Mike Yang, Senior Product Counsel at Google, posted the following on the Official Google Blog: Update to Google Chrome's terms of service:
So to show a blog, we ask the user to give us a license to the blog’s content. (The same goes for any other service where users can create content.) But in all these cases, the license is limited to providing the service. In Gmail, for example, the terms specifically disclaim our ownership right to Gmail content. [Emphasis added.]
Unfortunately, he does not explain why the license is perpetual and irrevocable. (It’s not an insurmountable technical issue; the terms for YouTube are neither perpetual nor irrevocable.) And what he states appears to directly contradict the Terms of Service Section 11:
This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services[…] [Emphasis added]
Google is a great company, and I hope they address this issue with their Terms of Service soon. The short term fix would be to remove the phrase “and promote;” they could address the “perpetual” and “irrevocable” portions later.