It's PR. As Page admits, it's how people see Google from the outside, but actually only 3-5 people somewhere in the company. There's none of the security that you might expect from a big company doing it - for example see what happened to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unladen_Swallow The main way that Google helps the project is providing publicity. Which aligns with Google's needs. It's PR.
PR is a crucial part of Google's strategy, because it's very easy to switch search engines.
Comments
It's PR. As Page admits, it's how people see Google from the outside, but actually only 3-5 people somewhere in the company. There's none of the security that you might expect from a big company doing it - for example see what happened to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unladen_Swallow The main way that Google helps the project is providing publicity. Which aligns with Google's needs. It's PR.
PR is a crucial part of Google's strategy, because it's very easy to switch search engines.