Harness the Power of Targeted Search with Google
The absolute fastest way to get really serious targeted traffic to your web site is to use the power of Google. You know, Google - the guys that get, oh say, over 50% of all searches conducted on the Internet today. Yeah Google - the guys who figured out how to produce relevant search results. Google - the guys who are gonna go public and make like 20 zillion dollars. That Google.
They have a brain-dead easy-to-use advertising product called Google AdWords - and you can set up an account, create keywords, have them appear on the relevant search terms in the Google search engine, and see real live qualified traffic to your web site in the space of a few hours.
S&P to add Google to S&P 500; stock jumps
The Associated Press - Published: March 23, 2006 - Google Inc.'s stock will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 index, a long-anticipated rite of passage that lifted the online search engine leader's recently sagging shares. Standard & Poor's announced the forthcoming change after the stock market closed Thursday. Google will replace Burlington Resources Inc. in the closely watched barometer March 31. Burlington Resources, a major oil producer based in Houston, is being acquired by ConocoPhillips Inc. in a deal worth about $35.6 billion.
The inclusion into the S&P 500 provides Google's stock with an immediate catalyst because so many large mutual funds are based on the index's composition. Once a stock is added to the index, money managers typically must buy shares as they readjust their portfolios. What's more, some conservatively managed funds are permitted to invest only in companies that belong to the S&P 500, so Thursday's move should make Google's stock available to a larger pool of investors, said David Garrity, director of research for Hapoalim Securities.
Google to Take Advantage of Municipal Wi-Fi Networks
WebmasterWorld.com - Published: Feb 17, 2006 - Google has met with mobile gear vendors including Motorola and Sony to explore how their devices might be able to take advantage of municipal Wi-Fi networks, an executive of the search company said Thursday.
Oh... and GOOG stock is GREATLY undervalued... (IMHO)
FOOLISH Investors & Wall Steet are way too short-sighted looking for instant gratification in the stock markets... SMART companies have long goal strategy and pay no heed to momentary headwinds and temporary problems!
We used to commend Japanese Corporations for having such ambitious business strategies... yet when Google diplays the same creativity to evolve technology and corporate thinking, their stock gets hammered...
Go figure....
GOOG Falls Below $350 (first time since late Oct 2005)
Barron's Cover Story - Published: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2006 - Google faces a gaggle of challenges. If it trips on even a few, its stock price could gag still more. INVESTORS HAVE BEEN FIXATED on Google the past few weeks, as its shares have tumbled nearly 25% from a peak of $475 -- and the fact is, there could be a lot more tumbling ahead. The share price could well be cut in half over the next year as the Internet giant grapples with growing competition from Microsoft and Yahoo!, increased pricing pressures in its online ad sales and mounting concern about what's known as click fraud.
How high can Google’s stock soar?
The Associated Press - Published: December 3rd, 2005 - Is Google Inc.'s incandescent stock a golden opportunity or fool's gold? Investors have been arguing that question since Google’s initial public offering in August 2004. But the stakes have grown progressively higher over the past 11 months as the online search engine maker’s shares zoomed past $200, $300 and then $400 as Google firmly established itself as the gold standard in Internet advertising.
But Google’s rapid run-up is making it more difficult to figure out how outside investors can make money on the stock, said Stanford Financial Group analyst Clayton Moran. "I think the current price is justified, but I just can’t go out and tell my clients to buy the stock now," said Moran, explaining why he downgraded Google’s shares to a "hold" earlier this week. Moran values Google’s shares at $425 – higher than more pessimistic analysts like Standard & Poor analyst Scott Kessler, who believes $364 is a more realistic price. Google’s shares closed at $417.70 on Friday.
Microsoft's Ballmer: chair-tossing potty-mouth
Monday 5th September 2005 (The Register) -- From monkey dancing to chair chucking... Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer threw a chair across his office and threatened to "fucking kill Google" when told a key employee was leaving to join the search giant. According to legal documents filed late last week Ballmer reacted with fury when told Mark Lukovsky was joining Google.
Lukovsky's statement says: "Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure....At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google. At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." ....
Thereafter, Mr. Ballmer resumed trying to persuade me to stay....Among other things, Mr. Ballmer told me that "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards." Lukovsky left Microsoft in March this year. The documents were filed as evidence in the ongoing case between Microsoft and Google over the fate of ex-Microsoft employee Kai-Fu Lee. Microsoft took action against Lee in July to stop him joining Google. Microsoft claims Lee is breaching an anti-competion agreement.
Ballmer issued a statement disputing Lukovsky's version of events which it described as a "gross exaggeration".
Google Selling $4.2 Billion of Stock One Year After IPO
Aug. 18, 2005 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, unveiled a surprise plan to sell $4 billion in shares, taking advantage of a tripling in the stock price since the company's initial public offering a year ago today. Money raised from the sale of 14.2 million shares, or 4.8 percent of the total stock outstanding, may be used for acquisitions, Mountain View, California-based Google said in a regulatory filing today. Google said it isn't close to making a ``material'' purchase.
Diversification
Google may make acquisitions to diversify its revenue beyond ads linked to search results, Standard & Poor's analyst Scott Kessler said. The company may try to make more money through display advertising or fees from transactions on the Web, said Henry Ellenbogen, a fund manager at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. in Baltimore, which owned 1.43 million shares as of June.
One potential acquisition target for Google may be Skype Technologies SA, an Internet calling service with more than 40 million customers, Kessler said. Other potential purchase targets include video-recorder maker TiVo Inc. and Infospace Inc., which sells ring tones and games for cell-phones, Rich Fine said.
