The vast majority of Google engineers don't work on ads. The guys working on Google Maps, feel they are working for a mapping company. The guys working on Andro

The vast majority of Google engineers don't work on ads. The guys working on Google Maps, feel they are working for a mapping company. The guys working on Android feel they're working on mobile. The people working on search feel they're working on machine intelligence issues. Frankly, as a Google employee, I like that the ads business subsidizes research into other areas that are not economical yet or which people won't pay for. The fact that Google culture overall aligns my my views on intellectual property, progressive ideals, and just not being a douche-bag cancels out any "taint" that the money is made on (IMHO, tasteful) ads. I used to work at IBM T.J. Watson research. I had no love for the IBM consulting or mainframe business, but I never had to deal with it. Google's main business might be advertising, but that business is mostly automated, it doesn't take 20,000 engineers to run AdWords.