[jsean]

It's funny how people still refer to Google as a search-company.

Where I live, up in northern europe, in pretty much every single news story where google is mentioned they still say "the search giant", "the websearch company" etc. The same way they call(ed) Microsoft "the software giant".

edit: I don't think "search giant" or even "search" is or ever was an approprate tag for Google. It is and has always been an ad aggregating (adregator?) company who merely used (and now even more) the vast quantity of content on the web and the users desire to locate it as the underlying mechanism for enabling it's business.

[Zev]

Google might make money from advertising, yes. But, as far as the average person is concerned, Google means search.

Whether Google likes it or not, their name is synonymous with search. When someone says "Just Google it", they don't mean to go to your tv and start watching something. They don't mean to look at your phone and play a game. They mean to go to your computer, open a web browser and search for something.

[jsean]

>>Google might make money from advertising, yes. But, as far as the average person is concerned, Google means search.

Yes, exactly, precisely that is what I find funny. Not in a "you average people, go read up on your google facts" or even in a way that I particularly care take a stand against/with. I just find it cosmically funny somehow. If I may stretch it a tad; almost in a dystopian, dark comedic sense.

edit: and also, you say "average", in my above post I said news stories, that is, journalists. They really shouldn't be "average" in this context. If they are, then yeah sure, their readers will become.

[Psyonic]

Google search came before adsense, btw.

Also, you could say the same thing about facebook. It's not a social network, it's an ad aggregating company who merely used the vast network of people for enabling it's business.

Also, magazines, newspapers, tv, etc.

Basically, it's a tautology for anyone running ads.