking about the kind of system where you buy a home and every single piece of technology in it is integrated. Truly and completely integrated, not the pseudo lame stuff we have today.<p>HN types love to rant against the Walled Garden™, as if it&#x27;s by definition some terrible thing. The only reason negative aspects even exist today is because the walled gardens we have today are woefully incomprehensive. When the day comes that you can buy into an all-in-one ecosystem that actually takes care of <i>everything</i> you need, there will be no problem. I would happily &quot;lock into a walled garden&quot; if that garden contains every variety of plant known to mankind.<p>Back to responding more directly to the parent. It just doesn&#x27;t matter if someone knows Google and only Google. People use what works for them, and why shouldn&#x27;t they? When the day comes that Google vanishes or word spreads that <i>you shouldn&#x27;t use it anymore</i>, your average citizen will easily migrate to whatever other service is the most popular replacement. The average person does not need to know what SMTP is; they need a system that lets them type in their message and hit &quot;send&quot;. This is a good thing, not some terrible sadness.