[sixtofour]

If a product is crappy, no one will see the advertisements. If a product is great, people will use it, and see.

Google is nothing but an advertising company, yet 99+% of us only ever see them as a search, email, blogging, and cloud docs company. A huge number of us use their products, because they're good products. As their products improve, their cash accumulates.

I've never been in a Google meeting, but I suppose Google's marketers have some input into product development; at Google, that input is probably based on data.