Bizzare Facts

The whimsical **'I'm Feeling Lucky'** button, a signature piece of Google's early playful branding, comes with a shockingly high price tag. This button allows users to skip the standard search results page and jump immediately to the page's top search result, saving them a single click. While a seemingly harmless feature, this bypass comes at a massive financial cost.

The search results page is where Google displays its primary advertising links and sponsored results. By diverting the user directly to a website, the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button ensures the user never sees these advertisements, thus robbing Google of potential ad revenue. Estimates from Google executives in the late 2000s placed the cost of this single, whimsical button at over **$110 million per year** in lost revenue.

Despite the significant financial loss, Google maintains the button as a core part of its brand identity and commitment to user experience. The company’s continued dedication to the feature serves as a powerful symbol of its philosophy—that speed and user satisfaction sometimes trump the immediate, direct pursuit of profit.