I heart Google
I have been a Google devotee for a long time now. I search, I shop with Froogle, I fly all over the globe, I use their blog software, and I have a couple of Gmail accounts. I have been following this company for a long time. I was an "early-adopter" before they went public and blew up into billions of dollars of market cap. I told everyone I knew that they had better jump on the bandwagon at their IPO.
When the stock hit 65 the next day I said "Buy, buy". Of course no one took my advice, I'm not some big shot analyst. If they had, they would have made a nice chunk of change. GOOG is still a good buy, hovering around 370. Their business model, P/E, cash and position are exceedingly solid. They are the 800 pound gorilla of Internet search and advertising, and on their way to dominating many other markets as well. They have the cash to buy up any innovative young companies that might add to their long term plan, which is basically to be the operating system and front end for every click and every transaction.
Recently there has been a small uproar regarding Google's censorship of search terms in China. There are certain costs to doing business with the PRC, and this is one of them. The fact is that the censorship is easily foiled just by misspelling a word, or a Chinese citizen can log on to an anonymizer website, then conduct searches or post about human rights violations from there. The situation just requires some creative work-around for a while. The Chinese government won't be able to keep their billion citizens under such tight control in the information age, at least not for long. Information wants to be free. It will be. Plus as far as I know, google hasn't helped get anyone thrown in jail, like their buddies over at Yahoo.
The philanthropic arm of their company is getting off the ground now, and I expect it to not only contribute vast sums of money to worthy causes, but hopefully establish a corporate model for intelligent, responsible philanthropy. They recently named Larry Brilliant to head this effort. He has a great bio, but an even better name.
some links from Metafilter
posted by c_peligroso @ 9:30 AM
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