Google’s mission is to, “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”  That’s all well and good, but someone has to foot the bill.  Currently, the advertisers of the world are footing the bill.  Google places ads on its search engine results and on a network of sites.  When a web surfer (which mistakenly implies physical exertion) clicks on a link in an ad, the advertiser pays an agreed upon “cost per click.”  In 2007 65% of its ad revenue came from clicks on Google.com and 35% came from its network of sites (from Google Investor Relations).  What are advertisers really paying for and what is Google providing?  Web traffic rerouting. [Read more →]