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Looking through Googled colored glasses
October 31, 2005
The certainty of financial security is only as good as the paper this blog is printed on. Keep that in mind as you read on.
I’m going to be posting over the next few weeks on the financial aspects of search engines. Much ballyhoo has been made about Google and their “world domination plans�.
I for one believe two things when it comes to Google:
1) I should have bought their stock last year.
2) They are sincere when they say they will live up to their “Don’t be evil� pledge.
I also believe in a universal truth about money:
1) That money (or the lust for it rather) can do a lot of evil.
***DISCLAIMER, I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT GOOGLE IS EVIL, WILL BE EVIL, WILL DO EVIL, OR LUSTS FOR MONEY.***
Sorry about that, legal gets all over us sometimes. Anyway, here is how this all is supposed to come together.
About Google going public…
Google is like any other company, they need to make money to stay in business. Google was unfairly in the shadow of the dot-com bubble fiasco. In order to further their business plans they went public. In the business world you either continually evolve or you die, or worse – become irrelevant. That is why I feel they went public.
About Google’s financial strength…
As the opening line suggests there is no such thing as financial certainty, but there is no doubt that as of this posting Google is strong. They may be strong but they need to diversify their revenue stream. That is why I believe we see them making alliances like the recent one with Sun. Search itself is not going away, and paid search is only going to grow, but putting all of your eggs in one basket is just not good business, and Google knows this.
Just plain about Google…
There are many things that to some make Google a tough entity to predict. They pledge “Don’t be evil�, they keep introducing free products, they are popping up everywhere, in Wi-Fi, in open source software, in email. I think the opposite however, I think it makes them easier to predict. You see I automatically assume that Google isn’t going to do things just like every other business does them. Why? Because they wouldn’t be where they are at today if they did. Over the last 7 years they’ve basically made us all begin to look through Google colored glasses whenever we think about search. So I think that they will continue to suprise us all and do what they do best, innovate. And investors love innovation.
That earlier stuff about money and evil…
Unfortunately I have seen, as we all probably have, that money can change things. The other thing that can change things is people. If you ask your boss what they look for the most in the people they hire it probably is an overall quality person. If not you may want to think about changing jobs. Anyway, I would guess that the hardest thing for Larry and Sergey to find is people who are like them. Not in technical issues etc, but in their “Don’t be evil� pledge. People can say it, but is it really in them? Only time sheds light on the true character of a person. I believe that as Google grows the key to keeping their corporate soul pure, and therefore set them apart from the pack, is not what products they offer, but rather who they turn the reigns over to.
Some numbers…
-Google went public in August 2004 at $85/share
-They are currently trading at $357.17/share
Need I dig up any more?
In conclusion I am impressed with Google so far. They have continued to come out with innovative products and have changed the way that all of search the digital world. The jury will be out for a while longer though on the money side of things. It’s nothing they’ve done, or haven’t done for that matter, but rather the fact that time will reveal whether they can keep their original motto alive in the hearts and minds of everyone as the Googler’s multiply.
All posts by Brent Sharp
posted by Brent Sharp at October 31, 2005 10:53 AM
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