I am very very sure Google does use the data coming to their DNS for statistical analysis etc. If it is your intend to see what people visit, DNS is a highly valuable resource and an easy IP might make people use yours.
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/faq.html#privacy
If you are correct, there is a massive conspiracy at Google, where a single whistleblower would be able to cost the company billions of dollars.
Not sure what you mean. I mean plainly logging the domain lookups, using the data what the masses do not tainting the privacy of the individual.
Yes, it's hard to imagine that Level 3 has made much money from that IP address. But that doesn't mean memorable IP addresses aren't, in general, valuable.
4.2.2.2 could still be considered "valuable" because it's used as a public service for the Internet community, and its memorability increases the value of that service. And Google apparently thinks it can make money from the data it collects on its 8.8.8.8 nameserver; do you think that project would be just as valuable to Google if it were 216.44.159.113 instead?
My opinion is that among the reasons it is so well known are that it was designed from the very beginning to be memorable, and they folks setting up this service had the foresight to realize that having it on an easy IP was valuable.
I don't agree with the author's idea that an easy IP address is especially valuable. They're not making any money when technicians use their service because the IP is memorable...