Open the Google website, type some query in the search box (e.g. Yahoo) and click the “I am Feeling Lucky” button. Google will automatically transport you to the Yahoo! homepage bypassing the search results page.
Thus you save some important time (few microseconds) and don’t have to perform an extra mouse click but Google just lost a google chance to monetize your visit.
Marisa Mayer says that less than 1 percent of Google searches are done through the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button but some estimates suggest that Google could be losing $110 million of advertising revenue due to that button because people are skipping results pages that have Google ads.
Despite the indirect cost, this very expensive “feeling lucky” button will stay on the Google homepage. source: Marketplace via
Related: Add Feeling Lucky To Firefox Address Bar
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/google-homepage-expensive-feeling-lucky-button/1827/
Reader Comments
Hmmm… interesting! $110 million of advertising revenue manually or monthly?
Written by Thilak on 11.21.07
And did you notice the “less than 1 percent” part? Even if that figure is annually how much do they make from the rest of the 99 percent?
Written by Varun Nagwekar on 11.21.07
Well let’s whip out that handy-dandy calculator built into your computer and multiply $110,000,000 x 100. Honestly, you should be able to do that one in your head (in case you can’t though, the answer is $110 billion, that’s Google’s ad revenue give or take a billion or so).
But it is an interesting thing, I don’t use the “Feeling Lucky” button, maybe I should? Heheh…
Written by Winnar on 11.21.07
In other words, that button made Google to standout from others, promising the best satisfactory result to automatically open.
It set a sublimal message in the minds of every user of Gooogle, every time. it successfully planted the message that “using google is lucky”.
Written by siddu on 11.21.07
Amit, you are clever enough to know that this estimation is completely wrong…
Because the average click rate on ads wouldn’t be the same as usual click rate, it would be equal at ~ 0.
Written by TOMHTML on 11.22.07
Interesting.
but the i’m feeling lucky button is a brilliant little tool, that being said i hardly use it, but i like the gimmick. I used to think it would pick a random page. How wrong i was.
Written by Matt on 11.22.07
#3, not to question your mathematical prowess, but isn’t 100×110 million 11 billion?
In either case, it’s a really big number. I doubt that google does 11 billion of ad revenue straight from results from homepage.
Written by Maxwell on 11.23.07
Perhaps the “I’m feeling lucky” button helps save Google energy by not making it produce a whole set of search results, instead just making one query and skipping the page generation. The biggest cost for Google is probably energy for their servers, so this may not be such a costly feature after all.
Written by Nick on 10.09.08