Moultano, don't be so naive. There's someone above your pay-grade that watches these things, like this change hurt the earnings or increased them. Then winks and nods kick in.
Not to mention that innocent things like favoring brands can do wonders for Google's bottom line. So you can change the results all you want, as long as you favor brands. Henry Ford and car color
1-3 spots means that you are #4-#7 in reality once the top ads are counted. Many visitors prob don't even know they're ads so they click on the ads on top.
Should have said brand-able, sorry. But my point still remains, names are extremely important and $250 is relatively nothing. Fix a script for someone and you'll get that much.
Skype, Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, Jawbone and Box.net are all in the Andreeson Horowitz portfolio. He seems to be doing fine.
He bought FB way too late than most others. What valuation did he buy in Zynga, Twitter etc than we'll talk? Jut because they're 'hot' now doesn't mean that they'll make him money later.
Andreesen pointed out recently, it was pretty common ten years ago for startups to sink tons of cash into Oracle
And Andreessen should be listened in this field because.... ? Serious corporations go for IBM, Oracle, SAP and the likes. They want stability and someone to show up and fix when things go wrong. Most of the 'startups' Marc is talking about, will be not be here 5 years from now.
What was Marc's last good investment? Ning or Groupon?