[human_v2]

I don't think advertising is going to be able to sustain Google indefinitely. As more tech-savvy users get on the web, their tolerance for advertisements will dwindle, along with advertisers' return. Google probably knows this, which is why they've moved into other markets like Android and Google's office tools. As far as search goes, I think they're either going to be king forever as we know it, or a 'better' search will come out... though I can't think of what could make search better than what Google has.

I, personally, would like to see Google become their own ISP. When there was news they were buying up 'dark fiber' I thought this might be in their future plans.

[petervandijck]

"As more tech-savvy users get on the web" => you realize you got it the wrong way round there, right? In other words, advertising will just get better on the web. Google's golden there.

[jsz0]

Dark fiber is great for peering but it's the last mile that costs real money. Even Google doesn't have enough money to pull it off on a really large scale.

[appathy]

However, Android isn't a direct moneymaker. Android is just a way to ensure that they make money off mobile search. aka advertising.

[chrischen]

Android is actually a way to keep Apple from dominating, and to keep other mobile devices open.

Google knows it dominates certain services like search, so it can use Android to make sure other devices stay open in order to compete against it. This forces them to let people choose and Google knows more often than not that choice will be for Google services. For example if Android allows Google talk, then Apple will become tremendously pressured to do the same because it's supposedly a really useful feature.

Android forces others to be more open, Google dominates, therefore more open means more customers for Google, more eyes looking at Google ads, etc.