I think Google has, indeed, been investing in applied research and sprinkling the results freely around. Off the top of my head, without thinking, there is Go (the language), and the fact that they employ Guido van Rossum.
Really bad examples. Neither of those is research, basic or applied.
Google's driverless car project has been around for more than 7 years and there's still no immediate plan for commercialization. I'd consider that research (at the very least it's applied AI research).
No, because it has absolutely massive commercialization potential.
Whereas my "really bad examples" are much more in line with the "only monopolies have so much money they just give stuff away" premise of the whole discussion.
Really bad examples. Neither of those is research, basic or applied.