[Northern Alliance]

I don't understand why any of these search engines including Google is worth billions. They seem to have almost no advertising, particularly Google, which I suppose is one reason it became so popular, and what I do see there to be from very small companies that could not possibly have a very big advertising budget. Where do they make their money?

[Rebelbase]

"Where do they make their money?

There are advertisements on every google page you pull up. Look to the right side of the screen and you'll see a list of "sponsored links". These are paid ads that show up as if they were legit search links.

Also, the top of each page sometimes has a prime positioned result from your search that is a paid spot.

Google also sells its database and advanced search features to industry as well as servers to manage the data.