Googling Google

For the past five years, Google, a privately-owned company, has implemented itself as the search engine king (heck, it's gone from zero to a verb) leaving Yahoo & Microsoft Corp in its dust. Recent news about Google IPO (Abbreviation for "initial public offering." An IPO is a company's first sale of stock to the public, also referred to as "going public." - Young Investors Network ) offering has generated so much buzz, even Aeki Tuesday is considering buying stocks.

What's so good about Google you ask? Try googling "kleenex". The ads that you see under "Sponsored Links" is what many companies are after. Google conducts about 200 million searches daily. In addition to paid search ads that appear alongside search results, the company generates revenue from licensing its search technology to enterprise clients, including big-name firms like Yahoo and Time Warner's America Online unit.

Some believe Google may be a curse and a blessing.

"Google is all about providing access to information, not being a venue for ads," said Peter Norvig, Google's director of search quality. Norvig said that although the company offers paid search results, they're always clearly marked and never get in the way of the objective results that remain the company's focus.

It's that philosophy that has earned the company the loyalty of millions of Internet users who rely on Google for help navigating the almost unfathomable depths of the Web. But it also means the company has a high capacity to disappoint if it undercuts principles in the name of profits." (link Washington Post)

Analysts' estimate Google's value at $15 billion to $20 billion, and they say an IPO could generate up to $4 billion. The company won't release figures, but analysts have estimated its annual revenue at $500 million to more than $1 billion, with profits in the range of $150 million to $300 million. Google has not set a date for its offering but has begun preliminary steps, including hiring underwriters (Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs).

Besides the growing Google fever are a few fostering jitters. Amidst user complaints about poor quality of email services, Google offers Gmail - a free search-based webmail service with a storage capacity of up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email. Per user. Gmail is now facing heat in California and the UK about Google's privacy issues. Democratic Senator Liz Figueroa, who calls Gmail "an invasion of privacy," is currently drafting legislation opposing Google, Inc (link BBC).

Google is being asked to rethink the product, which plans to offer 100 times the storage offered by some rivals. In return for the extra storage, users would agree to let Google's technology scan their incoming email, then deliver targeted ads based on key words in the messages. Google faces heavy opposition in Europe, where privacy laws are stricter than they are in the United States. Under Google's current Gmail policy advises potential users that "residual copies of E-mail may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account." What's to keep hackers from using those "residual copies of E-mail?" We have not set up an account with Gmail and don't plan on doing so since Yahoo Mail seem to fit our current needs.

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