Marketing Lights Up Las Vegas

What makes the meter go round?

In an excellent piece on the data centers required to power the search engines, George Gilder describes the future and the need for more infrastructure. Since search revenue is 95% advertising marketers might want to know what they're paying for. It turns out those 10c Google clicks add up to cost of the electricity necessary to light up Las Vegas.

So, what are the major players doing to keep costs down? They're building huge data centers along the Columbia River. Why? Two reasons - first, cheap hydroelectric power; second, close access to the Internet backbone.

Now it is a good thing that the Army Corps of Engineers and Mulholland didn't already divert the Columbia to Los Angeles. Yes, this was considered. For a good read on the history of water in the West I suggest Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert."