<i>But while the company still earns the majority of its revenue from advertising, during his tenure Page has helped to diversify the business. Notably, YouTube is expected to generate nearly $6 billion in revenue this year</i><p>Maybe I am being pedantic but aren't revenues from Youtube also based on advertising?<p>To the broader point though, why aren't more investors also putting money toward these "moonshots?" Is it because they don't have the liquidity to do it? Do they cost too much for the risk? If that were true then the Google's investments would be widely panned rather than held up as "making the right bets" as this article mentions.<p>It seems like these "singularity" technologies are the types of things that valley investors would be all over.
Disney is a classic example of a company that made huge leaps and transformed itself from a single revenue stream to a very diverse one.<p>Can you think of what the board of Disney said to Walt when he decided to open a brick and mortar theme park when their only product to date had been a few animated films? Or how what they said when he unveiled the original vision of EPCOT as a real city with a theme park bolted on.<p>I don't have a strong opinion in Google doing their moonshots but it's happened before.
<i>"As Google’s core business continues to thrive, Larry Page is making huge bets on new technology"</i><p>I am one of the folks who doesn't believe that Search Advertising is "continuing to thrive", rather I think if you look at the steady erosion of CPC and the growing cost of paid distribution you will see that Google's search advertising business is dying (or at least no longer organically growing). Google can pump those tires with additional inventory, cutting off partners to keep more of the revenue, and buying more traffic, but the bottom line is that if you just ran the business as usual search advertising revenues would be flat to down over the last 8 quarters. In that context their only choice is to find another Golden Goose quickly before the momentum flips.<p>That said, I've been saying this for several years and they keep pumping and boosting the top line revenue. So it is entirely possible they consider this the normal evolution of their business. Maybe its just advertisers who are pickier or want a better return on their advertising dollar. I don't know, but I do know search advertising is losing profit margin faster than the market is growing.
"A brainiac who works in the lab walks into Page’s office one day wielding his latest world-changing invention—a time machine. As the scientist reaches for the power cord to begin a demo, Page fires off a dismissive question: “Why do you need to plug it in?”<p>It’s a tall tale that is repeated affectionately by the whizzes inside the futuristic lab because it captures the urgency and aspiration of their boss to move technology forward."<p>Is this really repeated affectionately? (If at all.) That sounds like a bug, not a feature.
It would be great to see google diversify their business model as well as their technology so they weren't getting most of their profit from advertising.
Looks like Xerox PARC to me: one fantastic business funding great research projects.<p>They are protecting that business well, by seeing and acting on mobile early, by acquiring Android and developing it.<p>I think heads-up displays (eventually) will be the next big thing, because they remove hardware size-limitation (cf. watches), and Google is at least <i>ready</i> for that, with Glass.
I'm glad that Google has enough money to take on risky projects. So much of what they do fails - they essentially only have advertising. But to be honest nothing in that article seemed that world-changing or interesting. Even the nanoparticles are mundane and not much more of an extension of the work that's been going on since the 90s on bio-chips for detection.<p>But nanoparticles for drug deliver is interesting but they've been doing something similar with bio-engineered antibodies since the early 2000s. (in fact, if you're rich enough you can get a tailored cancer treatment with antibodies specific to your own specific cancer - this has been around for awhile)<p>I've long hoped that self-aware AI would come out of Google, but perhaps not.<p>In comparison, Elon Musk seems like the true visionary.