Ads and subtraction were fit to be featured this past week. Let's take a closer look.

Who's going to GDrive you home tonight?
Is "do no evil" the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) mantra or a cookbook? Google continues to find new ways to get into the news. This week, though, it probably would have preferred to stay out of the limelight. Its shares fell, as everything from a click fraud settlement to leaked online documents describing a new storage service and growth projections made the rounds.

There was a time when legal settlements and new ventures would have had a more favorable reaction on Google's stock. These are strange days, indeed. Take GDrive, for instance. That's the name of the new storage offering that was leaked on Google's site. It would allow Internet users to store personal files on Google's servers. If you've ever worked from both a PC and a laptop, you can probably grasp the convenience of having all of your files in one central location. Truth be told, GDrive may not seem particularly revolutionary; other companies already provide this kind of virtual locker service.

One difference is that Google is likely to make this a free offering, subsidizing the usage with its growing portfolio of contextual ads. Some folks were concerned about privacy issues, should hackers target Google. GDrive could also get tricky if Google received a subpoena to hand over a user's private files.

These are issues that will have to be settled one way or another. Folks are filing their taxes online. Companies like Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) and Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are rolling out Web-based productivity software. This is about far more than just Google, even though it seems as though the news world revolving around the company these days.

Some gifts come from dirty hands
Know your investors. When XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR) was hungry for venture capital before going public, it found a willing sugar daddy in an unlikely source. Terrestrial radio giant Clear Channel (NYSE:CCU) acquired a piece of the company. It seemed like a good relationship at the time. Clear Channel would help program some of XM's music channels, and XM found industry expertise.

The problem is that XM and Clear Channel have become fierce competitors, as frustrated music fans tire of the ad blocks and repetitive playlists on conventional radio and turn to satellite radio for salvation. XM and Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) have more than 9 million subscribers between them. They expect to close out the year with more than 15 million accounts.

The friction between Clear Channel and Rule Breakers recommendation XM became apparent earlier this week, when a newspaper report revealed that Clear Channel would begin placing ads on the four channels that it is contracted to provide for XM.

XM plans to fight back by launching four entirely new commercial-free music channels so that it can continue to promote itself as offering 69 ad-free music channels. In the end, it almost feels like a non-story, but it also comes stapled to an important lesson to young companies in need of capital: Think carefully before you panhandle.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz loves to look back, even if it means he falls on his face going forward. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Foo l has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.