I guess I'm a bit gun shy of buying stock in a company that produces ... ??? What? They provide a service ... that they don't charge for. I'm gonna take a pass, thankyouverymuch.
Oh, they make money. If you search for something, then ads about that topic will appear. Companies pay big money for that.
Not that I'm gung ho on Google, but...
The service they provide is advertising. And, they do charge for it. The advertising is appealing due to the fact that they provide something else (web searches) for free to large numbers of people.
Another industry in which businesses succeed on this type of model: television (you might have heard of this).
P.S. Again, though, I do think Google is overrated and mostly living on a bubble.
My sentiments exactly