What Happened To Google?

What happened on Wall Street today? What happened to Google? I was out getting groceries yesterday and I saw the cover story of Barrons Magazine. I just laughed it off until I got home and caught all of the news – both online and on TV.
We’ve been dealing with click fraud and pending competitors in the search space since long before Google became a household name. Back in the day, I was one of the prime people at one of the first meta search engines and we even introduced pay per click in our organic results long before AdWords. In fact, the only other people doing pay per click back then was GoTo.com (which became Overture and then Yahoo! Search Marketing) and that was done on a pure auction-based system.
Click fraud is a reality. I remember us uncovering a click fraud scam in Asia where people were being paid to sit and click search ads all day and night.
As I watch the news about Google on TV and scan the online news of the world, I can’t help but think that “this too will pass.” People are buying AdWords, Google is the destination of search choice and the company is on the cusp of some interesting new developments.
Stocks will go up. Stock will go down. I don’t foresee anyone no longer using Google to search because of an article in Barrons or some stock warnings from Wall Street.
That being said, was it not something similar that brought the last bursting of the bubble?
Let’s call on level heads to take a real look at all of these businesses – regardless of whether or not they’re web-based. I recently watched the documentary Enron – The Smartest Guys In The Room (it’s a good flick) and empires crumble faster than you might suspect.
My hopes are that one day of pounding on Wall Street is not enough to keep a Google down.
Related links:
– Barrons Magazine – In The Drink – Cover Story.
– Business Telegraph – In the Drink – Magazine attack sends search engine share price falling.
– Reuters Business Challenge – Update 2 -Google loses status as premium-priced Web stock.