zuko105 - 5:55 am on Nov 22, 2008 (gmt 0)

The motivation for this is pretty obvious, extend search/social dominance all while getting all of the web surfing data for users' internet behaviors down pat.

I've always used their analytics package free, even though I still very much enjoy looking through log files over a cup of coffee in the morning. They really don't capture with analytics as much data as what really goes on in my sites <tinhat>or they're not reporting it to me</tinhat>.

With a significant browser market share, they could really know what the estimated ROI is for a certain product vendor, and charge accordingly for webmasters' paid campaigns, know what the value really is for a high organic ranking for a given search term, etc.... all under the guise of custom search and usability.

Don't even get me started on Android. (full disclosure: I really do love my G1 though..).