"Anyway, I feel Google will be a much better company if it can get rid of dependence on ads"
Do you feel like the NFL will be a better company once it rids itself of that pesky "football" dependence ?
Will McDonalds finally break free of the hamburger racket and flourish as a company ?
Google isn't some company that just happens to make a bunch of money from ads - they are an advertising company. Period. The end. Online ads stemming from search results is the thing they do.
It sure sounds neat to bootstrap a world-beating conglomerate and dominate all market spheres with your plexes full of big brains, but it's not going to happen.
It's not going to happen.
They will live and die with the search ads. They will not disrupt the car industry. They will not launch rockets to mars. They will not solve homelessness.