Google's Initial Public Offering Information - Apr. 30, 2004
Google sets $2.7 billion IPO (Nasdaq : GOOG). NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Google, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, finally filed for its initial public stock offering Thursday and promised to maintain its long-term focus even though it will soon face the intense scrutiny of Wall Street.
Google CFO: Click Fraud Threatens Our Business Model Google exec calls click fraud the "biggest threat" to the Internet economy, urges quick action.
"I think something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model," Google Chief Financial Officer George Reyes said Wednesday. Reyes, speaking at an investor conference sponsored by Credit Suisse First Boston, was referring to an illegal practice known as "click fraud" that occurs when individuals click on ad links that appear next to search results in order to force advertisers to pay for the clicks. In cost-per-click advertising, marketers pay a search engine, like Google, Yahoo! or FindWhat.com, when users click on links to the advertisers' Web sites. Google and others also generate revenue by posting sponsored ad links on other Web sites and splitting the fees generated by user clicks. The paid-search model is now the fastest-growing form of Internet advertising, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
But analysts, fraud experts and now Google (down $0.56 to $179.40, Research) are openly fretting about the rise of click fraud.
The main perpetrators appear to be competitors of advertisers and also scam sites set up for the sole purpose of hosting ad links provided by Google, through its AdSense unit, or Yahoo!, through its Overture service. Humans or specially designed software then click on those ad links in order to "steal" revenue from advertisers.
Estimates of how prevalent click fraud has become since it appeared four years ago are all over the map. Jessie Stricchiola, the president of Alchemist Media, estimated that as much as 20 percent of all clicks on paid search ads are shams.
In recent months, Google has become increasingly vocal about the problem. In regulatory filings leading up to its initial public offering this summer, the company has reported that it has regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks. "If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase," Google said in one of the filings.
Google AdWords results to appear on AOL
Feb. 17, 2005 (Forbes.com) -- Advertisers using Google's AdWords service will now be able to appear on the search results pages of AOL Europe following a newly expanded deal between the two Internet giants. Google previously provided search results for AOL. The value of the new deal has not been disclosed but it covers AOL's network of sites in the UK, France and Germany, which between them have some 6.3m users.
Google 4th-Quarter Profit Jumps More Than Sevenfold on Ad Sales
Feb. 3, 2005 (Forbes.com) -- SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's high-flying stock hit a new peak Wednesday, propelled by the widening belief that the online search engine leader can continue to grow as major advertisers shift more spending from traditional media to the Internet. After underestimating Google's robust earnings growth in its latest quarter, industry analysts substantially raised their future estimates in enthusiastic reviews that underscored Wall Street's deepening adulation for the company, though some injected a note of caution.
Investors appeared to agree after digesting Tuesday's news that Google's fourth-quarter profit was seven times higher than the previous year. Google's shares surged $14.06 Wednesday to $205.96. Earlier in the day, the shares traded at $216.80 -- the highest price since Google went public at $85 per share less than six months ago. The feverish run-up in Google's market value -- now standing at $59 billion -- is reminiscent of the dot-com heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000 when investors bid up the prices of young Internet companies on the premise that they were about to change the world.
The biggest difference between now and then is that Google is generating genuine profits, which are multiplying at a dazzling rate. With few exceptions, the prized Internet stocks of yesteryear belonged to companies that weren't making money. "In some respects, Google's [stock] price is out of control, but the business definitely isn't out of control," said Barry Randall, a portfolio manager for U.S. Bancorp's First American Technology Fund.
The advertising formula that Google has built around its popular search engine is the main reason investors are betting the company will continue to thrive. Google delivers advertising links tied to the requests entered into the main search box -- a system that businesses like because they pay only when a prospective customer clicks on the link.
Although Google has been selling the ads for several years, many of the elite companies in the Fortune 500 just recently began to buy into the concept. Analysts think that a steady stream of new advertising dollars will pour into the Internet during the next five years and that Google will be one of the biggest beneficiaries, along with Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN. The biggest threat facing Google probably is the increasing competition from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft, as well as a cadre of other ambitious startups.
Google 4th-Quarter Profit Jumps More Than Sevenfold on Ad Sales
Feb. 1, 2005 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, said fourth-quarter profit rose sevenfold as it sold more advertising and attracted greater numbers of Web surfers to its sites. Net income jumped to $204.1 million, or 71 cents a share, from $27.3 million, or 10 cents, a year earlier, the Mountain View, California-based company said today in a statement distributed by Business Wire. Sales doubled to $1.03 billion from $512.2 million.
Advertisers paid as much as 25 percent more for online ads last year than they did in 2003 as demand rose. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt is using some of the $1.92 billion that Google raised in an August initial public offering to develop new features that allow users to search online video clips and files on their personal computers.
``They're still the standard setters,'' Soleil Securities analyst Laura Martin said in an interview before the report. ``What we're looking for is what they're going to do with the money Wall Street gave them.'' Los Angeles-based Martin rates Google shares ``hold'' and doesn't own them. Shares of Google fell $3.72 to $191.90 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They rose 49 percent in the fourth quarter
Keyword Prices
The price of Google's keyword ads increased 20 percent to 25 percent in the past year as demand rose, said Jeff Lanctot, vice president of media at Internet ad agency Avenue A/Razorfish, a unit of Seattle-based Aquantive Inc. The total worldwide market for ads linked to search results is expected to grow by 45 percent to $8.44 billion this year, according to Anthony Noto, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. New York-based Noto rates the shares ``outperform.'' Noto is the top- ranked Internet analyst by Institutional Investor magazine.
