[bagacrap]

"time and again"? We've only had two tech booms and one was a lot more speculative than the other.

Yes, Google makes money from ads. Then again, advertising is to "describe or draw attention to (a product, service, or event) in a public medium in order to promote sales or attendance." Google is in the business of connecting people with what they want, more of a personal assistant than a billboard.

Running a campaign on Google is a lot more like having a robot salesperson than a billboard. There are different kinds of advertising, such as general brand awareness which indeed might not be worth keeping short term. But if I were in the business of selling widgets, I think I'd cut the r&d budget rather than firing salespeople who are directly in the conversion path that brings in dollars today.