All About Search
Field Notes From The GooglePlex
“Cutts left me pondering about the importance of search to Google, and how it was still the brains behind the entire show. Following him were folks spearheading the Google WiFi division, Google Talk, Google Finance and Google Checkout. Their thoughts would surely find their way into posts on those topics, but it was head of Google Checkout, Benjamin Ling who brought home the real truth about Google – it is all about advertising and always has been.
He explained that if you spend $1,000 on the Google ad network, Google Checkout would process $10,000 worth of transactions for free. The more you spend on ads, the more transaction fee savings you get. “It will hyper accelerate our system,” he said. And with a twinkle in his eye, he said, “We make all our money on advertising.” Just like GMail that creates ad-inventory, and so will other little features that may or may not find mass adoption.”