The context is given later in the article - the amount of meetings rose around the time of the FTC investigation into a possible lawsuit against Google. And tha

The context is given later in the article - the amount of meetings rose around the time of the FTC investigation into a possible lawsuit against Google. And that lawsuit was eventually dismissed. Google spends the most on lobbying in Washington these days, more than any other company. It's true that it's hard to draw a direct line between money spent on lobbying and results, or on number of meetings in the white house and results. But it is still worth reporting on. The amount of money that large corporations spend on politics, and the amount of influence they have, is very large in the US. And Google is now at the forefront there. That's important for the public to know.