http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/11/19/face_of_google/

interview about the "i'm feeling lucky " button... not so lucky

I never thought about how much money they lose by having it – by encouraging people to skip the SERPs with ads. Interesting

Oh, come on. That's stupid. They don't lose so much money because Feeling Lucky is used only when you know where you want to go (navigation queries: BMW, Museum of Modern Art, Yahoo etc.), so you wouldn't click on ads. Maybe they lose some money, but that number is obviously inaccurate.

Ionut – I beg to differ.

When I Google something like BMW and get the SERP and on top is the BMW add – I click it – kind of as a thanks to Google. And it's not click fraud 'cuz that's where I want to go to.

Yes, but if I use Feeling Lucky I want to go to the top result, so the ad can't distract me.

They should beef up I'm Feeling Lucky by making it a sort of Command Line for Google Apps. Example:

gmail compose sergey.bringmail.com

"...Well do ya punk?" ................ Sorry :)

Well I always use the search button or use the Firefox search box but never click on ads (Except if it's a company I hate and want them to pay Google, but I only click once and I actually want to go there)

So to me the IFL button id useless but it doesn't loose Google any money because they wouldn't get any from me.

IMHO, Ionut is right. I'm not even sure that Google *really* lose money because of that.
I said nearly the same thing on Amit Agarwal's blog this week.
http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/google-homepage-expensive-feeling-lucky-button/1827/#comment-11349