@ Perry,
Advertising has supported the development of 300 channels of 24/7 crap on television. I think the dollars are there to sustain web-based development in the same way.
I guess I'm always suprised at people's sense of indignation at stuff like this. With the exception of
FOSS, developers intend to make a profit. If they're giving the software away for free to you, the user, what exactly did you think their business plan was? Raise funding, release software, go bankrupt?