Google Reconsiders Its Aversion to Ads?

From its beginnings, Google has always relied on word-of-mouth advertising to grow the company into a business giant.  This organic approach to marketing has had the collateral effect of developing a legion of loyal users attracted by the “counterculture” image of the company.  But as the company expands and rolls out a host of new offerings, will it need to use traditional advertising vehicles and methods to maintain branding efforts? And if it does, what will be the impact to the company’s carefully-crafted image?