> Google is an advertising company I read this on HN a while ago and it's something more people should read. I think the term "tech company" is very subjective

> Google is an advertising company I read this on HN a while ago and it's something more people should read. I think the term "tech company" is very subjective so I won't touch that, but Google is absolutely an advertising company with a bunch of side projects (hence why they always end up getting killed after a few years). It doesn't change my feeling towards google, but it helps understand them and know what to expect from them. Your kooky phone anecdote is a great example.