What happens to their ad revenue when Google starts giving every product on earth away for free?

Answer 1

One of my best friends is an engineer with Google's office here in town -- he specifically deals with expanding and improving the capabilities for GoogleEarth (so I get lots of cool free geegaws and t-shirts). Like any published magazine or a TV station, they rely on public visibility to generate high "traffic" which translates to more desirable advertising opportunities for commercial enterprises that avail themselves of Google space. Since they are essentially trading on their "popularity" anything that they give away promotes publicity and draws people into their product platforms. So giveaways are a good investment.

They are still hiring like crazy here in Pittsburgh and don't appear to be slowing down (though they have reportedly been a little dissappointed by public interest in GoogleSky, which has been less than they had hoped early on.)

Answer 2

Love your comment to that Yank bird. Those buggers mangle the language so much they can't recognise a real word. Anyway, to your question! It's all part of yet another of the Government's backdoor attempts to close down the post office having been defeated by democratic means this shower of shite always turn to dishonestly. They'll say the cost of three cars won't cost the tax payer much and that's true. Taken in the light of the taxpayers money they've defrauded us of and the waste on projects which haven't got off the ground and wars we shouldn't be fighting these motors don't add up to much. It's the principle of the thing which matters. Pity we have such an unprincipled bunch of crooks in Parliament isn't it? What's tiny about Dan I wonder? Just turn your computer off and then we won't be there. Typical Yank isolationist!

Answer 3

The ad revenue ought to increase, because Google can then say that more people are going to be using products which convey the advertising. That's my opinion.