It didn't take a genius to see that the safest and most immediate revenue stream for a firm with Google's potential to harvest attention was in advertising. And that way it went. "Every day, millions upon millions of people lean forward into their computer screens," John Battelle, cofounder of Wired, would write in 2005, "and pour their wants, fears, and intentions into the simple colors and brilliant white background of Google.com." If radio had promised a "relaxed" audience, here was something better: people who really wanted something and ready to tell exactly what—"intentional traffic," in the jargon. Google could serve up minds to advertisers in this particularly valuable mental state—open, desirous, and impressionable.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 872