We Want Media

In June, Google will start selling ads on Clear Channel's radio stations, according to the New York Times.

"The deal will run for several years, and will give Google access to just under 5 percent of Clear Channel’s commercial time. That will include 30-second spots on all of Clear Channel’s 675 stations during all programs and all times of the day, executives at both companies said in interviews yesterday."

This makes perfect sense from a corporate standpoint, but it's a bit perplexing to someone who has been with Google from the beginning. I mean, radio? Really? It's so quintessentially un-Google.

How did Google, that little Yahoo competitor with the "work should be fun" ethos and "we're just a couple of cool Stanford students who want to help you find out about that new Spoon album" image of 1998 become the lumbering, YouTube-purchasing, Earth-mapping, Rush Limbaugh-courting behemoth of 2007?

A quick Google search led me to this handy timeline.

Hmm...it all seems to have started with this Eric Schmidt fellow...