There are many examples of Google spending money on projects that have no direct relevance to its business but benefit the greater good. Its open government initiative for example tries to encourage the use of open data standards for use in government IT systems. Such moves benefit everyone at large as it allows for easy migration between service providers.
http://www.eweek.com/cloud/google-donates-3.7-million-to-foster-open-government-data-standards/
