From: Alex Young <alex@...>
Date: 2007-07-23T22:33:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Editor

Felix Windt wrote:
>  > -----Original Message-----
>> From: M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [mailto:znmeb@cesmail.net] 
>> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 6:22 AM
>> To: ruby-talk ML
>> Subject: Re: Ruby Editor
>>
> [snip]
>> OK ... where does *Google's* money come from? The searches 
>> are free, and most of their other "products" are as well.
>>
> 
> An incomplete list:
> 
> - Charge advertisers for presenting online "banner" ads to users
> - Collect marketing data on consumer habits, then selling the data or using
> it for targeted advertising.

> - Charging websites to become listed
> - Charging websites for better placement in lists
I don't think they do these two, do they?

> - Charging websites to purchase keywords for themselves
> - Charging other search engines to use their catalog
> 
> AdSense is a huge, huge product.

I guess the point is that Google probably *could* be an open source 
company if it wanted.  The value in Google is in the brand and the vast 
infrastructure investment (in which I include all their hired brains).

-- 
Alex