Comment by chiefalchemist

To your point, my theory is that all their other tech efforts - that are very often sunset'ed in a couple+ years - are merely a smokescreen of the ad monopoly. Worst case, if they have to: "Tech is hard and competitive. Look at how many other businesses we started and were unable to be successful at. Search + ads is one click away from slipping away from us. We're not a monopoly. We're alone and very scared for our future..."