Despite an increasing amount of ancilary products and a stronger focus on ad revenue, search remains core to Google's success and the most likely path for its future, reports The New York Times.

The Google algorithm helps gauge search ranking for a page, which keeps search results relevant to users. Ensuring those rankings serve searchers allows Google to beat back competition from Yahoo, Microsoft and others.
Engineers and mathematicians are constantly tweaking the code and formulas that drive Google results in an effort to keep up with user demand. It's that demand that has made Google into the powerhouse it is today. Protecting search share also helps maintain Google's advertising income, which helps fund Google's secondary products, many of which do not make money.
Those smaller products, however, are still key to Google's future success, reports the Boston Globe. The company is counting on small businesses to increasingly use features like Google Apps, which contains free word-processing and spreadsheet programs, and other productivity-focused products. These small efforts drive users out of the arms of competitors, which also affects Google's ad revenue. For instance, every Hotmail user that converts to Gmail is another pair of eyes exposed to AdSense.