Google, The Anti-Advertising Advertising Company

Google's a bit of a mystery to many marketers; how does a company rise to the position Google is in within the advertising industry without doing much advertising themselves?

80 percent of their products to fail. That's a really interesting way of going about your business, but not necessarily a good way.

They can afford a certain volume of failed products because their core product is and always will be search. But it seems strange to abandon good ideas by not promoting them. Heck, if Google's running two-thirds of all searches, it wouldn't be difficult to throw some text out there to promote other products.

Then again, they've made it to over $600 per share by doing what they do. Who am I to criticize? They're a big target and I've got a big mouth, but it seems to me a waste of product and opportunity for growth.