Beyond search-linked ads on its own site, Google also places ads on sites including Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, search engine Ask Jeeves Inc., and publications such as the online New York Times and online journals called Web logs, or blogs. Google passes on part of the revenue it receives from advertisers to these sites when users click on the ads. In the third quarter, the company paid 79 percent of this revenue to those sites.
Is Google Searching For VoIP?
January 24, 2005 (Forbes.com) - SAN FRANCISCO (internetnews.com) - Google (Quote, Chart) is reportedly readying a Voice over IP (define) service for the United Kingdom, but experts are skeptical that the search giant would move into telecommunications. A story in London-based Times newspaper said the search giant is readying an Internet telephony offering that will rival British Telecom's. An analyst from the research firm Ovum told the paper that VoIP could mesh nicely with Google's search services, allowing users to find local businesses and immediately dial from their desktops.
However, the media report contained no comment from the Mountain View, Calif., company. The story did speculate, though, that a job posting on Google's Web site could indicate a move into VoIP. The ad seeks a "strategic negotiator" responsible for making deals for dark fiber, optical networks that are in place but not currently in use.
Not all industry watchers think the move is logical. Will Cheek, an analyst with Parks & Associates, told internetnews.com that a Google VoIP offering could be at a disadvantage against services from telecoms or cable operators. "[Google doesn't] control the actual broadband connection to the home, so they don't have control of quality-of-service," Cheek said. Those service providers also have the ability to bundle VoIP with other residential services, including high-speed Internet service and video. Google's ad could be explained as a move to negotiate for less expensive bandwidth, said Sullivan, whose site is owned by the same parent company as internetnews.com.
A Google spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the Times' story. If Google were to offer VoIP in the United Kingdom, it would be battling more than British Telecom. Vonage today announced that its VoIP service was now available in the nation.
EBay Sellers Eye Yahoo & Google Keyword Search Advertising to Sell Wares
January 19, 2005 (CBS.MarketWatch.com) - SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - As more people go online and become familiar with the Web, they're finding many ways to skin a cat. Or, in the context of this story, they're finding many ways to sell their goods.
Just last week, eBay (EBAY) raised prices on certain services that seemed to strike a nerve with some of the roughly 200,000-plus store owners that have set up shop on eBay's vibrant marketplace. Among some of the price increases was a 60-percent rise in the cost to set up a basic store on eBay. EBay also raised prices for a buy-it-now feature, which lets sellers give buyers the option to buy a product at a set price rather than bid on it.
It's not a surprise that many eBay shopkeepers would voice concerns, but what became apparent from the flood of e-mails that filled my inbox was that these sellers are finding other options. For instance, one seller said he's been using keyword search advertising from Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) to sell his wares. This way of selling seems to have been more cost-effective for him.
Brin: Google, SEC Settle Flap Over Pre-IPO Employee Stock Options
January 13, 2005 (Forbes.com) - Try a search for "full disclosure." Google (nasdaq: GOOG) and its general counsel, David Drummond, have settled U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges related to the Internet firm's initial public offering last August. The SEC's news release Thursday maintained that between 2002 and 2004, the search-engine giant founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page had issued more than $80 million worth of stock options to workers, as part of their compensation. But, the agency says, "The federal securities laws require companies issuing over $5 million in options during a 12-month period either to provide detailed financial information to the option recipients, or to register the securities offering with the Commission and thereby publicly disclose financial and other important information." And the commission says Google failed to register the pre-IPO options. But apparently the SEC does not see the omission as a grave threat to America's securities market. To settle the charges, the agency said Google and Drummond simply agreed to cease and desist from further registration and financial disclosure violations.
Google wants 'dark fiber'
January 11, 2005 (The Motley Fool) - Is Google planning to build a global fiber optic network from scratch? And, if so, why? The question has cropped up in light of a recent job posting on the search engine giant's Web site seeking experts in the field. "Google is looking for Strategic Negotiator candidates with experience in...(i)dentification, selection, and negotiation of dark fiber contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global backbone network," the posting reads, in part.
Dark fiber refers to fiber optic cable that's already been laid, but is not yet in use. Thousands of miles of dark fiber is available in the United States, but there have been few takers due to the high costs of making it operational.
A Google spokesman declined to elaborate on the job posting. Still, it raises some tantalizing thoughts, including the long-shot chance that the company is laying the groundwork to jump into the telecommunications business. The posting was reported by Light Reading, a Web site that tracks the optical networking industry.
If Google were to build its own global or national fiber network, the project would likely cost billions of dollars and take years to implement, an investment that would be hard to justify based on the networking needs of most companies. Renting "lit" fiber from carriers is generally a cheaper, and therefore preferred, way to go.
Yahoo! Says, "Me Too!" -- Again
January 11, 2005 (The Motley Fool) - Ah, yes. It's another yawner -- Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) launched its desktop search application today in beta, as has become the customary way of search function launches. This word is no surprise whatsoever, given the historical progression of the search wars -- not to mention, Yahoo! had already made the promise.
Major rival Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) launched its own desktop search product quite some time ago. And then several other search players followed suit, including Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) MSN service and Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ). Rich Duprey didn't see anything too revolutionary about the trend last month. At any rate, Yahoo!'s desktop search launch seems like a case of same story, different day, different search giant. In this arena, it seems to me that Google's still got powerful first-mover advantage on its side.
Net Ads Golden to Google
1/3/2005 (TheStreet.com) - Google (GOOG:Nasdaq) continued its journey back to $200 Monday, thanks in part to an encouraging online advertising report from Goldman Sachs. In a move both risky and essential, AOL is abandoning its strategy of exclusivity and will free much of its music, sports and other programming to non-subscribers in hopes of boosting ad sales. The decision could help the company counter declining subscriptions as Internet users move to high-speed connections. At least that's the plan.
Shares in the paid search phenomenon rose $5.78 Monday to $198.57, continuing a rally that has added 17% to Google's share price since Dec. 8. Shares in Google, which went public in August at $85 a share, peaked at $201.60 Nov. 3 before falling as low as $161.31 the next month. Boosting Google's shares Monday was a report from Goldman Internet analyst Anthony Noto, who raised his fourth-quarter advertising estimates on both Google and Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq). Yahoo!'s stock rose 24 cents to $37.92.
In his report, Noto says the paid search advertising sold by Google and by Yahoo!'s Overture Services is benefiting from the quantity of searches and the prices that advertisers are bidding for advertising keywords, both of which are better than expected.
But Noto pays much greater attention in his report to the state of branded online advertising -- the banners and other pictorial ads, including animation and video -- rather than the text ads that are keyed to Internet users' queries on search engines, or to the editorial content of a page in which the text ad appears.
On the basis of conversations with media buyers in mid-November and mid-December, Noto concludes that, as far as branded online advertising is concerned, it's "a heavy, heavy ad market."
Rival Web portals are likely headed down very different paths in 2005
12/27/2004 (Forbes / AP) -- SAN FRANCISCO -- Even as they trade counterpunches punctuating their similarities, Internet heavyweights Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. have strived for different goals -- distinctions that may become more apparent as the fierce rivalry moves into 2005.
Google, owner of the leading online search engine, is devoted to a single-minded mission: transforming the way the world finds and stores information, even if that means sending people somewhere else. Yahoo, owner of the world's most popular Web site, is taking a more multidimensional approach as it strives to be all things for all people -- a one-stop destination for recreation, work and research. "The differing visions of the companies' founders and management teams will likely lead them down very different paths," UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter predicts in a recent research report.
Ad sales are key - Like Yahoo, Google shares one key characteristic with media companies -- virtually all of its sales come from advertising. But Google prizes innovation over profits. "In some businesses, the salespeople tell the engineers what to do, but at Google the engineering team is really our driving force" said Marissa Mayer, the company's director of consumer Web products. Google is trying to foster a research-driven culture akin to General Electric Co., 3M Co. and DuPont Co., Mayer said. "We want Google to be the very place to work for the very best computer scientists in the world," Reyes said. "Google is truly a learning organization."
Will Google book profit?
12/14/2004 WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Google's announcement it has begun scanning the libraries of four universities and the New York Public Library may have a profit motive. "We have a commercial giant that has both a mission (to organize the world's information and make it accessible) as well as a commercially viable reason to bring this information to the world," wrote John Battelle, the founder of the now-defunct Industry Standard, on his Weblog.
Battelle, who's writing a book on Internet search, suggests it's only a hop, skip and a link to Amazon.com's (AMZN: news, chart, profile) affiliate sales service for Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) to offer searchers the chance to buy the books they've found. "It's also a very short route to the on-demand publishing of an out-of-print and out-of-copyright book," he said. See full story.
SearchEngineWatch.com's Gary Price added that Google's not the first in putting the full text of books on the Internet. Project Gutenberg's been at work on this since 1971; the Internet Archive and Ebrary are two more resources.
AOL Abandons Exclusivity in Favor of Ad-Supported Model
12/13/2004 (USAtoday.com) - DULLES, Va. - The walls surrounding America Online's well-manicured gardens are crumbling. In a move both risky and essential, AOL is abandoning its strategy of exclusivity and will free much of its music, sports and other programming to non-subscribers in hopes of boosting ad sales. The decision could help the company counter declining subscriptions as Internet users move to high-speed connections. At least that's the plan.
The danger is that the bold new strategy will instead accelerate the erosion of AOL's core revenue source. To begin with, the change pits AOL against big guns Yahoo and Microsoft, which in turn are looking over their shoulder wondering what search leader Google will do next.
Google says will start share buyback offer Tuesday
November 30 (Reuters) - Web search company Google Inc. (Nasdaq : GOOG) said on Tuesday that it will commence its share buyback offer today for the 23.4 million common shares it may have issued improperly to previous and current employees and consultants. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the offer will expire on Dec, 30. Google said it expects little acceptance of the buyback offer, which has a weighted average offer price of $3.94 per share. Shares of Google closed at $181.05 on the Nasdaq on Monday.
The buyback offer includes 23.4 million shares of common stock issued pursuant to the company's 1998 and 2003 stock plans. The offer also pertains to unexercised options to buy 5.2 million shares of common stock. The transactions were not registered as may have been required by the law, Google says in the filing. When the buyback offer expires, any of the shareholders who did not accept the offer will have freely tradable stock, subject to lock-up and vesting restrictions.
Google steals MSN search thunder
November 24, 2004 (CBS.MarketWatch.com) -- Google gets another $200-plus target Goldman Sachs sees paid-search at $19 billion in 2009
But if past if prologue, it won't be a straight shot above that century threshold. Late Tuesday, Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) received a $215 price target from Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto. The analyst's note ignited interest in Google shares in after-hours trading. By Wednesday morning, investors were bidding up shares 4 percent to $174 from Tuesday's close at $166.50. It's a nice one-day price jump, but Noto's bullish call isn't the only one that's goosed Google above $170 in a day.
