How does Google make money?

Google makes money primarily from advertising.

Google Adwords is an auction-based program that allows advertisers to contextually target search terms. It also allows advertisers to contextually target web pages within Google's network.

Many web publishers use Google's ad network on their pages (via Google AdSense) and get paid for serving the placements on their sites.

Google ads appear in multiple forms. There are sponsored search results for both terms and images, Gmail ads, YouTube ads and more. Google also makes money by licensing Google Apps that come on Android phones, such as Gmail, Search and Maps.

In 2010, Google generated $29.3 billion in revenue.