web browsers are in essence some form network computers. computers can be a path to information as explained very nice in this talk by eric schmidt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl8bEApvblg
he also explains that the information industry is actually much bigger than the IT industry, and that google sees itself as an information company. Personally, I think one ingredient in a company around information, is the ability to analyse data.
there is a nice book on data analysis here: http://www.google.de/#hl=de&source=hp&q=head+first+data+analysis&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=&aq=f&oq=head+first+data+analysis&fp=c6a75e802a8b0e7