Noto bases his numbers on Google's 40 percent share of the search market, and several assumptions about growth in search. He predicts online searching will grow 11 percent between 2006 and 2009, while coverage and click-through-rates will grow less than 1 percent and price-per-click will grow 5 percent. The numbers point to a paid-search market that could reach $19 billion by 2009.
Noto also pointed out that, based on a study of 2,500 Internet users, Google was selected as the No. 1 search engine of choice by half those surveyed. But on average, respondents said they use two or more search engines, with 56 percent of them saying they use Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) as well.
The result suggests that, "the ability for search engines to garner significant incremental share of queries will be challenging in the near term," Noto wrote. "Thus, the most critical factor in gaining share of paid-search revenue lies in covering more queries to leads via better click-through rates and coverage."
Google Repeats Growth Warning
November 18, 2004 (TheStreet.com) -- Google shares were lower in Thursday's premarket session after the company repeated a mild caveat about sequential revenue growth in a corporate filing. In a discussion of business trends contained in an S-4 registration, Google warned that it is unlikely sequential growth in the fourth quarter will match the 15% it put up in the third. The language looked similar to a warning contained in the company's previously filed 10-Q.
"Although our revenue growth rate increased in the third quarter of 2004 compared to the second quarter of 2004, our revenue growth rate has generally declined, and we expect it will continue to do so as a result of increasing competition and the inevitable decline in growth rates as our revenues increase to higher levels," Google said. "Consequently, we believe that our revenue growth rate from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2004 may not be sustainable into the fourth quarter of this year and in future periods," it said.
Factors contributing to more muted growth could be Google's plan to remove ads from its search pages that generate low click-through rates. It said "the main focus of our advertising programs is to provide relevant and useful advertising to our users, reflecting our commitment to constantly improve their overall Web experience."
PRODUCT REVIEW: Microsoft Search Falls Far Short of Google
November 17, 2004 (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer) -- Microsoft Corp. isn't often an underdog in anything, so when the software powerhouse released its new search engine, I was anxious to give it a whirl. First the good news: MSN Search has a few features that go beyond Google - laudable given Google's formidable head start. Now the verdict: Mr. Bill Gates, you're no Google. I won't be changing my search engine of choice.
Granted, the new MSN is still in a "beta" test phase - a work in progress. Early next year, Microsoft is expected to make the technology part of its main MSN site, replacing the Yahoo-powered search engine it now uses. By then, it might have resolved some of the troubles I had. For now, it's generally disappointing. Among the MSN Search features that Google lacks are three graphical levers that help you refine searches. One moves between "exact match" and "approximate match," while others control results based on how often a site is updated or how popular it is.
On the whole, I found Google's results more relevant for most searches. I'll check back with MSN to assess its progress, though. I've no doubt it will get better as Microsoft absorbs feedback, and I look forward to that.
Even Google could use some competition.
MSN Beta Search: http://beta.search.msn.com
Google Opens Office in Microsoft's Backyard
Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:39 PM SEATTLE (Reuters) - Google Inc. has opened an office just down the road from rival Microsoft Corp.'s headquarters in Seattle's suburbs as it seeks to lure local engineering talent, the No. 1 search engine company said on Wednesday. Google, which competes with the world's largest software maker in Internet search as well as for employees, has leased space in Kirkland, Washington, less than five miles from Microsoft's Redmond headquarters.
"The only reason to start a remote engineering office is to hire really talented people," said Alan Eustace, vice president of engineering at Google. Google is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and also has engineering offices in New York; Santa Monica, California; Zurich; Bangalore, India; and Tokyo.
Microsoft decided last year to build its own search engine to compete with Google as it seeks more search-based advertising revenue and online traffic for its MSN Internet division. Last week, it unveiled a preliminary version of its new search engine. Eustace said that "the Seattle area has an amazing amount of technical talent" but in some cases Google has had difficulty hiring people because they did not want to leave the Pacific Northwest for California's Silicon Valley.
So far, about 10 Google employees are working in Kirkland in a space that could hold at least 200 more people. Some engineers with ties to Seattle would be moving up from Mountain View as well, the company said. Eustace said the new office, which takes up an entire floor of a building in downtown Kirkland, will have perks similar to those in other Google offices. Google famously has on-site services at its headquarters such as massages, meals, and an on-site doctor, but Eustace said that Kirkland would not have its own chef.
Google is inviting local friends, family members, civic leaders and press to an invitation-only party on Thursday night, but declined to say whether Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was invited.
Google steals MSN search thunder
November 11, 2004 (CBS.MarketWatch.com) -- On the day that Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) unveiled the enhanced beta version of its search tool with 5 billion Web pages crawled, Google did a good job at stealing a bit of thunder. Late Wednesday, Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) said it surpassed 8 billion Web pages crawled, nearly double the 4.3 billion that it was indexing.
The new pages have been added from around the world, but Google did not reveal the characteristics of those pages, such as whether the pages were personal in nature, academic, informative or commercial. As for Microsoft, the additional 4 billion pages added is a marked improvement from 1 billion in July.
Google shareholders were not overly concerned about MSN's entry, if stock trading is any guide. Google's shares traded up 9 percent to $183.02, by the close of trading. Microsoft rose nearly a percent to just under $29.
Indeed, a quality search service is still about matching a query with an answer. "The challenge is getting the answer to your question," said Justin Osmer, product manager at Microsoft's MSN division. "The bigger issue is that simply adding more pages doesn't guarantee relevancy," said Danny Sullivan, editor at SearchEngineWatch. "In fact, by adding pages without watching your relevancy closely, you could make things worse."
