Excellent article Google Iceberg (beta) by Jim Hedger, written before Google’s new payment system went live. Jim says:

Google is an advertising company built on providing free space to frame paid advertising around. Its first priority is to its core mission of making information available, especially if there is a way to tie advertising to it. Its other mission is to position itself for battle against Microsoft, Yahoo, News Corp., Ask, and any other contender that might happen along its path. It is aggressive, overly confident, and often perceived as arrogant. It is also one of the world’s largest media companies and responsible for providing the results of approximately half the searches made each day.

Yes, “Google is an advertising company”. It stopped being a search company years ago, but no one much noticed until it was a fait accompli. However, search is still at the core of its business, and will be for years to come. Where will Google end up? Google knows, it’s in the driver’s seat, and we’re all along for the ride.

Google is VERY smart. Whenever I hear discussions about Google diversifying too much, or launching too many “beta” programs, I remember that when Google bought Blogger.com in 2003, blogging was a niche activity. Very niche. Of course Google knew that it would need lots of content on which to place its advertising, so the purchase made glorious sense.

Wherever Google’s heading, it knows. And to paraphrase Margot Channing ladies, and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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