In recent months, most of the news about Google focused on the cutbacks it has made to both staff and experimental projects. On Monday, however, the search giant announced a major expansion, a venture capital fund with full Google branding: Google Ventures. In contrast to some of the efforts of Google.org, these investments will be all about profit, and the company is taking great pains to ensure potential investees that the money will come with no strings attached. Those assurances, however, come in a message that’s fairly mixed.

This is not Google’s first foray into investing, but the company’s past efforts were placed under its charitable arm, Google.org. These investments were mixed with grants, and had a clear focus on things like alternative energy and emerging diseases. Google Ventures, in contrast, doesn’t appear to have any specific goals beyond “making money from the investment.” There is the possibility that there will be some overlap—areas of interest highlighted by the announcement include clean tech, biotech, and health care—but those investments will be made alongside those in software, consumer Internet, and other businesses. Google promises that its ventures will borrow “the best practices of top-tier, financially focused venture capital firms.”

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