Ben Parr

"This was a topic I wrote about extensively when I was the Co-Editor of Mashable.com and still talk about on CNBC. All of the explanations here are good, but they don't quite hit the point. WaitingForGoatMan is closest. Back in 2009, I called it "The Google Revenue" equation, and it goes something like this: "Revenue = Amount of Time on the Web" Stupidly simple, but let me explain. Google makes almost all of its money from advertising. You see them on Google search results, you see them on other websites, you see them on mobile, you see them EVERYWHERE. The more ads you see and click, the more money they make. But all that gets nerfed if you're on a slow connection. If you're on a slow connection, or have a slow browser, or do things on your computer that aren't on the web, Google makes less money. So almost everything that Google does that isn't advertising -- Android, Chrome, Google Fiber -- is designed to keep you on the web for longer. It doesn't matter where on the web -- just in..." - Ben Parr