A List of Google's Money Making Products

Below overview checks which Google products directly make money for Google in terms of being paid for by the user, or having ads or affiliate links. Indirect effects on revenues (as well as some other things) are disregarded for this purpose, but not because the effects are necessarily neglible.* The table is just an estimate – if you see ommissions or misses please comment and I’ll update the table.

  paid/ member? runs AdWords? affiliate links? notes Google Web Search x ? x Imagine the extra cash Google could make by adding their affiliate ID to links pointing to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other miscellaneous shopping sites. If you enter Romeo & Juliet into Google and then buy the book, Google would get their share of the sale. This would come at the expense of neutrality and karma, and it might make new enemies because the commission money would be taken away from Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc. Google Image Search x ? x Ads currently seem to be limited to the US. Google Blog Search x x x   Google News x x x   Google AdWords ? x x You can set your own budget for ad campaigns. Google AdSense x ? x Google AdSense pays webmasters a commission from ad clicks. It serves from ad campaigns launched in the AdWords systems, though the AdSense site itself is ad-free. Google mobile services x ? x There’s the Google Mobile Ads program part of AdWords, YouTube mobile tested ads, and there’s AdSense for Mobile. FeedBurner x ? x AdSense for Feeds inserts ads into FeedBurner YouTube x ? x Ads are shown in videos on the site and embedded ones, as well as next to videos on the site. Google Earth partly x x Google Earth is available as a free and as an “Advanced” version for $400. Google Maps x ? x   Google Maps API partly x x The basic Google Maps API is free but the “This program allows you to buy extra storage for use in other Google products, like Gmail. (Is there any other program besides Gmail and Picasa Web Albums for which this can be used for?) The current pricing is 10 GB for $20.00/ year up to 400 GB for $500/ year. Google Notebook x x x   iGoogle x x x iGoogle is the customized flavor of the Google homepage. Like the Google homepage, it doesn’t run ads (except those within specific gadgets), though as opposed to the Google homepage at least on iGoogle there would be content to target an ad to. Google Answers ? ? x The Q&A service is now discontinued, but AdWords – pretty still available. Google Analytics x x x   Urchin ? x x exotic page. Google Desktop x x x   Google Book Search x ? x Sometimes, Google Books runs ads. Google Patents x x x Google China Music geochecks your IP and blocks it if outside China. Things like ringtones available from the service may or may not be related to an affiliate partnership, but I have trouble accessing the site right now. Google Moderator x x x   Google Trends x x x   Google Insights for Search x x x   Google Ride Finder x x x   Google Sets x x x   Google Accessible Search x ? x   Google Reader x x x No direct Google ads, though Google AdSense for Feeds ads or other RSS-ads might appear in Reader. Google Mini ? x x Aka the This desktop tool, partnered with Kingsoft, is in Chinese. Do you know more about whether it contains parts which make Google money? Google Photos Screensaver x x x This is part of the Google Pack installation bundle. SketchUp partly x ? SketchUp is available in a free version. SketchUp Pro on the other hand costs €331 (with an 8-hour trial). The Google SketchUp wrote, “Blogger Pro is for users who are willing to pay for increased reliability, higher performance, new tools, and advanced features and flexibility. ... The planned price for Blogger Pro $50/year (per user). However! Since we are still building out the functionality, the cost will be $35 for a year for users who sign up now.” Dodgeball ? ? ? This Google-aquired mobile social network service is not honed much within Google, its founders (who left Google at one time) suggested. Does anyone know more about where this service might make money? Google Site Search ? ? x A search service for your site or sites. Ranges from $100/ year (for up to 5,000 pages) to $2,250/ year (for up to 300,000, according to Google); prices beyond that need can be privately discussed with Google. Google Custom Search Engine x ? x This is the free site search variant (see above). Google Friend Connect x x? x Does anyone know if Friend Connect features ads anywhere? Jaiku x x x I’m being told google.com/transliterate/indic Google Arabic Transliteration x x x At google.com/mars/ Google Moon x x x See google.com/sky/ Google Transit x x x   Google Alerts x x x Not to be confused with Shenghuo, Google’s knowledge search for Chinese users. Google Site Navigation China x x x Wenda is part of Google-powered Chinese Tianya. Tianya Come Here China x x x This proxy converts pages to a more bare-bones version suited for contexts like mobile browsing. Google AJAX API ? x x Does the AJAX API ever insert ads these days? Google SMS Channels India x x x Comments