I work on Google Search. I don't see my job as ultimately selling ads. If you look at things that way, you might as well take the argument to it's extreme. A

I work on Google Search. I don't see my job as ultimately selling ads. If you look at things that way, you might as well take the argument to it's extreme. Adwords doesn't actually make Google money, the payment processing system does. Are the ads just a way to get folks to use our payment processing system? Is search just a way to get folks to use our payment processing system? I don't see it that way. Instead, I see my job as creating a search engine. I create a tool that helps people learn more about the world around them, more quickly and efficiently than they would have otherwise. For most queries, ads aren't even displayed. Making money is one way to bring more resources to that problem. So ads are a way to drive improvements in search rather than search being a way to drive eyeballs to ads. Often, the ads are a useful service in their own right which is an amazingly lucky opportunity.