it's all about advertising. They can afford to give software or information away and still earn money from all the advertising that would go with it, because they are such a big brand.
After finding how many people search this question, and after my extensive searches realizing it can't be the only way they make their money. I finally found an article answering this question more thoroughly than ANYWHERE else. Even top blogs didn't explain well enough. http://www.kelowna-web-design.com/how-google-makes-money/ . If you want the answer in layman, non gibberish, non financial, they have supplied more than enough information to give you all the answers to this question. AdWords & AdSense are NOT the only source of income for Google. Good to know!
ya they earn money from adsense adwords and ads you see in google search when you search for some thing and ads appear at the right pannel of your google page.
The article that explained this question thourghly: how does google make money without talking only about adsense income!
main source of income to the google is from adwords and it releases share to the public. Share of google has also good price.
Im really surprised Google doesnt market itself..... you never see any commercials for Google, bilboards, etc. ...... I know theyre on top... but so isnt Verizon & Bank of America ---- and they still advertise............ I think they should come up with some Google commercials.... letting everyone know -- they are the ONLY search engine
Google has a 25% Net Profit margin. So for revenues of $4 billion/year they net $1 billion. They're doing just fine.
I think they stated before that they make over 75% of all of their revenue from Adwords and Adsense, and then 25% from other services that they offer.