The New York Times ran yet another Google love letter today, talking about Google’s amazing success amidst the wreckage of so many other failed companies. The article is a typical business fawn piece (deserved in this case), I’m just linking to it because it made me realize something important. Google’s advertising system is so good that these days when I search for something involving a business transiaction, I often look at the ads that come up before looking at the search results. For someone who does everything they can to filter spam, block popups, and generally ignore advertising, that’s saying something.