Google and advertising revenue

An interesting point that relates, at least indirectly, to one of Google's revenue sources: advertising:

Google is [a] brand-killer. Time and again, I've seen that consumers find the information they want via Google without being very aware of who ended up providing that information: They ask a question; Google takes them to the answer; they leave, satisifed; they don't pay attention to where they were. This can harm brands that get advertising based on syndicated research that asks consumers how often they visit or how aware they are of a brand; they may well visit a brand's site but if they don't pay attention then the brand doesn't get credit in the survey and looks smaller than it is. In spite of that, I can't imagine a publisher who wouldn't want to come up in Google searches; hell, they all pay companies in the new industry of search-engine optimization to make sure they come up higher and higher in those searches.

Yet some of the ads on these sites that are visited anonymously as Google ads -- does it reduce the value of Google ads if a site is accessed via Google?

An article in Wired News addresses some of the complexities of Google's business model as applied to GoogleNews. If Google is a "brand killer," it benefits the sites it links with greater traffic but diminishes the benefits of greater traffice by making the sites more anonymous and the advertising on those sites less visible or memorable -- or linked. Net result? Time will tell.