>> and ever since then, no other venture/product coming out of google has reached even a fraction of that revenue. That's not true. They started with search ad

>> and ever since then, no other venture/product coming out of google has reached even a fraction of that revenue. That's not true. They started with search ads, expanded successfully to various types of display ads, and now their video business(youtube) and the android app store making 15% of Google's revenues. >> the rest seems like a PhD playground with not a lot of accountability Maybe public(i.e wall street) accountability isn't the correct model for long term r&d.But technology wise, they do seem to get lots of work done, often in areas with few/no strong competitors, on problems that will be worth lots of and with time that could mean lots of revenue.And i don't know of a better way to judge the commercial value of long term r&d.