Stock Split Might Not Be in Google's Cards
November 5, 2004 (Forbes / AP) -- Google Inc., a company built on complex algorithms that power its online search engine, doesn't appear to be in any rush to tackle one of Wall Street's most basic equations - the stock split.
This widely used market maneuver is designed to make a stock more affordable to the masses, something that would seemingly appeal to an egalitarian-minded company like Google, whose shares crossed the $200 threshold for the first time earlier this week. Yet all signs so far point to Google adopting an anti-split stance.
Google's resistance to stock splits became evident during its IPO. The company sought as much as $135 per share before settling for $85 after many investors expressed reluctance to pay a price in the triple digits. Some analysts thought Google could have softened the backlash by splitting its stock before the IPO.
Effect of Google IPO Felt by Newer Deals
Monday November 1, 2004 (Forbes / AP) -- Effect of Google IPO Felt by Newer Deals As Several Companies Soar in Their Debuts. Google Inc. had some IPO coattails after all. Initial public offerings just wrapped up one of their best weeks in some time, with 10 companies coming to market, raising $1.7 billion, and several soaring in their debuts.
It was an unexpectedly strong week, given that investor attitude toward new stock issues has been lukewarm at best since the summer. But analysts, investors and Wall Street underwriters all have pointed to an unlikely reason for this unlikely snapback: Google, which has risen sharply since its own debut in August.
In short, Google was supposed to be in a world of its own. Turns out, this was Google's world after all. After selling its shares well below original estimates in August, Google shares since have gained more than $100, making Google one of the most successful stock offerings of the year. The stock priced at $85 a share in August. They were at $196.40 in early afternoon trading Monday, up $5.76, or 3 percent, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Google has renewed interest in the IPO market at large. Indeed, analysts credited the giddiness over Google for the strong gains early last week for comparison-shopping Web company Shopping.com Ltd., whose shares rose 60 percent on their first day. Positive sentiment for IPOs allowed several companies to post gains in their debuts last week, with shares of four of them -- Shopping.com, DreamWorks Animation Inc., Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. and FoxHollow Technologies Inc. -- rising more than 20 percent.
Brin: Google Stuns IPO Critics As Shares Skyrocket--Again
Friday Oct 29, 2004 (Forbes.com) - The new, new economy? Google (nasdaq: GOOG) put unbelievers to shame on Friday, as its stock soared to new heights.
Shares were up 2.4%, or $4.70, at $197.93 trading on Nasdaq--and the stock price hit an intraday high of $199.95. Why has the firm founded by wunderkind duo Sergey Brin and Larry Page hitting such lofty heights after an uneasy initial public offering this summer? Analysts cite the search giant's raft of products and services, including one in development that'd allow users to perform online searches from mobile phones. And Thursday's development was no slouch for the firm whose very name has become a verb. Google announced an advertising pact with BellSouth's (nyse: BLS - news - people ) Internet Yellow Pages unit. Analysts also cite the relative scarcity of Google shares. The firm has only about 22.5 million shares available for public trade, far smaller than many other Internet names.
Google, BellSouth ink local advertising deal
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - In a bid to further expand its reach, Google Inc. said on Thursday it authorized BellSouth Corp.'s (BLS) online Yellow Pages unit RealPages.com to sell Google's Web search ads to small and mid-sized businesses in the southeastern United States.
The multiyear deal makes BellSouth the first authorized reseller of Google's popular paid-search ads, which have thrived as an effective medium for connecting buyers and sellers.
BellSouth's RealSearch Engine Solutions service since last year has sold paid-search advertising packages to customers that operate Web sites. The packages guarantee a certain amount of traffic to their Web sites from search engines and are priced from $80 to $400 per month. The two highest priced offerings guarantee inclusion in Google's advertising program.
Yahoo unveils mobile search, Google rivalry rages
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) on Wednesday launched its Web search service aimed at mobile phone users in the United States, opening a new front in its rivalry with Internet search leader Google Inc. (GOOG) The new service marks the first time Yahoo is offering a easy-to-use Web search interface for U.S. mobile phones. Earlier this month, Google announced a test service that allows people to use mobile phones or handheld devices to tap Google's Web search via text messages, or short message service.
The new service is available to most cell phones with color screens and can be accessed through the Yahoo site or via http://www.search.yahoo.com. Google also offers a wireless browser. Web search is a booming business area because of related advertising services that are highly targeted and very lucrative. For the moment, neither Yahoo nor Google serves advertising with their mobile offerings.
Google Update? Don't Panic! There has been a great deal of speculation about a shift coming in Google's ranking algorithms over the past few weeks. Several recent pieces of evidence point to a coming shift however it is very difficult to predict what, if anything will happen. It's pretty much a given that there will be some form of update to the way Google reads and ranks sites. Google actually makes minor adjustments on a regular basis. There are rare occasions however when major changes are introduced. I suspect this is one of those times.
Since Google doesn't like being gamed so easily, the value of incoming links is where Google engineers do most of their tinkering. As stated early in this article, Google is getting much better at figuring out specific page topics and overall site context. They are continuously applying advancements in contextualization to their link-relevancy algorithms. My guess is this algorithm update will target unrelated links, lowing their value considerably while rewarding sites with highly relevant links. Google will also likely target companies and sites that exist solely to sell links, thus effecting all associated with such schemes. If your business is based on selling links, watch this update very carefully. If your website has purchased links, you too should watch this update very closely. Unfortunately, when the first signs of trouble come, it will already be too late to take any action aside from removing irrelevant links wherever possible.
