It's just an opinion, but if the things Google has created and shared into the whole of human knowledge towards the betterment of future societies are still being used in a century for my grandkids (and the rest of humankind) to benefit from, then I think it's better than not having it because a few million people who couldn't have done it themselves said 'no' over a pittance.

I can't speak for you, but my dying thoughts won't be a sour reflection on all of opportunities to monetize my existence I might have missed.

Do they really share it, though? You can't download and reuse data from Google Maps or Street View the way you can from OpenStreetMap, say.

I'm not saying this is a fatal problem. Google Maps is a lot more popular than OSM so the free-with-ads closed source approach clearly has a lot going for it. But the data isn't public, they own it.

I've never personally hired a professional translator and I don't think I would if I was going to travel to a country where the majority of people don't speak English because I assume a professional translator is expensive. However if I know I have free access to google translate which will be useful enough for me to navigate by myself I would be much more likely to go on such a trip.

I'm sure some jobs will be lost but at least for middle class people who arnt able to afford translators the technology will be used to communicate better without affecting professional translators.

There are plenty of similar professions that exist but not utilized by the middle/lower class due to cost. I would love to hire a interior decorator, as I'm sure plenty of home owners would, but I haven't due to the cost and likely never will. If Google (or any other company) offered a service where I put photos of my home online and gave me a free layout with online links to purchase the furniture I would be thrilled and no interior decorator would be out of a job because I wasn't going to pay for one anyway. I think its all about the level of quality you want.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy

and some don't, so this point of view is arguable, to say the least.

Regardless, translation is an intellectual work, driving (depending on the point of view), isn't. Same goes for city guides; people doesn't necessarily prefer an electronic device to a human.