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adwords came from overture/goto.com - a separate company. Actually, google stole it, and got their pants sued off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Search_Marketing

note that "adwords" isn't just the idea of putting ads next to search, but mainly the auction aspect of it (so google always gets the highest price possible; and advertisers never pay more than needed - the idea is it's a little market), and linking it to search.

Overture/goto.com was basically adwords alone (no search results), and was quite profitable I believe.

Unfortunately, my little correction doesn't contribute to the topic of the debate... um, departments can certainly be entrepreneurial, also, in some companies, with skunkworks and so on, you are certainly doing all the things an entrepreneur does: funding, new products, marketing. The only difference (and perhaps a key difference, according to fallentimes) is that it ain't their money. Entrepreneurialism certainly has a gut-test component... and maybe that risk/reward of ownership is essential.

Otherwise, you're gambling for matchsticks. Using all the same skills, but you ain't gambling.



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