Google Results Revive 'Dot-Com' Fervor
Friday Oct 22, 2004, NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Google Inc. rose as much as 20 percent on Friday, to trade at more than twice the level of its cut-price IPO, after the Web search leader posted strong quarterly results in its first reported quarter as a public company.
Google shares hit a high of $180.17, up 112 percent from when it went public just over two months ago at $85 a share -- the low end of a proposed range that had been as high as $135. And in a move that rekindled dot.com-era fervor, one broker said the stock could hit $200.
Mountain View, California-based Google (NasdaqNM: GOOG) GOOG - Google News has a track record of profitability and a clearly defined business model built around online advertising, unlike comparable stocks in the first generation of the Internet investment boom.
But amid the bulls on Wall Street, are a few contrarians who remain concerned that Google faces significant competition from companies like Yahoo Inc. (NasdaqNM: YHOO) YHOO - Yahoo News and Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM: MSFT) MSFT - Microsoft News and its dependence on generating almost all of its revenue from a single source.
Big moves in Google's stock price also are closely tied to the small size of its float -- the percentage of its shares that are available for public trade -- relative to other richly valued Internet players like Yahoo or online marketplace eBay Inc.(NasdaqNM: EBAY) EBAY - eBay News.
TARGET -- $200
Prudential Equity Group analyst Mark Rowen repeated his "overweight" investment rating on Google and raised his price target for the stock to $200 from $130 on what he called "blowout" third-quarter results. The $200 target could be 12 to 18 months out, he said in a note to investors.
The Google surge was an echo of the go-go investment era of the late 1990s, when former stock analyst Henry Blodget famously set a $400 price target on online retailer Amazon.com (NasdaqNM: AMZN) AMZN - Amazon.com News, which spurred a vault in its stock price.
"An investment in Google is, in effect, an ownership stake in a company with maximum exposure to the online advertising market's fastest growing format," Rowen said.
Text your Google search October 11, 2004, New Zealand Herald, SAN FRANCISCO - Google has announced a new test service that allows people to use mobile phones or handheld devices to tap Google's web search via text messages, or short message service.
Called Google SMS, the service is the newly public company's broadest push yet in the mobile market and comes as Google and its rivals in the hotly competitive web search industry race to expand their reach. Text messaging, which works on most mobile phones now on the market, is still growing in popularity in the United States but has been widely used in Europe for years. While analysts were not blown away by the widely available technology, they said the move would probably be good for Google.
"It gives people that are heavily reliant on Google's services the ability to extend the use beyond their PC to their phone," said Yankee Group senior analyst Linda Barrabee. Analysts said Google is certain to face competition in the future as mobile providers upgrade their networks and use the web to deliver increasingly sophisticated information to mobile phones. For example, maps and menus could be shown on phones via the internet, one analyst said.
Google Goes Mobile with SMS October 8, 2004, Wireless NewsFactor - Google is experimenting with a new search service for mobile devices based on text messaging, also known as "short messaging service" (SMS), as the company reaches out to the wireless world.
Google SMS enables users to initiate text-message queries, and receive results, from a mobile phone or handheld device with wireless capability. Searches can include phone-book listings, dictionary definitions and product prices that arrive as text lines on the device. "This is a way to extend their traditional search service into the wireless environment," said Yankee Group senior analyst Linda Barrabee. Using the shortcode link is an approach that makes it much easier to get into the search process, she noted.
At the same time, Barrabee told NewsFactor, there are already ways to access information on mobile devices using text messaging, provided by the operators and others. "Phones can be set up to receive a variety of information services, and this just adds Google's popular search technology to those services," she said.
New Google Service May Strain Old Ties in Bookselling The New York Times Electronic Edition. Published: October 8, 2004, FRANKFURT, Oct. 7 - Google Print, the new search engine that allows consumers to search the content of books online, could help touch off an important shift in the balance of power between companies that produce books and those that sell them, publishing executives said here on Thursday. Google announced the introduction of the service at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the industry's most important annual meeting, where publishers, authors and their agents convene to buy and sell the rights to publish books in countries worldwide.
The new service would allow users of Google's main search engine to search simultaneously billions of Web pages and the texts of hundreds of thousands of books for information on a given subject. They search works by looking for words or phrases in the scanned digital images of the pages of books that publishers have provided to Google
For each book found, a user would see several pages of the book with the phrase or subject of the search highlighted. The page would also offer links to several online retailers, where the book could be bought. Publishers do not pay to participate in the program; rather, Google would make money from the service by selling advertising on the search pages, and it would share those revenues with the publishing companies.
The new Google service appeared to offer competition to the Amazon service, but at a news conference here on Thursday, Google executives played down that notion, saying that they do not intend to sell books. They noted that the service provided links to Amazon and other retailers and that Google had other links to Amazon's site.
Google Print has, however, created some formidable potential competition for Amazon in the form of the publishing companies themselves. In recent years, publishing executives have been quietly trying to figure out whether they can get rid of the middlemen - bookstores - and sell their products directly to consumers. The problem has been that most book buyers do not pay close attention to which company publishes a book, and therefore consumers would be unlikely to go to a particular publisher's Web site to peruse its offerings.
Google Guide _ Making Search Even Easier
Welcome to Google Guide, an online tutorial making searching even easier. Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a small number of Google's services and features. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.
Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information.
