Google didn't pay Apple anything to use the "i", it's not copyrighted. They just used it because Apple has made it synonymous with high quality/easy to use. Of course, other people also use the "i" on their products.
While many entities have many items of info on you, none have as many and as widely usable as Google is collecting. We're not talking about SS#'s or even bank account numbers, that's not what advertisers pay for ( those can be stolen too easily, anyway ). But the ability to know what and where you go on the web is becoming extremely valuable. That's the main reason I don't use any body's site as my 'portal'. Mine is purely disk-based, I put what I want on it to my hearts content and nobody can see where I came from except from my IP address. I don't depend on 'news' from any one source, especially not from the internet. I fail to understand why anyone would limit their sources for news. Isn't that like sitting in the choir and being preached to?!
Limiting ones 'news' to any one media, especially self-selected media, is a great way of never hearing the other side of the argument, IMHO.
I have yet to see one of these 'portal' lacking in ads. Sure, AdBlock and FlashBlock can hide/block most of those but why go to that extreme or waste the screen/window space for something you don't need nor have to see?
Speaking of 'local' news, it seems that an affluent city in CA has a web site about the town ( so what's new? ). The kicker is that the web site owner has hired two guys in India to write the 'local' articles for him.
He figures they can watch the council/board meetings via the web just as well as a local person but a whole lot cheaper! Yeah, sure. Wonder how much time he will spend editing/rewriting these 'reports'? Apparently, nothing happens in this city except at these televised meetings.
And there must never be any people on the street with opinions, comments, questions of the community/government/etc. But I'm sure iGoogle will allow this site to be placed on your 'home page' with no questions asked. Great service. And you'll be getting your money's worth, too.