You've got to remember, at the start, Google had no advertising, then they quietly increased.As an official 'geezer', I too feel the world is heading in a sad direction...
I don't understand much (read: ANY) of this, but...as an investor, how would one invest now, to take advantage of this meta thingy? I do remember trying to explain Google, to some of my friends, centuries ago, when they never heard of it. AND, I remember shying away from Google's IPO, at the ridiculous launch price of $80US! "$80US.? That's CRAZY!" I said.
So.......What's today's Google??? Last night I "googled"🤪 these ETFs:BLOK, BLCN, LEGR.
Wonder where they'll be, in 5 years??
But they were always careful to stick to their core mission, and only put relevant ads. While others had popups and popunders and "interstitials", google kept it simple.
Now Google of course sees the money and advertises everything.
I was a bit slow, I bought my Google at $400/share Back in 2009, and even then I was feeling it was a bit 'speculative'
I think what we missed was how effective Google would be at monetizing search. They also managed to massively exploit Youtube.
The reality is if you want to advertise online, you're paying Google. That wasn't the case a decade ago.