I wonder what they're all working on.

"Google is now adding about 500 workers each month"

Hmm...500 people. By my calculus, 500 people should be able to implement about 100 business concepts every 1-3 years. That seems off somehow, but...well, they can't all be system admins, can they?

Take a look at google labs: http://labs.google.com/

How many of those things make money? Some of them seem to be a part of a long-term Orwellian strategy:

http://webaccelerator.google.com/

...but I don't really see the revenue stream. What are they doing with all of those people except mocking up start-up environments and hoping for the occasional big hit? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just let the free market work, and buy other people's companies as needed?