Google - Tomorrow The World

[geekerati]

Googlation--ahh, another new word is born! This is just pieces of a long article, please follow the source for the whole enchilada and well worth reading!

As the managing director of an Internet company people often (wrongly) assume that I’m an expert about everything to do with the Internet. So it is that I’m often asked whether Google is worth its currently high share price. I try to be diplomatic in my response, and point out that I’m neither a stockbroker nor an accountant, so what do I know?

True, but consider for example, that Google not only controls the taxonomy of the Internet i.e. the way the Internet is categorised but that it also controls what results it returns to you. So by definition it has influence over what you are able to find, and hence see - unless you happen to know the exact address of course. Yes, there are other search engines that might list the content that you are looking for but these are becoming increasingly obscure and many take part, if not all, of their search results from Google anyway!

As stated above, I’m no financial expert, but a bit of simple research into Google’s financial performance reveals some compelling information. Their share price has done virtually nothing but rise since their IPO in August 2004, today being $419 - up nearly 500%. Their market capitalisation is over $83Bn and their net profit (after tax) for the nine months to 30 September 2005 is over $1Bn. And I very much get the impression that they’ve only just started! Analytics is only one area that I have discussed that demonstrates how Google is increasing its reach, by increasing its services. I could write articles on each and every one of their services and each would reinforce the notion that Google probably is worth its current share price. If one then considers Google’s market dominance, its rate of innovation and its apparent insatiable appetite for growth then the case for their share price is even stronger.

It Observer