In this tutorial, you can learn:
How to select terms and search (more) effectively
How Google interprets your query
What's included with your results
How to search using Google's special tools and shortcuts
What to do when you can't find the answer you want
When Google added services, features, and options (Google's Feature History)
How Google works
Google Stock Report (GOOG) | Quote & News
Google Stock Report (GOOG) | Quote & News
Quotes for Nasdaq securities are delayed 15 minutes. Quotes for NYSE and Amex securities are delayed 20 minutes, and are supplied by ComStock, a division of Interactive Data Corporation. Graph Times are Eastern Standard. Certain financial information included in Morningstar Quicktake® Reports is proprietary to Mergent FIS, Inc. Copyright© 2004
Watching Google Like A Hawk - Google News Watch Site Our mission at WatchingGoogleLikeAHawk.com is as clear as our domain name. We intend to watch those guys in Mountain View very closely, just like our WatchingMicrosoftLikeAHawk.com keeps an eye on those guys up in Redmond.
Google is worth watching. We are their self-appointed watchers. As with our Microsoft news watch site, we will maintain a policy of impartial, even-handed watchfulness. No agenda; we're just watching. Google is the 800 pound gorilla of search. With Google AdWords and the new Google Adsense program, it is likely to become the 800 pound gorilla of online advertising.
To make things even more interesting, it is common knowledge that Microsoft has a high-powered engineering group working on search technology for MSN, almost certainly with the intent of taking on Google directly in both search and online advertising.
Google Stock Message Board The opinions expressed in these forums are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the operators of this site or, of course, GoogleTM...
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Search Engine News Journal » Google Stock Gobbled by Fidelity ... Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual fund manager, bought $549 million of stock in search engine Google's IPO, about 23 percent of the shares offered during the initial public offering. Fidelity reported in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it now holds 5.21 million Google Class A shares. That's about 16 percent of Class A stock and 1.9 percent of Google's total shares outstanding...
Google to Give Yahoo More Stock - BizReport Online search engine leader Google Inc. will surrender more than $300 million of its stock to Yahoo Inc. in a settlement that removes a legal threat hanging over its IPO at the expense of enriching a nettlesome rival. By settling with Yahoo, Google ensures it will be able to continue to use an advertising system that represents the company's financial backbone...
Wired News: Google Stock's Wacky Debut SAN JOSE, California -- In a debut vaguely reminiscent of the dot-com boom, shares of internet search giant Google surged in their first day of public trading Thursday as investors who avoided the company's auction-based offering readily jumped into the familiar territory of the stock market. Though the 18 percent jump boosted the paper worth of Google shareholders and insiders, it also raised questions about the effectiveness of the unorthodox auction, which was designed to gauge true demand and set a rational price that wouldn't be subject to big swings...
BBC NEWS | Business | Google shares rocket on first day Shares in Google have shot up 18% on its first day of trading, marking a dramatic comeback from the humiliation of its cut-price public offering. Google shares - whose offer price had been set at $85 - ended their market debut up $15.33 at $100.33. The price had been cut from an initial estimate of $108-135, in the face of weakness in the tech sector and several stumbles during the offer process. ...
Forbes.com: What Should You Offer For Google Stock? "The paradox is that those who overestimate the most are more likely to win the auction, and thus more likely to lose money in the process," the firm said. "This phenomenon is known as the 'winners' curse.'" Susquehanna Financial said Google will provide guidelines with a reasonable price range and encouraged investors to take the company's range guidance seriously--as it will contain important hints as to Google's view of its own value.
The research outfit warned that bidding high simply in hope of winning some stock is a strategy that could backfire, noting that Google has reserved the right to disqualify bids that appear speculative. It also cautioned that there is little incentive to submit multiple bids. Other stocks which would give investors exposure to search engine operations include Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), the owner of MSN, and AOL parent company Time Warner (nyse: TWX - news - people ).
Google Directory - Business, Investing, News and Media Viewing in Google PageRank order View in alphabetical order. ... MarketWatch - http://cbs.marketwatch.com/ News and commentary on the stock and related...
Google Throws Hat Into The Contextual Advertising Ring March 4, 2003, Search Engine Watch - Last week, Google unveiled a new method of distributing its paid listings, placing them on web pages, as opposed to the traditional means of inserting them into search results. The new product, Google Content-Targeted Advertising, will likely accelerate the already rapid growth of contextual advertising. It also sees Google offering its second non-search product within a month, following on the company's acquisition of blog-firm Pyra Labs.
Contextual advertising isn't new, yet in preparing to write this article, I also failed to find any good definitions for it. Do a Google search for "contextual advertising," and you might come away feeling that it may be unethical and has something to do with "scumware." Doesn't sound very attractive, does it?
What Is Contextual Advertising? For me, contextual advertising is when ads are delivered based on the content of a web page that's being viewed, usually in an automated or semi-automated manner. In other words, the ad system sees that you are viewing a page about travel, which it knows by having examined the words on the page or other factors. The system then delivers up in some fashion an ad that's related to travel. That's the "contextual" part of all this. The ad about travel fits the "context" or subject of the page.
Google's Giant Potential
As you can see, there are a variety of players already in the contextual advertising space. Google's new among them, but the giant stature it currently has in web search may turn it into a giant with contextual ads, as well.
Google's strength is that it already knows about the vast majority of important pages on the web. The company has indexed well over 2 billion pages (the 3 billion claimed on the home page includes some pages it has never visited but knows about only via link analysis). This means that, according to Google, that it can easily deliver targeted ads to any page participating in its program.
Indeed, by just inserting a small amount of code, Google says that publishers that eventually enter its program can get the company's targeted ads. In short, the potential exists for the entire web to be Google's ad canvas. Everything could become Google's indirect content.
