Can Google's most recent mapping and satellite upgrades make money?

What does Google's most recent upgrades to its Google Maps and Google Earth services mean? These services are among the most successful Google products outside of its bread-n-butter internet search business, according to the source story. Posit: What measure of success is in use here? Successful products used by customers are fantastic -- making money with those products is another side of the coin (literally).

Yes, Google Maps is extremely useful and impressive. In fact, I've used it more than Yahoo! Maps recently -- although Mapquest.com continues to be my default mapping and address search service. Google Earth is nothing short of stunning, and it's been on the market -- with a recent upgrade a few weeks ago -- for over a year now. Count Google in as knowing how to launch and upgrade excellently-performing services.

But I have to hold my applause for one thing: How are these being successful at bringing in revenue? Sure, they are great stories insofar as customer usage and acceptance. This is a very good thing. But from an investor's perspective, how are these contributing to Google's bottom line? Are ads working in Google Maps as well as in search? How does Google Earth benefit Google? Is Google planning to insert some kind of advertising into Google Earth to "monetize" the product? Or, is Google simply building a customer intelligence database from Google Earth to be used in more highly-targeted marketing in the future? These are questions GOOG investors should be asking -- ones I would be asking if I held shares.