Google Under Fire

Google has been the majority favorite search engine for years now and that hasn't changed here in the first half of 2006. However they've been stumbling over a whole mess of problems lately and it almost makes them look like a regular company for a change.(almost but still not really) Everyone knows they're great, innovative and constantly working to improve their company and services but lately they've been banging heads with governments, investors and even users. Lets review:

Google DOJ Subpoena

The Department of Justice issued a subpoena to Google for copies of all search terms used and the URLs they identify. For reasons that include the protection of company intellectual property and its users' privacy Google has resisted. This course scares investors and worries users over their privacy even though Google is resisting. I for one appreciate Google resisting the request from the DOJ who want to use yet to defined lines in law over Internet in order to overstep their bounds and in effect bend/break the fourth amendment. Yes its good to take criminals off our streets but you have to respect the bounds of our constitution.

Google Under Review In China

China decides to review the ICP License used by Google so that it may operate on the Internet in China. Its been called a political statement because China is trying to tighten up on loopholes used by Western companies desiring to get in on Chinas ever growing Internet population. Ebay and MSN currectly are working in China while Yahoo sold out not too long ago and Google's future is looking uncertain in China with this recent development. Possibly being pushed out of China and actually losing users for a change can't be a good thought around the Googleplex or in the minds around Wall Street. Even if they're fairly sure its not going to happen its still not good that this review is out there with all issues they've been having as of late.

Google takes a hit in case over image search problem

Perfect 10 magazine won its legal battle concerning Google Image search spidering and thumbnailing content produced by Perfect 10. The settlement with Perfect 10 won't be a problem for Google however it makes a precedent for other people with images to come at Google in court and it could make things difficult for the image service and perhaps make it unusable. Any sort of press like this doesn't impress investors and help with the stock price rebounding.

Google falls short on earnings and stocks take hit

Google has released a fourth-quarter earnings report that didn’t live up to analysts’ lofty expectations and they took an immediate dive in the market. For the first time since their rise to fame and fortune Google looked vulnerable and they've been having problems ever since. People are worried over the DOJ deal, the China debacle, the Image search case and somewhat floundering projects as of late. With the recent earnings target missed these problems only add to their shaky status in the market.

Larry Page Gone Wild

as reported by Valleywag Larry Page went off about Google's recent progress. He spent a long time lecturing his engineers about how we're not smart enough to pick the right projects to work on, and he singled out a couple of projects (in front of hundreds of engineers) to complain about because they weren't using shared infrastructure components. Then he announced that he doesn't want people to use 20% of their time to work on new ideas and instead to work on other peoples projects. The rumor mill is that this may have stemmed from Google Video not being up to expectations. All of this seems to me a sure sign that they're feeling the stress from the top down around the Googleplex.

So whats next for Google?

Google will get over all their short term problems and be back on the tear in no time. Fortunately for them they've got no real competition as MSN doesn't really compete and Yahoo aligns themselves as the non-competitive competitor.(they just want to hold on to what they've got) They're suffering from the pains of becoming a major world corporation and thats something thats unavoidable in a world that never seems to agree on anything. -Jerry Odom Feb. 23, 2006