In Canada, there's a grocery chain called Loblaws that has a premium, in-house brand called President's Choice. It is a fast-growing, high-margin business so over the years, Loblaws has aggressively expanded the brand into every aisle with hundreds of products ranging from orange juice and salsa to diapers and clothing. The Loblaws's strategy strategy is they have a team of product developers that travel around the world looking for cool products. When they find one with   potential, Loblaws strikes a deal and gets a private-label manufacturer to make it for them.
  In many way, I can't help but see a connection between Loblaws and Google with the recent launch of Google Trends, Google Co-op and Google Notebook. With an army of PhDs and programmers toiling away, there is no limit to what Google's development machine can produce. You want a financial service? Here's Google Finance. Looking for a new health site? Come on over to Google Health. Is blog search getting interesting? Here's Google Blog Search.
  So what's the "game" other than "we can build them so we do"? - particularly when most of these new services are revenue-free. That's a big mystery but I think it's about seeding the market with useful services, attracting a critical mass of users, and then creating a business model after you've established a market leadership position and/or knocked rivals out of the game. For example, I was showing my boss the wonders of Google Finance recently and the fact it has no advertising. It dawned on both of us that once Google Finance (which is very impressive) becomes the site for investors, there's no reason why Google can't move into the online brokerage business by itself, through an acquisition or partnership. What about Google Trends? Steve Rubel has also talked about its value as a marketing and PR tool. What would stop Google from offering premium services to marketing and PR customers? Like the President's Choice brand, there is no limit to what Google can launch. Some of it will fail (Froogle, Okrut), while others will be smash hits (Google Earth, Google Finance). When you've got financial firepower, there is no reason but to do whatever you like if it means that once in awhile you strike gold.

Update: For more on Google's new services, check out ZDNet and Search Engine Journal.